Cuisinart food processor.

[nmassman44]

I didnt want to hijack another thread where everyone was talking about a cheesecake and food processor....Anyways I have a Cuisinart DLC-10+ that I bought well over 20 years ago. I replaced the bowl and cover last year. The bowl doesnt fit right and the cover broke again. Now the food pusher is broken now. So I went out and got a new one. Here is a pic of the old.

 

[nmassman44]

here is a pic of what the cover looks like with the broken actuator.

 

[nmassman44]

actuator

 

[nmassman44]

side view

 

[nmassman44]

the previous pics were of a processor made in Japan. The discs, blades all from Japan. This new processor is all made in you guessed it...China. I have not used this one yet.

 

[nmassman44]

top view

 

[nmassman44]

side view

 

[nmassman44]

control

 

[peterh770]

I got my DLC-7 at an estate sale for $25. I'm sure you will find a similar deal in your area!

 

[nmassman44]

Well I am going to get rid of the old processor. I hate to part with it since the base still runs. The blades will fit the new one so I may keep them.

 

[mixfinder]

Cuisinart

Cuisinart began as Robot Coupe with famous Sabatier blades.  They owned the market for years and years.  The lastest and biggest Cuisnart has some bowl design issues but the snap on lid replaces the twist on variety offer an advantage.  Its always the plastic parts that fail and not the motor unit.  The price charged for replacement parts is simply obscene.  In Kitchenaid's case they obsoleted all parts for the Global machine when they introduced the rounder model about 3 years ago.  My frustration with Kitchenaid is not the function of the product but the draconian attitude they take with the end user believing we'll all just be gullible enough to repurchase Kitchenaid product regardless of how they perform or how the customer is treated.  "This is not a known service issue"  Just tell that to the range owner that faces a $500.00 repair bill every time the self cleaning oven is used, the microwave owner that wakes up in the night to hear the microwave operating unassisted, the ice maker repair that requires replacing the freezer door and the dishwasher that doesn't clean.

 

[tolivac]

Robot Coupe is still around they sell to restuarants and food service companies.The machines are expensive-but worth it to the few householders that prize them.I beleive "Magimx" is the consumer division of Robot Coupe.Robot Coupe even makes food processers with a 15Hp motor and a 60qt capacity container-"Vertical Cutter Mixer" as they call it.their website shows the tool in use-for petes sake don't put your hand in it while the blades are spinning!!!Pizza companies like these machines.

 

[foraloysius]

This is getting a little complicated for me...

What used to be Robot Coupe is now Cuisinart. Then there is Magimix, the foodprocessor that is more common in Europe. And there is Robot Coupe, the French company that sells foodprocessing equipment for commercial use.

Question: Is Robot Coupe in Europe the same company as the Robot Coupe that is now Cuisinart? If that is so, is there perhaps still a connection between Cuisinart and Magimix?

 

[mixfinder]

Get out the GPS

This time line and story is a bit harder to track.  In 1974 a little known kitchen appliance began making inroads into the US.  It's closest comparison was the Buffalo Chopper a huge piece of restaurant equipment that passed foods in a revolving bowl through rapidly spinning blades. Robot Coupe, the French parent company began to market the Robot Coupe here.  There were some patent and copy right issues as well as the lack of name/function recognition amoung an English speaking populace.  The title Cuisinart was born and it lilting name caught on.  Robot Coupe was still sold in the US in several sizes and models while the Robot Coupe commercial side was still forming.  Then Kitchenaid entered the food processor market with a large machine made for them by Robot Coupe. Turf wars were drawn, named and machines removed from the market and Cuisinart was off on it's meteoric ride to national ownership of the processer market. Hamilton Beach and GE each designed a belt drive model that sold at a fraction of the cost, emitted 5 times the noise and lacked the torque, power and quality of blades to compete against the Cuisinart name.  Sunbeam entered the fray in 1976 with the Le Chef which for the money was a terrific deal but the plastics used for the drive block and shredding discs was inferior and failed early on.  Cuisinart's reputatation and dependablity led them on to victory. For a period processors got nuts with humongo and petite sizes, multitple speeds, slinger chutes, egg whippers, juicers and Cuisinarts hard to use and clean pasta extruder.  Cuisinart still dominates the market and recently did a redo of the line adding more bowls, seals, snap down lid and gimmicks to cause the public to justify a new expensive processor.  Cuisinart has two huge strikes against it.  The parent company, once Waring with its nasty service and the unfair price of replacement parts.  Kitchenaid came into the market with their own machine which is an admirable performer but the discs are so flimsy they bend, bow, gouge the lid and leave large amounts of unprocessed goods.  The polycarbinate on Kitchenaid machines etches quickly but the Cuisnart will over time as well.  My frustration regardless of brand are involved pushers and feed chutes that are hard to clean, easy to damage and limit the size of what can be added.  Cuisinart makes a dough cover which is smooth plastic, no feed tube and an open center to add liquids.  It makes clean up a breeze.  If I want clean cuts or precise looking produce I cut it by hand.  If I am cooking with produce or cheese and appearance doesn't matter I chop it with pulse actions using the all purpose knife of the processor. Currently most processor's are a Chinese product, motor are replaced and plastic parts are jobbed out.  Kitchenaid discontinued their Global design 5 years ago and moved to a more curvey and cartoonish design and obsoleted all parts to the earlier processor.

 

[whirlcool]

Back in the early 80's we received a Hamilton Beach food processor as a gift. We found it does a good job mixing things and chopping things provided you use the chopping blade that site in the bottom of the bowl.

If you try to use any of the blades that go on the extension (so that they are positioned up at the bottom of the feed chute) the blades wobble so badly from the undersized blade extension piece that it makes the accessory blades almost unusable. Food gets trapped between the lid and the blades, the blades get fouled with food stuck in them, etc. And all the accessory blades are made from stainless steel.

And then there is taste. I can make a egg salad or potato salad using the food processor to chop things up, but it just doesn't taste the same as if everthing was hand chopped. You'd think that chopped is chopped no matter how, wouldn't you?

We finally ended up with a little Black & Decker 1 cup mini chopper that serves 90% of our needs. It's probably been three or four years since the Hamilton Beach has even been out of the cupboard.

 

[foraloysius]

Thank you Kelly for explaining this. I guess the Magimix was launched later in Europe than the Cuisinart in the US. In the 1980's when the foodprocessor was getting some popularity overhere, there were Cuisinart and Magimix adepts. The Magimix got the biggest market share, but that was mainly because the Magimix was cheaper due to being a European brand I guess.

I found a nice Cuisinart DLC2011 on an auction site from a woman who just got a divorce. Her husband used to buy her all kind of appliances she never used. Most parts were still in plastic. The price new overhere is 279 Euros ($396.-). I got it for 80 Euros ($113.-). I love it!

 

[lordkenmore]

"I can make a egg salad or potato salad using the food processor to chop things up, but it just doesn't taste the same as if everthing was hand chopped. You'd think that chopped is chopped no matter how, wouldn't you?"

You'd think so. I can't say I've ever noticed a difference, but then I've never compared samples of Hand Chopped vs Machine Chopped.

But I will say that I've heard this argument before with bread dough. Some have argued that hand kneaded is better.

I also have heavily used small food processors. I had Cuisinart for several years. I didn't really like it--it seemed cheap to me. That got replaced with a small KitchenAid which has worked wonderfully.

 

[mixfinder]

Gluten is our Friend

In bread baking one of the keys to a quality product is developing the gluten into strands like rubber bands within the structure of the dough.  The speed and force of the spinning metal blade and to a lesser degree the dough blade cuts the gluten into small pieces causing less oven spring.  You can make great bread in a processor, just mix it in pulses, let is autolyze and pulse it again.  Then remove it from the work bowl and give it few quick kneads to regather the gluten.

 

[lordkenmore]

"The speed and force of the spinning metal blade and to a lesser degree the dough blade cuts the gluten into small pieces causing less oven spring."

Interesting. I've always wondered how well a food processor would work, but have never gotten around to trying it.

Another potential problem with food processors: the capacity can be limited. I recall my mother bought a food processor, and one of her thoughts was that it could be used for bread dough. As it turned out, it never was used for bread, but I do recall that manual said capacity was limited to roughly the dough for one loaf of bread.

 

[tolivac]

"Buffalo Chopper" is a machine built by Hobart commercial food service equipment division-they are still made-and countertop sizes are made-they can even run from 120V- They are popular in my area.Deer hunters love these tools-you can buy used ones from the restaurant suppliers here.Besides a chopper you get get meat grinder,salad cutter, and kneader attachements for these-knead meat loaf or bread dough-huge amounts.Hobart Choppers are very common in restaurants that prepare "Southern BBQ"they use them to chop the pork meat for BBQ.The Hobart chopper indeed uses a vertical spinning blade-covered by an interlocked guard-the machine won't work unless the guard is lowered over the blade.and the slowly rotating bowel that passes the food thru the rotating knives.A BBQ place here has one of the floorstanding ones-can chop many gallons of food at one time.The countertop ones handle smaller batches becuase of the smaller bowels and blades.,and motor.