Blender

The three appliances

Jug blender

A tall jug and a fast blade at the bottom. Best at anything liquid — smoothies, soups, sauces, batters — because the shape circulates the contents past the blade. Poor at anything dry or thick, which just sits there.

Stick or immersion blender

A blade on a shaft you put into the pot. Blends soup in the pan with no transferring and no washing up. Less powerful and less smooth than a jug blender, and by far the most convenient.

Food processor

A wide bowl and a broad blade. Best at solids — chopping, pastry, breadcrumbs, hummus, pesto, grating with the disc attachments. Poor at thin liquids, which leak past the lid.

High-power blender

A jug blender with several times the motor. Genuinely produces smoother purées and can handle nuts, ice and fibrous vegetables. Expensive, loud, and only worth it if you use it constantly.

Which first

A stick blender, for most people. Cheap, small, and it does the commonest job — soup — better than the alternatives.

Blending hot liquids safely

This is the one part of using a blender where the consequence of getting it wrong is a burn, so it is worth stating plainly.

• Hot liquid in a sealed jug builds steam pressure. When you start the motor the contents can force the lid off and spray boiling soup upwards.
• Let it cool for a few minutes first if you can.
• Never fill the jug more than half full with anything hot.
• Remove the centre cap from the lid and cover the hole with a folded tea towel, so steam escapes but soup does not.
• Start on the lowest speed and build up.
• A stick blender avoids the problem entirely, which is a good reason to own one. Keep the head fully submerged before switching it on, or it will spray.

Getting better results

• Liquid at the bottom, solids on top in a jug blender, so the blade has something to move.
• Do not overfill. A blender needs room for the contents to circulate.
• Pulse rather than run for anything you want chopped rather than puréed.
• Pass it through a sieve for a genuinely silky soup or sauce. No domestic blender gets all the way there on its own.
• Blend in batches rather than cramming it.
• Clean it immediately — a drop of washing-up liquid, warm water, and thirty seconds on high does most of it.

Why blade shape and jug shape matter

A jug blender works because the tall, narrow, often fluted jug forces the contents into a circulating pattern that keeps pulling new material down onto the blade. That only happens if there is enough liquid to flow. Put something thick in and it forms a dome above the blade, which spins in a pocket of air doing nothing — the familiar sight of a blender running loudly and blending nothing.

A food processor works the opposite way. Its bowl is wide and shallow and its blade is broad and set low, so it throws solids outwards against the wall and back in. Thin liquid in the same bowl simply rises up the side and out past the lid.

Neither shape is better. They are shaped for the two states of matter people put in them, which is why owning one and using it for both is the source of most blending disappointment.

Common questions