siderealNormal people hearing about a robot that makes burgers: “Wow! So futuristic!”
People who have worked in restaurants: “Who’s gonna clean it”
Occam’s Razor for Kitchen Gadgets: If it doesn’t save cleanup time, it probably doesn’t save time overall.
A food processor chops onions much faster than a kitchen knife, but I can clean a dozen kitchen knives in the time it takes to break down and deep clean a food processor.
And the part that takes the longest is peelin em, anyway.
Stan Wonn 🏳️🌈 🌹@sidereal Exactly. I also enjoy chopping my own vegetables. It’s almost meditative for me.
Bugspriet at EH23 Dect 3303
Vired@StanWonn how dare u
Violet MadderOoh! Important insight!
Rachael L@sidereal YEP. we use a mortar and pestle for many tasks that often are suggested to use a food processor or other electric gadget. But cleaning those gadgets take so long and cleaning a m&p takes hardly any time at all.
Adam Jacobs 🇺🇦@r343l @sidereal There's definitely a balance to be struck. If you're dealing with small quantities of food, the food processor is often not the quickest way.
Though having a dishwasher-safe food processor bowl tips the balance in favour of smaller quantities. But still it's never likely to be good for tiny quantities.
And chopping onions is pretty quick with a knife anyway. I hate to think how many onions I would need to chop to want to use the FP for that.
Alex von Kitchen@sidereal As a bladesmith i endorse this message
aburka 🫣@Dangerous_beans @sidereal I see... while we were building robots, you studied the blade?
River Kitten 🏳️⚧️@sidereal
I agree with this for time reasons but not for onions making me cry reasons 😹
I agree with this for time reasons but not for onions making me cry reasons 😹
Habrok
Morten Hilker-Skaaning@sidereal I've started chopping onions in half before peeling them. It's much easier to grab the skin when it's open like a book.
MarjorieR@morten_skaaning @sidereal also works with garlic, though the size makes then a bit more fiddlely to work on.
LR@sidereal i'm with you on the burger maker but this is where you're leaning too far out the window. peeling onions is fast with one cut and then just removing one full layer. a small onion chopper / mixer with separable motor/blade is quickly rinsed and deferred to the dishwashing machine. and it doesn't just chop one thing at a time. add two garlic cloves (crush before peel), a spoonful of vinegar and a teaspoon of sugar, and it does three jobs at once.
in summer, i use it to make iced latte.
the vessel of morganna@sidereal I have some nice knives for vegetable chopping and they're my usual go-to, but I do keep a small food processor for things like sofritos when I'm feeling lazy. there are some decent ones that can be cleaned in a minute or less thankfully
Trolli Schmittlauch 🦥@sidereal That's why I love my robust garlic press that works without peeling the cloves, and which is trivial to clean.
Karen E. Lund 💙💛@sidereal I don't use the food processor just for chopping a few veggies, only for recipes that require chopping (slicing, etc.) several ingredients and probably mixing in the processor as well. Or for fine dicing at scale, such as "ricing" cauliflower or broccoli after hand-slicing the florets from it.
Even better if I can prep two or more recipes without thoroughly cleaning the food processor. Obviously that only works for recipes with similar ingredients.
Sarah E Bourne@sidereal The only thing I use a food processor for is finely chopping walnuts - not quite flour size - for when I make my shortbread+walnut cookies. (You have to be careful not to overdo it and get paste.) Hand chopping this takes so much longer than you would think.
Miia Mustang@sidereal Food processors and blenders are a meme lol
Most of the things that need blending, I use an immersion blender for. Much easier to clean, simple to use and if it's made of steel (like mine), you can just stick it into boiling hot things and it still works like a charm
Also, no need to get like a 5L blender when you can just use it straight in a pot lol
As for food processors, I think practicing and maintaining knife skills is overall much more beneficial in general.
@sidereal "but what if you wanna turn something into a paste hmm? You can't do that with a knife!"
Buddy, pal, friend...
Ever heard of mortar and pestle?
@sidereal Sidenote:
I can take and use my mortar and pestle anywhere, be it at a cabin, in the wilderness, in the park, at work, on a boat, underground, aboveground, in a blizzard, etc, etc
This also applies to knives/cutlery
But I can only use a food processor in places with an electrical socket.
@sidereal Also, which do you think is more likely to last for generations?
A mortar and pestle made of granite
or
A contraption with an electric motor, moving parts, plastic housing and cheaply made (model specific) blades
@sidereal Furthermore
Food processors don't crush 😭
Crushing is how you make flavor happen bcuz oils and fats
@sidereal There is a caveat here though!
Food processors are amazing devices for those who have limited motor function and/or have issues with their hands and/or arms!
Knife skills and mortar and pestle are amazing, but do require either precision or lots of repitition which some people are simply not able to do. And that's fine!
But from my own pov, food processor is mostly a cheap contraption tbh
Lord Caramac the Clueless, KSC@sidereal Using the food processor makes sense if you need to slice or dice a lot of food, and if you can put the dirty components in the dishwasher.