"Rina" > wrote in message
...
> I've been following this thread with interest.
> Since I still don't have a food processor, I'm curious about food
processors
> but don't a clue what I'd use it for or where I'd put it.
>
> How long does it take to clean the food processor?

You can think of a food process as a mechanized knife - with some added
abilities. Therefore, a FP will slice, chop, mince, and grind. You can use
a FP to chop vegetables, grind your own meat, slice vegetable, make bread
crumbs, chop or grind nuts, shred cheese or vegetables, cut potatoes into
French fries, julienne vegetables, crush ice, and so on. You can use it to
make short dough like pie pastry and biscuits - anything that needs fat cut
into the flour. It can be use to mix cookie dough and make flat icings.
You can make yeast dough. You can chop chocolate and then pour hot cream
over it with the blade rotating to make ganache in seconds. A food
processor can be used to make an emulsion - like mayonnaise. Most of the
jobs can be done with the metal blade. Some units come with a special blade
for dough. Mine has a whisk for egg whites and cream. They all come with a
basic set of disks for thin and thick slicing, fine and coarse shredding,
and julienne slicing. Some models have additional attachments like citrus
juicers. Some allow you to mount a blender jar, giving you two appliances
in on footprint.

To clean mine, I generally just put the bowl, blade, and lid into the
dishwasher. It can be quickly washed by hand like any other bowl. I do use
a brush to clean the blade as it is very sharp and it is dangerous to try to
clean sticky dough off the bade with a cloth.

I keep mine on the counter all the time. It takes about the same amount of
space as a coffee maker and less space than most bread machines.

One nice thing about a FP is that you can often do multiple task in the same
bowl. For instance, when I make potato salad I start with the dressing. I
put a raw egg in the bowl with some vinegar and the spices that I want in
the salad - salt, pepper, mustard, celery seeds, hot sauce, etc. Then, I
start the machine and add oil. This make the mayonnaise based dressing.
Then I can put in some pickle chunks, onion, celery, and green and red
pepper - pulsing until the veggies are chopped. In go the boiled eggs
(which I boiled in the pan with potatoes) and then I pulse. Once the hot
potatoes are peeled and diced, I add them back to the pot they were boiled
in and pour over the dressing from the food processor bowl. You can do a
similar thing with coleslaw, making the dressing in the FP and then
shredding the cabbage into the same bowl.

If you have no interest in baking and only want some fresh bread, then a
bread machine makes sense. I know that many people will disagree, but I
don't think using a bread machine has much to do with baking. To me, using
a bread machine and claiming that you bake bread is like putting in a DVD
and claiming you are an actor.
Furthermore, it is a singe-use device. You can't make mayo, grind nuts, or
shred cheese with a bread machine, but you can do all this and make dough
with the FP. Therefore, if all you are using a bread machine for is making
dough, it seems like the FP would be a better choice. I also think that a
FP gives you more control over the mixing process because you can see what
is going on. If the dough needs more liquid or more flour, you can add it
down the feed tube to make corrections in real time. I gave my bread
machine away because it was a "load and pray" situation for me. I put in
the ingredients and prayed that I had done everything right and the gods
were with me.