Who is “everyone”? There’s only like two or three posters with tepid opinions of the immersion blender.
To be honest, though, I’ve never had a regular blender that purees stuff to a completely smooth consistency–I just have one of those Oster beehive blenders. As I said above, anything that needs to be silk-smooth gets pushed through a chinois/strainer/sieve. That mostly means sauces for me, as I’m not a fan of the ultra-pureed style of creamy soups, which seems textureless to me. But, even if you were going that direction, if you demand perfection, wouldn’t you push it through a chinois/strainer/sieve anyway? Do the high-end countertop blenders really do such a good job that they render it perfectly smooth? I’m honestly curious about that.
Yes, and it’s much faster than a stick blender. I may send cream of asparagus through a strainer, but even that is easier to do out of a blender carafe.
I don’t have one. I don’t even have a regular blender. It doesn’t fit my cooking style, and I prefer to do things by hand anyway. It’s a rare case where I would really need one. No objections to them though, use the tools you like.
That’s the main reason I do sauces with hot peppers in my blender: bit easier to pour it out of a carafe into a strainer. It does blend the reconstituted peppers better, too, but that’s not as much a consideration, as those types of sauces generally go through the strainer.
But, Lordy, do I hate digging that thing out and cleaning it up afterwards. Same thing with my food processor. Love having it, hate using it.
That’s interesting, because I never have to dig mine out. I’ve worked with Vitamixes in the past, but now just have a Viking. It’s okay, but nothing extraordinary. Still gets the job done, and just goes straight to the bottom of the dishwasher. I use it to make a lot of chili (and chile) powder.
Ah. You have a dishwasher. That helps. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough counter space, so I have to keep the blender, food processor, etc., buried in the back of a cabinet behind more regularly used items or ingredients.
The ones where you can separate the whole shaft from the motor are much easier, but I think pretty much every current model is like that. Most of the time you don’t even need to take the blades off (you do if you’ve used it on something very fibrous, such as pumpkin).
I don’t think any of ours qualify as “high-end”, but they certainly render things smooth enough that putting them through a cloth strainer will not make them smoother.
Wouldn’t you clean these things by sticking them in a bowl of soapy water and letting them spin? I can see some fibrous stuff getting stuck on them occasionally, but that’s about the only cleaning problem I could predict.
I just take the shaft off and run cold water over it; usually whatever I’ve used it on is water-based enough to not need soap at all. If there is fibrous stuff, remove by finger (or, if that isn’t working, use tweezers).
Well, that’s not like my blender or any of the blenders I’ve worked with. They always leave tiny, tiny particulates, so if you want a perfectly smooth sauce, you have to push it through a fine-meshed chinois.
I love mine as well. It has a whisk attachment, so… homemade whipped cream. With cardamom. Cool Whip can suck it; there is no better pumpkin pie topping.
Actually, here’s a good video that shows you what happens with me. It gets to that liquid state, but still has particles that need to be pushed through a strainer (as the woman there does–well, she doesn’t really push it for the video, just lets it sit in the strainer, but that’s what is usually done.) I’ve never had a blender that can break up seeds and skin to such a level where you can get a perfectly smooth sauce.
If you’re saying a blender can’t do better than that strainer then I don’t see any compelling reason to get one. I’ve pushed through finer strainers than that when necessary. The blender will save me some prep time and reduce waste a little, but that would be it if I have to strain anyway.
You could probably find ways around it, if you really don’t want to use a blender of any sort. But it makes life easy, because you want the liquid you strain to be in a fairly fine mash and well-mixed before you push it through the strainer. I suppose you could always mash what you need to in a mortar and pestle, if you want to. And, hey, I have one of those. But when it comes to making smooth chile pepper-based sauces, I find a blender of some sort helps a lot.
Besides, I’ve also been able to use it (the countertop blender) to blend things like chicken bones into a fine bone meal for the dog, which I can’t really do using any other method that comes to mind (except, perhaps, if I wanted to deal with a mortar and pestle.)
Well I don’t have any chicken bones to deal with so that’s not an issue. And for anything requiring that much prep I’d leave plenty of time to let the results of chopping sit and soften up for a while before straining. I would like a spice grinder for my Kitchen-Aid, and I can see it being useful for dry ingredients. But I actually enjoy the repeated chopping needed to pulverize stuff, it’s a good way to relieve stress. I’ve lived without a blender so far, I think I’ll continue to do so. But I’d never say there’s anything wrong with someone getting the gadgets they like. I may have simple cooking tools, but I have about a dozen different types of power sanders for woodworking.
Who is “everyone”? There’s only like two or three posters with tepid opinions of the immersion blender.