Product Description
Blend, Chop, Grind, Whip
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #86 in Kitchen & Housewares
- Color: Stainless Steel
- Brand: Cuisinart
- Model: CSB-79
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 12.99" h x5.51" w x8.46" l,
Features
- Brushed stainless steel housing with embossed Cuisinart logo
- Includes blending, whisk, and chopper/grinder attachment
- Also includes 16-ounce mixing/measuring beaker
- Powerful 200-watt motor
- Push-button control for continuous or pulse action; comfort grip handle
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
126 of 128 people found the following review helpful.
By Joanna Daneman
This is the upgraded Cuisinart Smart Stick that has accessories. The basic unit does not come with the chopper unit or the whisk; both of these accessories are very useful.
The chopper will handle small amounts of herbs such as parsley or rosemary, and easily chop half an onion or some garlic. This means that if you don't have a small bowl attachment for your food processor (or don't have a food processor) you still can do small chopping tasks that are messy on a cutting board.
The whisk allows you to beat egg whites to stiff peaks, necessary for meringues or cakes. As long as your bowl is clean of grease, it is short work to make up perfectly whipped egg whites and a lot easier on the wrist than the traditional way of using a balloon whisk and beating by hand. If I am making a batch of waffles that uses one egg, I separate the egg and whisk up the egg white separately, then fold it in at the end of making the batter. This makes those very light and crisp waffles in a Belgian waffler, and it's the secret to getting very light GLUTEN-FREE waffles. (The gluten free flour mixes can tend to be heavy.)
The stick itself is well-designed. A button on the unit releases the bottom half for cleaning. This will let you do a thorough job without immersing the electrical (upper) part where the motor resides. So if you have something particularly sticky that needs a soak, you can easily do that with the bottom blade portion. Removing the lower portion also lets you attach whisk or insert into the chopper unit.
A beaker also comes with the Smart Stick, for beating up smoothies or other liquids.
The housing around the blade is metal. I've had units in past that had plastic housing, and eventually, if you drop them or they just get very old, the housing cracks. That won't happen with the metal.
The unit has a low and high speed.
Summary: this is a really good stick blender, with all the right notes. If you like to puree your soups, chop nuts, make pesto, and beat egg whites, this unit will do it all.
82 of 92 people found the following review helpful.
By S.E. Custer
This is my second Cuisinart immersion blender experience. This model is very similar to the one I tried previously, but, so far, has not shown the serious flaws of the former model. That model had a chopping attachment (mini food processor bowl) which was horrible and totally useless as nothing chopped in it (things just stuck on the blades and spun around and around). The bowl on this one is at least functional (at least for now) and does appear to chop food to some extent. However, it cannot pulse/chop food into anything less than a relative paste and is very uneven. It is best used for small volume foods that you wish to puree (like one can of chickpeas for hummus or a few avocados for guacamole) rather than actual chopping. Also, the lid locking mechanism on it remains annoying to lock in and is troublesome to attach if the tiniest bit of food gets on top of the spindle with the blades (which happens easily because of the small size of the bowl - it's nearly impossible to add food to the bowl when the blade is inserted and not get some on top of the spindle). You have to carefully clean it to get a solid lock.
Other than the chopping attachment, this is a perfectly adequate stick blender. I mainly use it for pureeing soups as it works fine for hot liquids which are not suitable for a blender. You can't get as a fine a puree as a blender, but you also don't have to worry about the top blowing off because of steam building up and getting sprayed with hot liquid. The stainless steel design is attractive and easy to clean, but it will also scrape the bottom of any pot you use it in. My stainless steels soup pot is an intricate mass of scratches as a result of using this. I don't think that's going to be an enormous problem in the long run, but if you like pristine cookware (or use nonstick), you'll want to avoid this blender for in the pot blending.
The whisk attachment is fairly lightweight, but works weel for whipping cream and meringue. I've made hard meringue with it several times and find it to be pretty good. The main issue with this blender, and all blenders of this type, is that you have to constantly hold down a button for it to activate. If you're whipping a meringue, it can get pretty tiresome on your thumb as you have to press for so long. I wish there were an option to keep it running without holding in a button, but I realize this is a common safety feature. Also, if you use it long enough or for a hard enough task, the body of the blender with the motor can get pretty hot. When I've used this to mash large numbers of chickpeas for falafel, the body can get so hot that I can't continue to hold it. I'm using it as a workhorse, and most people probably won't use it this way, but it is something to keep in mind.
Overall, I like Braun's immersion blenders better because they run cooler, have a better chopper, and the tip of the blender seems better designed so as not to get bits of food lodged in it while blending, but this one is fine as long as the chopper attachment isn't integral to your cooking needs. If it is, I'd say look elsewhere.
41 of 44 people found the following review helpful.
By Silly Sister
I love the Cuisinart products because of their good looks and unquestionable reliability. I have their hand mixer, their ice cream maker, their food processor, and some cookware. I can vouch for how long-lasting their products are. That's certainly an important thing to consider because, yeah, they cost more than the other guys. But it's almost always true that you do get what you pay for.
I didn't have the earlier version of this stick blender, but I'm glad they added the chopper attachment and the whisk attachment before I got it. I had a separate electric chopper that never did a very thorough job with things like nuts and vegetables, so it is in the trash now. With the Cuisinart chopper attachment I can pick the whole thing up and shake it as it is chopping so that everything tumbles around and is more evenly processed. With the whisk, I don't have to haul out my electric hand mixer or use a manual whisk for small jobs. I still use the electric mixer if I'm making a cake or something, but this little whisk attachment is great for omelets or other small jobs.
I still use the stick by itself more often than any other way. I stick it in my pot of cream of asparagus soup and it pulverizes all the vegetable pieces to make a really smooth soup. I stick it into a pot of gravy to whip those flour lumps out and make a perfectly blended sauce. Nothing else - not my blender or my electric mixer - can atomize all the lumps and chunks and make the creamy smooth result this stick blender can.
The stick can be held in one hand because the buttons are so well located and easy to push with the same hand. Switch between speeds as you blend. The bottom half comes off and can be thrown in the dishwasher when you are done. It's metal and sleek and it's Cuisinart! Worth every penny.
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