![]() ![]() One night, I made a salsa because I had a little bowl of cherry tomatoes kicking around, and spooned some of the sauce atop some heavenly, pillowy breakfast tacos in the morning. What I did love about the Breville that's not an option in the Cuisinart was the removable mini bowl, which made smaller tasks-and especially mayonnaise-a breeze. Also, I've said it before, but Breville's wall plug-with an easy-pull ring built into the plug head-is the cleverest in the world and every equipment manufacturer should pay them royalties and use their design forever and ever, amen. Then again, at least the Breville comes with a blade box inexplicably, the Cuisinart does not. It also comes with a huge box of accessory blades, a couple of which may never see use in your home, while the Cuisinart demonstrated that three blades-chopping, slicing and grating-are probably plenty for most folks, a sage move by their Department for the Elimination of Doodads. The Breville can sometimes get a bit rattle-y, but it chops some food a bit more uniformly. The Breville's slicing blade is adjustable, while everything but the Cuisinart's base can go in the dishwasher (oddly, the Sous Chef's pusher can't). The Breville's bowl is nicer, the Cuisinart's paddle-style buttons easier to operate. I could certainly go down the tit-for-tat route for a spell. The Breville has more power, but the Cuisinart's engineering kept it trading punches in every test. For every recipe I cooked, both machines were an absolute pleasure to use: powerful, confident, and well designed. Neither machine deserved to face the indignity of a double batch.įirst and foremost, it meant that I had two fantastic food processors on my countertop. I pulled the dough from each processor, kneaded them into balls, stuck them in containers, and tucked them into the fridge. It turned out that the Cuisinart was done and I wanted to give the Breville a few more seconds, but the dough said "no." Like the weird pink goop used to temporarily contain the Hulk onscreen back in 2003 (Eric Bana!), the dough gripped the Breville's blade and the machine could barely push it another quarter turn around the bowl. After a 10-minute rest, all that was left was to incorporate a tablespoon of oil and a bit of salt for 30 to 60 seconds until the dough formed a sticky ball.Įlegant really isn't an option with a one-pound mass of food flopping around in a bowl, but the Cuisinart did just fine here, and I stopped both machines on the early side to make sure I didn't overdo things. The Cuisinart was less even out of the gate, a mass of not-fully-mixed dough forming like a snowdrift on one side of the bowl, the blades digging away at it comically like a tiny, diligent rabbit. ![]() ![]() The slightly wider bowl of the Breville worked in its favor, mixing about as evenly as these things get. ![]() Of course, neither machine struggled with the dry ingredients, but the addition of ice water set them off on separate paths. If any test could declare a clear victor this-perhaps followed by a potential tie-breaking double batch-would be the one. But Shannon wanted to know if she should switch to a fancier and more expensive new model-specifically one of those from Magimix, Cuisinart, or, the latter two having built-in mini processors, which, thanks to a bowl insert, helps you process smaller quantities of food.Īs a final test, I made pizza dough, a blender-buster of a recipe where the gluten in the flour works to drag any machine to a halt. At a $200 list price, it gets stellar reviews and lasts for years. Shannon is a skilled home cook and when the one she had for years finally gave up the ghost, I was curious to help her find her next one, and started to wonder if I'd been missing out.Īs the top pick for both America's Test Kitchen and The Wirecutter, it's generally accepted wisdom that the Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor CQ (aka the Classic Series 14-Cup Food Processor) is the long-reigning champion. Recently, however, my friend Shannon asked me about my favorite food processor. Every once in a while if I push it a little too hard, it starts to smell like burning electrical equipment. For the last several years, my wife Elisabeth and I have used her old Cuisinart PowerBlend Duet, a light, loud and underpowered thing that also doubles as an underpowered blender. I never really thought I was missing out on anything, but that might just be because every time I encountered a food processor, it was a piece of junk. Once I left my parents' home though, I didn't really use a quality food processor for 20 years. The powerful motor made a soothing whirr, and it was so well-built that it's still chopping away, still making that lovely sound. When I was a kid, my mother owned a Farberware food processor that must've cost a pretty penny. ![]()
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