What should I look for in a food processor?

[mmesa]

After years of not seeing the point of a food processor, hand-grating 7 pounds of potatoes for kugel yesterday finally tipped me over.  I'm now looking around for something that will make a similar task easier.  I don't know much about food processors, but I know I'm looking for something large capacity (10-12 cup) that will easily grate potatoes,

Comments

[piperki]

It makes pie crust really fast. And bread dough. I used it recently to shred a ton of chicken for sandwiches. I don't use it even weekly but when I want it, I'm so glad it's there.

But I cannot recommend the KitchenAid if you're going to be doing any kind of liquidy stuff. It doesn't work for things like hummus, and liquid leaks out of it when it's in motion. Great for dry things or chopping, though.

[polaroidmoment]

seconding the concern on the kitchenaid for liquidy things. I got it earlier this year as a present and it's my first food pro... it's been great with dry things but I recently tried to make ice cream and mixed the liquid part together in the KA and it leaked EVERYWHERE. I was not impressed, so I guess I'll stick to dry items.

[mestreen]

I have a KitchenAid Mixer and got the shredding/grating attachments. Love them. I don't have a large food processor and I don't even have the blades for my small one (it's a blender/processor duet).

[uberjackalope]

I came here to say basically the same thing. If you already happen to have a KitchenAid mixer, the shredding/grating attachments work great for the kinds of tasks you described!

[queenmaggie]

I have the Cuisinart, and I use it for making chocolate mousse(it grinds up the unsweetened chocolate easily and blends in the hot liquid through the feed tube) chopping for homemade salsa of all sorts, pie crusts (the blade sweeps the chilled butter into flakes in the dough) it works better than a blender for pureeing soups,and does it faster than the immersion blender does. It's also great for grating potatoes for latkes, and cheese for pizza. I also make mayonnaise, chop nuts, and make nut butters, and sauces and dips in it.
A wider feed tube makes things easier because you don't have to prep your vegetables or cheeses so much to fit them in. This is the third one I've owned over thirty years.

It's not useful for whipping cream, and I find it too small for bread doughs; for those, and for mixing cookies, I use a Kitchen aid stand mixer.

[mschaos]

I have an 11 cup Cuisinart and I love it. Just made my own almond butter in it

I use it for grinding nuts, making hummus, blending dried fruit and nuts for quick snacks, etc.

don't use it all the time but I do use it it is great

[rhyme_writer]

I have a Cuisinart. I use it for making haroset, latkes, for doing all the other things you mentioned; for dough for things that you are not making in the bread machine (i.e. making challah and braiding it). There are so many things you can use it for! Making cranberry relish! Making Israeli salad! Just thumb through a recipe book and you'll get an idea of why it might be worthwhile for you.