Try me now, I'll try anything

[venta]

Things I learned last night: do not, on any account, attempt to make fresh breadcrumbs in a motor-driven meat grinder.

No good will come of it.

Comments

[sammason.livejournal.com]

I'm snorking! But really, food processors are cheap.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I know they're cheap. But flats in London are expensive! And thus mine is not large enough to contain all the kitchen things I already have and a food processor :)

I have toyed with the idea of getting a mini one, but wasn't sure if it'd be big enough to be useful. I'm currently working out how many of the food process-y things I want to do I can realistically do with devices I already own.

(In the instance of the beans you can mash them with a fork. If you have a lot of spare time and wrists of steel. Which I don't.)

[sammason.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're thinking ahead about this. Allegedly most kitchens in Britain are clogged with unused gadgets. You can't even get rid of the electrical ones to charity shops.

Come to think of it, now that {gulp} my cooking days are mostly over, if you'd like to inherit a food processor, I have one that works just fine that I'm no longer likely to use. I'll post it to you if you like or you can collect it in person.

PS not for the kitchen you have now, from what you say. But maybe in future.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Oh thank you, that's a very kind offer! If I decide I really do have a need for one (and space for one) I'll get back to you. Much better to rehome an unused one that buy a new one. Though obviously I'd be even more pleased to hear that you'd found you were able to use it again yourself!

I am a dreadful sucker for kitchen gadgets, actually. I have to give myself a good talking-to every so often when some single-use item pops up and flaunts itself and sounds so indispensable. I fix it with a Paddington-like stare and it usually concedes that, actually, I seem to be doing just fine without it :)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

For fresh breadcrumbs, you need something like a liquidizer -- basically a chopping blade with plenty of air space around it, to avoid the compaction effect.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Indeed - I used to have a blender unit which had its own mini-grinder that fitted on in place of the jug and that was great for breadcrumbs.

My current blender appears to have too much airspace and just bounces bread crusts about. Which is pretty and frolicsome, but ultimately not that useful.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Would it work if you ground twice as much bread as required, so as to fill up the airspace a bit better, and put the leftover in the freezer for future use?

(Unless your freezer's too small to store such things, which I guess it might be given the above comment…)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Sadly no, it wouldn't.

I've tried things like that, and what happens is I end up with a blender full of stationary bread while the bit immediately round the blades becomes crumbs. The blades then rotate pointlessly in the space they've created.

Obviously I can squash the contents down and repeat, pausing every so often to excavate the crumbs, but to be honest, it's pretty much more faff than doing it any other way.