I’m looking at a recipe that I really want to try, but it calls for an immersion blender.
Please remind me of the thousands of things I can use an immersion blender for so I can justify its expense to myself. 
I use it for canned tomato soup, and for gravy making, instant pudding.
Well … it depends.
First, anything that you can do with an immersion blender you can do with a regular blender.
If you don’t have a regular blender, then an immersion blender might be worthwhile – doesn’t take up counter space, etc. As with anything else, don’t get the cheapest one on the shelf, but you don’t need to get the most expensive, either, unless you plan on crushing ice or something.
I use mine primarily for pureed soups and sauces. I prefer soups that are pureed rather than chunky most of the time, and I make a mean roasted tomato soup and carrot ginger soup. Immersions are great for things where you’ve had to assemble/cook in a bowl/pot before you get to the blending part. By using an immersion blender, you save transferring the (possibly hot) mixture to the regular blender (possibly having to do it in batches). Saves time, saves number of things to take apart & wash.
I didn’t even know what it was, but my coworker says gravies and tomato sauce and milkshakes.
It is a godsend for gravies. Especially if you suck at them. I use it to cream out soups a bit also.
Think of it as a blender on a stick. Probably mixed drinks, milkshakes, whipped cream maybe.
I haven’t used my regular blender in at least five years. The immersion blender is the way to go, and so much easier to clean. I make soup and puree it right in the pot. Plus, you can get one with a whisk attachment.
I love my immersion blender in part because it allows more precise control of texture. For example, if I’m cooking a pot of beans and want the broth to be thicker, a quick blast with the immersion blender into the whole pot blends up a small amount of the beans while leaving most of the remaining beans whole and creamy and lovely. Want the broth still just a wee smidge thicker? Another half-second blast.
Also, I find cleanup easier - my blender has to be taken apart to go into the dishwasher and then later reassembled, which I find to be a PITA, but the immersion blender just has one dirty part that comes off easily. (I’m good at not getting the handle dirty while I’m using it, but ymmv.) I can see how the texture changes as I use it.
Tell us, Knead, what is the recipe for? I’m fairly sure that in the end, much as I love that stick, if I didn’t have one I could figure out a way to adapt any recipe that required one, if I did have a blender.
(Do you have a blender?)
Here’s the recipe I’m yearning to make: Alton’s Pot Roast
Here’s the blender I’ve got my eye on: $49 at Target
Potato and leek soup. Or any smooth soup for that matter.
Besides, an immersion blender is only about 15 bucks. At least, mine was, and that included a whisk attachment and a chopping attachment.
KitchenAid hand blender is a good choice, nice moderate price range and you should be happy with it.
If you had a regular blender, you could do that recipe just fine. Of course, you don’t even have to blend the juices with the chunkies, blending’s just going to give you a thicker, more substantial sauce than juices alone.
Whips cream awesome fast.
I use mine primarily for soups and shakes. Original one was $20, single piece of plastic, lasted me about 10 years before it started to crack. Replaced it last year with one for about $30 which has the business end detachable and made entirely of metal so much stronger and easier to clean.
I haven’t used my regular blender in many years.
Another nice thing is that mine is just the right diameter that it fits into a standard can opening - so if I need to turn a can of sliced/chunked tomatoes into sauce I can just open the can, stick the blender in and I’m done in a second.
Of all the electrical kitchen gadgets I’ve used an immersion blender is definitely one of the finest.
Ooooooooooooooo. We may have a winner, folks.
You picked a good one. The key things to look for are corded and metal shaft. Kitchenaid has both.
I use it pretty exclusively for soups, but I can’t remember the last time I had to break out my regular blender, and you don’t have to do it in little batches. Worth it, IMHO.
KneadToKnow, particularly with that recipe, since you’ve got to pour the liquid out of the pouch and into something else to immersion blend it, you may as well pour it into your traditional blender and do it that way. As others have said, one of the big advantages to an immersion blender is that there’s less to clean up. In your case, though, it’s pretty much a wash.
I’ve recently started making a cashew and yogurt dip* now that I’m doing South Beach again. Because the finished product is a paste it would be a nightmare to scrape out of a regular blender. This is the one recipe that I can think of that the immersion blender offers a huge advantage.
( * Two cups cashews, six ounces plain yogurt, juice and zest of one lemon, buzz it until it’s smooth and consistent. Munching on celery sticks and cashew dip right now! 
)
Not necessarily, depends on the blender.
Whipping cream (and egg whites) requires getting air into the mixture. Not all blenders/hand blenders without a whisk attachment can do that well enough to really whip to the right texture. In fact, I’ve never seen one that could do it at all.
Ain’t got one.
Pretty much true, but I do find using my immersion blender in hot liquids to be much safer than putting them in my blender.
The hot liquids tend to bubble up quite forcefully in my regular blender and I have to be very careful to hold down the blender lid firmly, or I end up with hot puree all over me. I’ve gotten a couple of serious (though thankfully small) burns using my regular blender for hot liquids.
My point was that if a regular blender was available, there was no need to buy an immersion blender for the sake of one recipe. That might be obvious to some people, but not to a lot of inexperienced cooks who feel they have to follow a recipe slavishly, down to the specific equipment.