Blender Problem

Beetlebum

Hi Guys,

I was just wondering is my blender just sh*t or is it the same with all blenders that you have to add liquid in order to blend anything? I can't just throw fruit and oats into my blender without adding liquid first.

I'm too broke at the moment to buy a gun thingy or a food processor so was just wondering is there a way around this?

Thanks

Alun

Depends on what result you're trying to achieve by blending the fruit and oats really. The fruit will have some moisture in it, but any that's released by the blending process will probably end up getting soaked up at least partially by the oats resulting (I'm guessing) in a thick stodgy mess, depending on ratios of one to the other. Assuming it's not a thick stodgy mess you're trying to create, then adding some liquid (say fruit juice or yoghurt) is going to be inevitable I'd say, or else you'd have to drastically alter your fruit to oats ratio, and completely blitz the fruit first and then just add the oats for a final whizz at the end.

bonkey

If by blender you mean something like this then yes, you probably need to add liquid. From that (wiki) page...

Low-powered blenders require some liquid to be added for the blender to operate correctly. This is because the liquid is used to move the solids around the jar and bring it in contact with the blade as the "whirlpool" fluid movement brings items from the top to the bottom. High-powered blenders are capable of milling grains and crushing ice without such assistance

You can run into the same problem even with food processors. They tend to do better, because they have larger blades, and the width/height ratio is much better. The design is, in part, meant to be better at dealing with exactly this issue.That said, you can still have the problem that the blades churn up a small layer at teh bottom, and everything else sits on top of that....if the mix is stodgy enough.

In call cases, regardless of what tool you use, you can try blending in smaller batches, adding just enough that it doesn't simply fly about, but not so much that it stops pulling everything through the blade. This, of course, can be a long, tedious process, and still may not be as successful as you'd like.

tl;dr Probably no easy way around it...its a design thing.

Beetlebum

bonkey wrote: »

If by blender you mean something like this then yes, you probably need to add liquid. From that (wiki) page...

Low-powered blenders require some liquid to be added for the blender to operate correctly. This is because the liquid is used to move the solids around the jar and bring it in contact with the blade as the "whirlpool" fluid movement brings items from the top to the bottom. High-powered blenders are capable of milling grains and crushing ice without such assistance

You can run into the same problem even with food processors. They tend to do better, because they have larger blades, and the width/height ratio is much better. The design is, in part, meant to be better at dealing with exactly this issue.That said, you can still have the problem that the blades churn up a small layer at teh bottom, and everything else sits on top of that....if the mix is stodgy enough.

In call cases, regardless of what tool you use, you can try blending in smaller batches, adding just enough that it doesn't simply fly about, but not so much that it stops pulling everything through the blade. This, of course, can be a long, tedious process, and still may not be as successful as you'd like.

tl;dr Probably no easy way around it...its a design thing.

Nice one...it's a blender exactly like the one in the picture. That's good to know. I also only discovered recently that you can't add hot liquid to a blender. I was making soup for the first time and tried to blend it while piping hot. Lets just say the kitchen and my face had seen better days. I got such a fright when the top blew right off...do not try this at home kids!