The food processors come with a variety of accessories, one of them being the blades. The blades are one of the most important parts of your food processor and it is important that you know everything about it and how it works.
The blade is what does most of the work when you put your food in the food processor, the blade will help to reduce the food into smaller sizes. What a food processor does is that it helps to chop, grind, slice or shred food.
They are usually electric and will process your food in such a short time. The food processor is quite different from the blender. The main difference between the food processor is what they were both designed to do.
For example, the food processor is designed to prepare a wide range of food with different tasks, while the blender is simply to blend or food into very tiny pieces or into powder form. With the food processor you will be able to do lots of tasks, while with the blender, you can not do more than to blend.
Nevertheless, in some situations, you can use the blender as a replacement for the food processor when the food processor may not be available. As we said, it is important that you know what the blades in the food processors look like and how they work. We will be explaining that in this article.
Table of Contents
The Food processor has about four kinds of blades
- The Knife Blade
- Slicing Blade
- Dough Blade
- Grating blade
These are all the blades that you will get in the food processor. Each of them is all used differently. Let us explain each of these blades so that you understand.
The Knife Blade (Also known as S-Blade)
This Knife blade is one of the attachments that you will find in the food processors. The knife blade is common in all the food processors. What it usually does is that it is used specifically for mixing, mashing, and also for grinding.
It can also be used for chopping. Because this particular blade is usually found in all the food processors, it is the blade that has the most function in the food processor. In other words, you can call this particular blade a multi-purpose blade.
The reason why it is called a multi-purpose blade is that it is capable of doing a whole lot of tasks in the food processor. Expect to see this blade in any food processor you buy. They are the commonest.
The slicing blade
When you are slicing something in the food processor, you will be able to choose the texture you want, it could be fine, medium, thick, and coarse, depending on what you want exactly.
That is why this slicing blade comes in different sizes so that you will be able to slice in either fine, medium, coarse or thick finish. In some models of the food processor, you will get a chipping blade, what this does is that it helps when you are making chips or perhaps, French fries.
In some cases, you will discover that the blades are either on a single metal reversible disc or it can be separate. In some of the expensive food processors, like the Kitchenaid food processor, the blades usually come with a disc.
The disc usually come in different sizes as well, and the good thing about these different sizes is that you will be able to control the outcome of what you are slicing by adjusting it between 2mm and 4mm, which is thin or thick.
This is an added advantage for this blade, this is because controlling the sizes of what you are slicing to either thick or thin is as simple as just adjusting the blades on the disc. Take note that this feature where you will only be able to change the slicing disc is only available for the cheaper food processors.
The more expensive ones come with different sizes of discs. The one you get for yourself actually depends of you, you could choose to buy the premium models or you can get the cheaper ones.
When you get the premium one, it will be to your advantage, the cheaper one as well will do the job for you, but to get the best result and experience, you should try spending some more money to get the premium ones, like the KitchenAid food processor.
Dough Blade
Many food processors usually come with either a Dough blade rather than a dough hook. This dough blade is used mainly for kneading recipes that use yeast. Most times it is used when you are kneading recipes for bread dough etc.
This is also an important type of blade that your food processor should come with. This blade has plastic and it usually has less curved paddles, the purpose of it having less curved paddles is for it to do the kneading job better for better results.
If the blade had a curvier paddle, instead of kneading the dough, what will end up happening is that the blades will be slicing the dough. The sharp metal blade will also do the same. That is why it is best for this blade to be plastic.
If it is metal it will not knead, it will slice instead. This blade will come as an attachment to your food processor, if you will not be doing anything that has to do with kneading or making bread dough, then you will not need to make use of this blade.
There is a reason why you are getting this much blades and accessories in this food processor, e reason why you get a whole lot more accessories in the food processor more than the blender is that it was designed to do more tasks than the blender.
Grating Blade
This is another blade that you will find when you get your food processor. This grating blade is quite similar to the slicing blades. You can use this grating blade for vegetables. When you get your food processor, it is always advisable to test this blade to see how well it grates so that you will not be left with disappointing results.
We have said that a food processor is not a blender, in as much as the blender can be used in place of the food processor when it is not available, you should not mistake the food processor for the blender.
To easily differentiate the two, you can differentiate based on their physical differences the food processor is usually bigger in size and also, they have a wider base, while the blender usually has a smaller container with a moderate base.
The base of the food processor is usually larger than that of the blender. You can also differentiate the two based on their functions. The food processor was built to do more tasks than the blender, the food processor can grind, knead, slice, blend, etc., while the blender was made majorly for blending or pulverizing food.
According to function, this is how you can differentiate the two. The only time you should make of the blender in place of the food processor is when the food processor is not available, in the situation where you have the food processor available, you should make use of it and not.
The same way your food processor needs or other kitchen equipment needs care, that is the same way your food processor blades need care as well. The more you take good care of your food processor blades, the more it does a great job and the better results you will have.
Taking good care of your food processor blades simply has to do with detaching it from the food processor immediately after using it and then washing it immediately. If the blades are stainless-steel, it would be better because the stainless-steel material is rust and corrosion resistant, you do not have to worry about protecting it from rust or from corrosion.
If you have something like a metal blade, which is usually rare, you are likely to experience some rusting and corrosion. To avoid it, you should wash and oil the blades as well.
When you wash it, you should allow it to air dry. When you allow it to air dry, it means you are allowing it to dry naturally, and that is usually the best way to go about drying your food processor accessories. You can wash it with some liquid detergent and a soft sponge.
It is important that when you are washing it, you should ensure that all the debris and remains from the food you have processed is not left on the blades. You should wash all of them out. These blades are very sharp and you need to be cautious when you are washing them so that the blades do not cut your hands.
When you are done washing and drying the food processor blades, you should then store it in case of when next you want to use it. When next you want to use it, you will not find it difficult to reach out to.
My final words on food processor blades
Food processors tend to come with a lot of accessories, it is very possible that when you get your food processor, you may end up not using all the food processor accessories and blades. You might use all the blades if you are using the food processor for commercial purposes and you make a wide variety of food.
If you have to buy the food processor blades separately, you should buy only the ones that you will need, this is important so that you do not end up buying what you will not need. If you own a restaurant or some sort of small food business, if you are buying accessories such as food processor blades, then you may have to buy a lot, you will need them because you are preparing and processing more kind of food.
The bottom line of what we mean is that before you buy food processor blades and attachments, you should, first of all, know what you need them for, once you are able to figure that out, you will find it easy in picking the food processor blades of your choice.
In some cases, when you buy food processors from different brands, you will tend to get the same product, but the accessories and blades that come with them are usually different. The more expensive the food processor is, the more the quality is and the more attachments and different kinds of blades.
Note that premium brands like that of the KitchenAid usually come with different kinds of blades and accessories that you may end up not using. Before spending money on a premium food processor that will come with a lot of accessories and blades that you do not need, you should read and understand this review so well to see which blade you actually need for the kind of task you want to do.
If you will be kneading dough to make bread, you definitely will need the dough blade, if you will be slicing a lot of things with the food processor, you will definitely need the slicing blade. Whatever task you are doing, you should know the blade you need and then get it.
We have explained all the food processor blades in details, after reading through, you should be able to make a decision on the exact one that you want based on your need.
For those who have restaurants, we advise that you go for the premium KitchenAid food processors that usually come with more attachments and also more blades, since you deal with more variety of food, this food processor will be good for you based on what you do. You can as well re-read this article and the detailed explanation on the blades if you are still finding it difficult to understand how all the different blades work.
