Cuisinart DLC-2011BCN Prep 11 Plus Food Processor
by Cuisinart
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Product Summary
Manufacturer: CuisinartBrand: Cuisinart
Model: dlc2011bcn
Color: White
Product features:
- Touchpad dough control w/Power Prep dough blade, one piece
- Wide mouth feed tube, Powerful induction motor for heavy dough
- Stainless steel slicing & shredding discs, SS chopping/mixing blade
- Detachable disc stem, spatula
- How to video, Recipe and instruction book
- Cuisinart DLC-1BCH Mini-Prep Processor, Black Chrome
- Cuisinart CSB-76BC SmartStick 200-Watt Immersion Hand Blender, Brushed Chrome
- Cuisinart BDH-2 Blade and Disc Holder
- Waring FS800 Pro Electric Food Slicer
- Cuisinart DLC-893 3-Piece Specialty Disc Set, Fits 7- and 11-Cup Processors
Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Cuisinart DLC-2011BCN Prep 11 Plus Food Processor
Customer Review: Big plusses, little minuses
Summary: 4 Stars
My wife has been cooking up a storm lately (in a good way) for me and our four small children. We changed our diet a couple of years ago and have been eating a lot more fresh foods, which of course involve more preparation. This year for Christmas I came up with the idea of a food processor to save my dear bride a lot of effort chopping and slicing.
The big plus is that I think this Cuisinart Prep 11 Plus model is a fine piece of machinery and is well thought out. I'll get into more detail on that later.
The big minus is that I was somehow expecting a food processor to do more. Note that I'm not taking off any stars for my false expectations, but potential buyers should know these things. Before you put most things in to be chopped, they have to be pre-chopped. If I'm going to spend the time to cut everything into 1" squares before putting it in the food processor (FP), I'm pretty sure I haven't saved that much time. And there are some shapes the FP just can't make. For example, my wife made a roast over the weekend in the slow cooker. For the potatoes, she had to chop them up by hand since there is no way for the FP to make small (½") cubes out of them. Then when you're all done, you have to wash everything - a blade, a disc, a small feed tube, a large feed tube, the bowl cover, and the bowl. Oh yeah, and the spatula, too. So just be sure and think through your cooking needs to see how much time and effort this will actually save. The bigger the meal, the more time it will save. I'm not saying we'll regret getting a FP and we'll certainly find it very useful for some things, but it's not the end-all super gadget that I was unrealistically hoping for.
Now, back to the actual performance of this unit as a food processor...
This Cuisinart 11 cup model has not failed to impress this engineer as a machine. The motor is very strong and the working bowl and feeders all snap into place solidly (the bowl maybe a little too solidly, as my wife is still getting the hang of snapping it all the way locked). Things are as they should be for a well-thought-out design. The small feed tube locks into place in the large. The blades slide easily onto the keyed drive shaft. The buttons have a great feel and are the membrane-type, which doesn't allow food to get in the unit. This thing cuts through stuff with ease. We haven't used the dough blade or shredder disc yet, but the slicing discs works great, as advertised. The chopping blade does pretty well.
One annoyance is that when chopping, bigger pieces tend to stay on top and not get chopped further while little pieces keep getting chopped smaller. With some items (like garlic) you can avoid this by pulsing the machine, which bounces the contents around and mixes them up pretty well. But other items like tomatoes just turn into puree on the bottom and chunks on the top. If you watch the included DVD, you'll notice that this happens in the video, too. But Cuisinart is sneaky and skips forward in the video to after they've opened the top and mixed the tomatoes manually to eliminate the chunks on top. You see chunks on top, then a slow fade, then magically uniform chopped tomato. I think we'll get used to doing this, but I wish Cuisinart would just 'fess up that it is a fact of life and say that you have to take a break and mix things up with a spatula.
The other big downer is that you now have all of this stuff to store, and nowhere to put it. Two blades, two discs, and that disc adapter. They're sharp, so you can't just throw them in a drawer. You could get Cuisinart's caddy (Cuisinart Blade and Disc Holder), but I would argue that it should be included with this processor as I'm not sure what Cuisinart expects you to do with the discs and blades when not in use.
All in all, I think this is a great food processor. I would recommend this model to someone who knows they want a food processor. I can't speak about longevity or customer service yet, and hopefully I won't have to. It does carry that substantial warranty.
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