Blender, food processor, and stand mixer: What’s the difference and do you need all three?

Mixers, Food processors And electric mixers – Freestanding Or otherwise – they are all small kitchen tools whose basic function can be distilled into a simple concept: combining. However, they all exist independently, have different designs and apparently for different purposes.

If you find yourself surprised by the headline here, ask if you can actually identify both their unique characteristics and how they actually do what they do. If you are a beginner in the field of cooking and baking and do not have a simple idea to start with, welcome.

There are certainly food items that can be accomplished in any of them (see mashed potatoes below), and there are others that only really work when matched with the right equipment. For example, blender smoothies aren’t a real thing. You can make some dough in a food processor, but not every dough… so why not?

If you have to justify the need to Countless devices (Maybe with someone like your roommate or spouse who shares the kitchen space) Or if you’re newly outfitting a kitchen and wondering what might be essential and what might become merely decorative for your cooking repertoire, getting into the nuances of these appliances is important.

For the purposes of bringing harmony to your kitchen relationship, or to enable you to justify the purchase of another small appliance – for yourself or someone else – here’s an examination of the difference(s) between a blender, food processor and stand mixer.

Blender: how does it work?

Blenders usually consist of a heavy base with a motor and a plastic or glass jug with a set of rotating blades at the point where the jug connects to the motor. The blender combines any ingredients you add with one goal: liquefying. In fact, the history of the blender begins with its function as a milkshake maker. The vortex created by the rapid rotation of the blades creates a vacuum that pulls whatever is in the jug toward the blades, crushes it, and then sends it back up, ad nauseam, until it stops.

If you’ve ever put different ingredients in a blender and the mixture stops quickly, clinging tightly to the sides of the jug out of reach of the blades, the function of the blender is that it usually needs a little liquid at first in order to effectively start the liquefying process. Some light solid items or small pieces, such as nuts or bread cubes, can be placed in the blender; However, in this case, the blender’s function is grinding.

Perfect for blending: smoothies, shakes, cocktails, sauces, gravies, liquid nut butters, wet dough for pancakes, crepes or plating.

Perfect foods to prepare in a blender

• Juices
• Protein shake
• Frozen drinks
• Soup
• Sauces and dips
• Nut butter
• Baby food
• Pie dough

Food processor: how does it work?

Like a blender, a food processor often relies on blades, but it may also use discs or other attachments specific to the task you’re asking it to do. The container in a food processor is more of a bowl or cylinder than a jug, and liquid and gravity are less important in proper operation. While it can be thought of as a device that combines different ingredients – as with salsa or hummus – it usually does so by chopping everything together, but not with the precision of a blender, and can also be used strictly for this purpose on a single item.

Different food processor attachments may also allow you to chop, slice, julienne or juice, with a wide inlet channel that enables you to add ingredients and push them through the attachment, which is usually fitted to the top of the bowl. Some models may also include inserts attached to the motor base that do the whipping or kneading. Although a blender typically produces a smoother puree than a food processor can, food processors are more versatile in the different shapes and textures they can use.

Ideal for the food processor: grating or chopping tough ingredients such as vegetables or cheese, or chunky or thick sauces such as pesto, hummus, salsa, thick nut butters, pasta or pastry dough.

Perfect foods that can be prepared using a food processor

• Chopped vegetables to make sofrito, mirepoix, etc.
• Pesto and sauces
• Hummus and dip
• Grated cheese
• Nut butter and nut flour
• Cauliflower rice
• Energy balls and no-bake desserts
• Bread crumbs
• minced meat

Stand mixer: how does it work?

Stand mixers are precision mixing devices that can combine ingredients, but not break them into smaller pieces via the blades. In a stand mixer, a heavy base holds the bowl in place while the motor rotates an attachment such as a paddle, dough hook, or whisk. (Hand mixers perform the same function, but your hands are the element that keeps the bowl in place, and the element that holds the motorized attachments.)

At higher speeds, a stand mixer can also introduce air into the mixture. The action of a stand mixer is gentler and easier to control than a mixer or food processor, making it ideal for cake batters that require minimal mixing, where the goal is simply to combine. However, a mixer, armed with a dough hook, can also aggressively develop gluten for crispy bread.

Stand mixers may also have several attachments available to increase their utility, including ice cream makers, pasta rollers, meat grinders, juicers, and even choppers that are starting to creep into the territory of food processors.

Ideal for stand mixer: kneading bread dough, pizza, pasta, cookies and all kinds of batter, icing, frosting, meringue or scrambled eggs and whipped cream.

Perfect foods to prepare in a blender

• Bread dough and yeast
• Cake dough
• Biscuit dough
• cream
• Meringue
• frost
• Mashed potatoes
• Pasta dough
• Chunks of chicken or pork
• Pizza dough

Use the crossover between them: experiment with mashed potatoes

Of course, there are things that can be achieved with any of these devices, given the desired results. Egg whites or cream can be beaten, the mixture can be mixed, and a specific dough can be formed in these three elements. However, this is not a case against the stand mixer. Although its function is at the forefront of “mixing,” it is still the necessary device for certain types of cakes or cookie dough. Not to mention, there are no blades and the bowl is made of stainless steel, which makes cleaning easy.

I made mashed potatoes in all three

To better illustrate the results of these different devices when given the same task, I chose mashed potatoes, which can be successfully achieved either by liquefying their ingredients, chopping them, or simply mixing them. The potatoes were cubed and boiled, then (because I’m not a monster) tested with a little milk and a little butter.

• Food processor: It only takes a few beans to turn cubed potatoes into mashed potatoes. I like them with a little texture, but more legumes will give you a smooth mash.
• Stand mixer: Requires the most time but allows the most volume. You’ll never get a silky mash if that’s what you’re going for, and you may end up with larger pieces, but this method can easily feed a crowd without having to mash them by hand.
• Mixer: It required extra milk to start, and in no time turned the cooked potatoes into something more like pancake batter than mashed potatoes, which is a strong consideration if you’re already making gnocchi.