18 out of 18 people found this review helpful.
Great for baby food
Date of Review: Dec 21, 2000
I bought this food chopper for one purpose, to make baby food. My baby is old enough to eat what we eat, but still only has two teeth - so I needed something small and quick, to chop up chicken, vegetables and other table food. The Proctor Silex Food Chopper delivered.
The dimensions are approximately 6" long and 4" wide. For someone without a lot of clear counterspace, this is a nice compact machine. The 1 1/2 cup capacity bowl is made of clear acrylic and locks into place on the base. The stainless steel blade is attached to a plastic post to make it easy to remove. The lid is of the same acrylic as the bowl and also locks into place. All three pieces are removable for cleaning.
The processing action is run by pressing a large grey button on the unit. It will not process unless it is held down, so you can pulse food by just pressing and releasing the button.
I found this processor to be very quick and easy to use. I have processed cooked vegetables, meats, rice and pasta in this machine to make baby food. It only takes a few minutes of pulsing to get the right consistency. Pureeing is even easier by just holding the button down. The high pitched whir of the processing is quite loud.
As a chopper, however, I'm not sure how good this product would be. I have done small things like nuts, lemon peel and olives with great results. Larger items like onions and celery have to be pre-cut due to the small capacity of the bowl. This sort of defeats the purpose, in my opinion. If I'm going to cut something up to fit inside I might as well just chop it too.
Clean up is very easy. I usually rinse the bowl and blade in hot water immediately after use, then a few quick swipes with a soapy sponge when I do the rest of the dishes. I have never tried it in the dishwasher, though the instructions say it is top rack safe.
For making baby food and chopping little things like nuts, this processor is the way to go. It goes on sale quite often at discount stores such as Wal-Mart and Ames. I picked mine up for $8.99 and it was well worth that price. If you do a lot of chopping of larger items, you'd probably do better with a full sized machine.
