I love things that are mini. I don t know why, but it is probably the cuteness factor that is so alluring. So at one point, I decided I wanted a mini chopper. I didn t have a particular chopper in mind; I just wanted one. My fiance bought me the
Cuisinart Mini Mate for my birthday.
The Cuisinart Mini Mate The Mini-Mate makes quick work of small kitchen prep jobs that might otherwise require difficult and messy chopping, grinding, and grating: nuts, nutmeg, and cinnamon sticks, peppercorns and seeds, garlic and anchovies, even chocolate and citrus peel. With a patented reversible blade for sharp or blunt processing, and two speeds of operation, it is well equipped to handle a variety of jobs. Indeed, this is a small chopper, measuring in at
3.5 x 6.75-in.. It is white with the
Cuisinart logo on it. You get a
9 oz Lexan? work bowl, which is clear/translucent plastic, and is
dishwasher safe. The
high-speed motor is housed in a round piece that sits right on top of the work bowl.
This chopper has
two speeds, high and low. To operate, you simply put the blade in the bowl, add the food, put the cover/motor on, plug in, and push a
button.
The
reversible blade is attached to a plastic piece that drops into the work bowl. There is
a sharp side for chopping and a blunt edge for grinding . You simply flip the blade depending on which blade you need at the time.
There is a small
spatula provided.
You also get an
instruction booklet which also has some
recipes in it.
Accessories Although there aren t a lot of accessories for this product, not a lot are needed.
Cuisinart offers a few items on their website:
-
spatula - $4
-
stainless steel blade - $14.50
-
work bowl - $6
My Thoughts & Experiences I was thrilled to get a mini chopper. I had all kinds of aspirations for food ideas using the chopper. I think we started out making salsa, then some pesto, guacamole, and for chopping up small amounts of ingredients for other recipes.
Though it has a high-speed motor and durable stainless-steel motor shaft, keep in mind that the Mini-Mate is designed for small amounts of food: 2 tablespoons is the maximum recommended for one batch, and food pieces should be no larger than 1/2 inch. Purchase it to complement, not replace, a larger, full-function food processor. My first impressions were that it seems like the
Mini Mate does not do a good job of mixing foods. It is hard to put just the right amount in so that the food rotates in the workbowl to a homogenous consistency. When making things like salsa or guacamole, things had to be chopped for too long in order to make it even out, which would make it too soupy.
What this chopper worked best for, at least for us, was for
really little things. For example, we were making strawberry ice cream. We got dried strawberries (the brittle kind, not the chewy kind), and popped a few in. The
Mini Mate was able to pulverize them quickly with a few pulses. So as compared to anything particularly substantial, it performed well. I m guessing the dryness of the strawberries also added to the success of chopping.
Unfortunately, the use of this chopper wasn t limited to things like chopping freeze-dried strawberries into powder. Look at the quote above - "
...food pieces should be no larger than 1/2 inch". A major issue is that you have to cut many - or most - of the items into smaller chunks in order to put them in the mini chopper.
? size pieces, to be exact. So, chances are, you are adding this step, which I would rather replace with getting out the large processor, which takes about 2 seconds and doesn t require a knife and cutting board, which later have to be cleaned.
The
noise factor is still there with this chopper. I don t think it is as loud as a regular chopper or blender, but still significant, and certainly
not quiet! You also hold the top on the chopper, which means holding the chopper still. I wish there was a better way of doing so, but I guess the design works ok.
Part of the allure of the
Mini Mate Chopper is that it is for small projects, and will minimize cleaning. I can t say I always want to drag out the whole food processor, but since our KitchenAid processor has a small bowl attachment, cleanup is really the same. And the problem with the
Mini Mate was often that greasy parmesan pesto would stick in the corners and inside the blade attachment, so it wasn t a matter of just rinsing it out with soapy water. (The small bowl accessory for our processor is slightly rounded, which is easier to clean compared to the Mini Mate, which is cylindrical in shape).
This chopper is a good idea in theory. It is small in size and saves space. It doesn t require much of a cleanup. But I don t think it is something that you can make do with, so the space issue, at least for us, was irrelevant. More like, just one more thing stashed in the closet, with tangled cords and little parts (like the blade and spatula). The cord ended up getting wrapped around the processor, making for a spiraled mess of cord.
So, we ended up getting a
KitchenAid Food Processor. It wasn t a direct result of the lacking performance of the
Mini Mate Chopper, but we needed something bigger regardless. The processor comes with a mini bowl that you can insert, so it pretty much made the mini chopper obsolete. Which is why I didn t shed any tears when
The Death of the Mini Mate a.k.a. the Mini Mate Crashes & Burns Incident Recently, we decided to use the chopper to chop some flax seeds. Not necessarily into powder, but just to chop them up a little bit. It wasn t even 30 seconds into the chopping, and the
Mini Mate starts to burn up. It finished out with a spark from the control button, and died.
I looked on Amazon.com, and a lot of the reviews of this product say the same thing. The choppers were dying after just a few uses. We didn t use this chopper a whole lot just a handful of times and it just did not last, which mirrors many of the reviews I read on the internet.
Now that my
Mini Mate Chopper is contributing to the landfill, I m left with my little spatula. I actually have kept it in my utensil drawer, where it comes in handy every so often. It s a great tool for getting the last bits of peanut butter out of the jar.
Overall In the end, it feels like this mini chopper is pretty much a gimmick. The one time we dust it off to use it, it dies. I certainly don t miss it. I really think this thing is a waste.
I recommend saving your money, and putting your $40 towards a regular size food processor. You want something for grinding coffee beans or flax seeds? Put the money towards a coffee grinder. Or, $20, now that the
Mini Mate is being sold at a reduced price .
Cuisinart: http://www.cuisinart.com
There is a nicer listing/product pic on Epinions under:
http://www.epinions.com/pr-Small_Appliances-Cuisinart_Mini_Mate_Plus_Chopper_Grinder_MM-2M Some of my other Kitchen appliance reviews:
Breville Juice Fountain
Waring DF200 Deep Fryer
Hamilton Beach Toaster
Goodmans
Sur La Table
