1,600 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 77 videos

This site uses only a few technical cookies that are necessary for its operation.
By continuing to browse, you agree to their use (learn more...).

The right way to use a blender

You may well have a blender in your own kitchen. You know, that useful gadget that allows you to liquidize stuff at high speed into a smooth liquid. Of course, the most obvious use that comes to mind is for soups: if you have boiled some vegetables in water, with just a quick blast of the blender, you'll have a smooth, creamy soup.

25 K 5/5 (13 reviews)

Last modified on: May 31^th 2017

For this post Comments Lasts posts Follow

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

At this point, we really ought to distinguish between the 2 different types of blender: "stick" and "classic".

Stick blenders (the sort professional cooks sometimes call a "giraffe") are hand-held and are designed to be plunged directly into the bowl or pan when making soup, compotes, etc. They are usually simple machines and relatively cheap. They look like this:

stick blender

The other type are a little more complicated and designed to stand on a worktop. The main difference is that the food is put into the blender's own bowl or goblet (glass or plastic). Then you need to put the lid on before switching the machine on. They look something like this:

mixer

Stick blenders are fairly self-explanatory. For the second type, there's one trick it's important to know.

When blending, there is often a mix of different textures – a liquid ingredient being mixed with a more solid one – even if the end result is more or less a liquid. When making homemade pesto, for example (which, it's worth saying in passing, is far superior to what you find in the shops), you will be blending liquid olive oil and lemon juice with solid pine nuts and basil leaves.

And this is where knowing the trick comes in: you should always put the liquid into the goblet first and only then add the solid ingredients. If you do it the other way round, your ingredients may well not mix together properly, with the liquid staying on top of the blended solids. You will be obliged to stop the blender several times to poke at it and stir with a spoon, or – even worse – you might be tempted to try and intervene with the blender still running, which is highly dangerous.

To see this in practice, here's a photo taken while making a flognarde (a sort of egg custard from France's Limousin region). One stage of the recipe involves blending the eggs with a mixture of flour and sugar:

flognarde

You can see how the eggs (liquid) go in first, with the flour and sugar added on top. This ensures rapid and even mixing, as you can see here:

flognarde

This goes for all blenders, even the most sophisticated ones that heat and cook, such as Thermomix.

To sum up: when blending different foods, always put the liquid ingredients into the blender goblet first, before adding the solid ones.

Lasts posts

Hot Emulsified Sauces

In French cuisine, sauces are a very important part of a recipe—not just a side dish. In fact, they’re so important that, especially since the time of Auguste Escoffier, they’ve been classified into categories. And among these categories are “hot emulsified sauces,” or lukewarm ones. ...
September 9^th 20268395

Hot Dishes and Cold Dishes

When plating or serving a dish—whether hot or cold—on a plate, it’s very important to make sure they’re both the right temperature; in other words: if the dish is hot, the plate should be hot, and conversely, if the dish is cold, the plate should be cold. Is this really important? Let’s...
September 2^nd 20267893

In baking, cold is your friend

When you bake at home—especially when making pie crusts—you’ve probably noticed that it’s quite difficult to work with the dough when it’s hot. It gets soft, is hard to roll out, and breaks or crumples very easily. And this doesn’t just happen when it’s hot—even in a comfortable...
August 26^th 20268255

With vinegar?

When you buy a jar of pickles labeled “in vinegar,” you’re looking for their tangy, crunchy flavor to go with cold cuts, sandwiches, or salads. You expect to find small gherkins preserved in vinegar, with salt and herbs, but is that really the case?
July 15^th 20261,8064.8

Congratulate the chef

You've just finished a meal that you really enjoyed. The server approaches with the usual question: “How was it?” And then, as a natural reflex, you simply reply, “Yes, it was very good.” However, when the meal was truly outstanding, this brief exchange deserves a little more. .
July 7^th 20261,293 35

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Fruits which can ruin your jelly

There are many ways of making a fruit mousse, but one of the simplest is to prepare a fruit jelly (basically a fresh fruit coulis with gelatine) and then mix this jelly before it sets completely with whipped cream. The result is perfect for filling a charlotte, for example. But do beware;...
March 6^th 201381 K4.0

The beautiful story of the croissants

As you may have already noticed, cooking, baking and pastry-making are full of stories or legends, usually very romantic, about this or that product or recipe. This is often the case for named recipes, for example tarte tatin, peach melba, paris-brest and many others, but it also applies to very...
October 10^th 201822 K5

Butter doesn't make you fat, unless you eat too much of it.

Whenever I'm discussing cooking and recipes, there is one idea which comes up frequently, like this: "Oh no! But that's got butter in it" (I should add, for the sake of accuracy, that this is something I hear more frequently from women, who are almost all concerned with keeping their figure). ...
March 26^th 201247 K4.5

Candied fruits: don't get ripped off

Do you like candied fruit? You might like to nibble a handful or add it to a recipe, like a classic fruit cake or delicious Italian specialities like panettone or sicilian epiphany pie.
June 21^th 201771 K 24.2

Coarsely chopped herbs

Although we are in the middle of winter as I write these lines, you should not hesitate to make salads at this time, it is actually quite simple, rather fast, and so pleasant. A while ago, I already told you that a salad is a salad, but a salad with herbs is immediately something much better:...
January 9^th 202116 K4.9