Important features Food processors
With food processors: All have a clear plastic mixing bowl and lid, an S-shaped metal chopping blade (and sometimes a duller version for kneading dough), and a plastic food pusher to safely prod food through the feed tube. Some models have a wider tube so you don’t have to cut up vegetables—such as potatoes—to fit the opening. One speed is the norm, plus a pulse setting to control processing precisely. Bowl capacity ranges from around 3 cups to 14 cups (dry), with most models holding 6 to 11 cups. A shredding/slicing disk is standard on full-sized processors. Some come with a juicer attachment. Touchpad controls are becoming more commonplace, too.
Mini-choppers look like little food processors, with a capacity of 2 to 3 cups, but they’re for small jobs only, like chopping small quantities of nuts or half an onion.
With mixers: Stand mixers generally come with one bowl and either single or paired beaters, whisks, and dough hooks. Some mixers offer options such as splash guards to prevent flour from spewing out of the bowl, plus attachments to make pasta, grind meat, and stuff sausage. Stand mixers generally have 5 to 16 speeds; we think five or six well-differentiated settings is enough. You should be able to lock a mixer’s power head in the Up position so it won’t crash into the bowl when the beaters are weighed down with dough. Conversely, it should lock in the Down position to keep the beaters from kicking back when tackling stiff dough.
Just about any hand mixer is good for nontaxing jobs such as beating egg whites, mashing potatoes, or whipping cream. The slow-start feature on some mixers prevents ingredients from spattering when you start up, but you can achieve the same result by manually stepping through three or so speeds. An indentation on the underside of the motor housing allows the mixer to sit on the edge of a bowl without taking the beaters out of the batter.
With food processors: All have a clear plastic mixing bowl and lid, an S-shaped metal chopping blade (and sometimes a duller version for kneading dough), and a plastic food pusher to safely prod food through the feed tube. Some models have a wider tube so you don’t have to cut up vegetables—such as potatoes—to fit the opening. One speed is the norm, plus a pulse setting to control processing precisely. Bowl capacity ranges from around 3 cups to 14 cups (dry), with most models holding 6 to 11 cups. A shredding/slicing disk is standard on full-sized processors. Some come with a juicer attachment. Touchpad controls are becoming more commonplace, too.
Mini-choppers look like little food processors, with a capacity of 2 to 3 cups, but they’re for small jobs only, like chopping small quantities of nuts or half an onion.
With mixers: Stand mixers generally come with one bowl and either single or paired beaters, whisks, and dough hooks. Some mixers offer options such as splash guards to prevent flour from spewing out of the bowl, plus attachments to make pasta, grind meat, and stuff sausage. Stand mixers generally have 5 to 16 speeds; we think five or six well-differentiated settings is enough. You should be able to lock a mixer’s power head in the Up position so it won’t crash into the bowl when the beaters are weighed down with dough. Conversely, it should lock in the Down position to keep the beaters from kicking back when tackling stiff dough.
Just about any hand mixer is good for nontaxing jobs such as beating egg whites, mashing potatoes, or whipping cream. The slow-start feature on some mixers prevents ingredients from spattering when you start up, but you can achieve the same result by manually stepping through three or so speeds. An indentation on the underside of the motor housing allows the mixer to sit on the edge of a bowl without taking the beaters out of the batter.
