Stick blender vs immersion blender on the line finally put them head to head

I ran two stations side by side last Saturday with the same soup recipe. One station used a cheap stick blender I bought for $30. The other used the Vitamix immersion blender from the main kitchen. The cheap one left chunks of tomato skin in the soup even after 3 minutes. The Vitamix got it smooth in under 60 seconds without splashing everywhere. Now I get why the sous chef always grabs the nicer one. Has anyone else found a solid budget immersion blender that actually works for pureeing?

3 comments

3 Comments

sagejackson2d ago

That tomato skin thing is a pain, I've heard the same complaint from a few cooks about those cheap stick blenders. I've seen some solid feedback on the Breville immersion blender if you want something middle ground.

karenc202d ago

Heard the same thing from a friend who cooks a lot, she said the cheap ones just don't have the power for tougher stuff like skins or nuts. I mean, she ended up getting a Braun and seems pretty happy with it.

kimr9120h ago

Hold up, tomato skins? That's actually a thing people worry about with these things? I always just assumed a blender motor was a blender motor, you know, plug it in and it goes. Guess I never really thought about how much torque it actually takes to break down something like a nut or a potato skin. Learning something new every day from this thread, that's for sure. So basically you're saying the cheap ones are just glorified whisks for hot soup, basically useless for actual cooking. What a rip off if you buy the wrong one without knowing this.

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