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In most conversations about kitchen tools, I'll be the first to step up and say, "Yeah, it's important to use good tools. They make everything easier." And yet, when it came to pastry blenders, for the last 8+ years I have not been following my own advice. I picked up that green-handled one that you see on the left sometime during college at a thrift store. It never worked well and yet I soldiered on, trying to cream butter and sugar together with wires that were constantly bending and spreading so wide that they allowed an entire stick of butter to pass through unmolested. Oh, and did I mention that the handle spins around?
Several weeks ago, I was down in Washington, DC visiting a friend. During the full day I was there, we spend nearly five hours going to three different thrift stores. During the course of that day, I picked up the pastry blender on the right for $.80 (I like good tools but I'm also cheap). I didn't really think much of it until I used the new one tonight. What a difference! The butter broke down easily, the wires didn't bend and the handle stayed right where it was supposed to. Good tools make such a difference!
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11-02-2007 @11:29AM sobodda said... I hear you on that one. I was in the same situation with veggie peelers - I'd always inherited my mom's old ones. I bought the OXO Good Grips swivel peeler and it has me so excited about peeling vegetables. Partly because it's a great product, partly because it's the only sharp one I've ever used!
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11-02-2007 @12:59PM Katie said... LOL! I DEFINITELY have the same pastry blender you just picked up which, I too, purchased in the DC area (where I live) forsuper cheap. I love when cheap tools work...as they often don't.
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11-02-2007 @1:43PM valentine said... Brilliant. Also a big fan of "right tool for the right job" credo. (Well, I am NOW, after our big remodel....)
I'm in DC (but just moved here a couple months ago): what thrift stores did you go to?
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11-02-2007 @2:28PM rainey Smith said... Hooray for a bargain and more fun making pastry. I love the one I have that has blades. I'm sure it will last forever and it's so much easier to use and clean up that I rarely pull out the food processor anymore.
The blade are not sharpened but they're much more stable than wires. Here's a link to a pic if you're not sure what I'm talking about. I know it will cost multiples of 80ยข but it's more than worth it!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/75667634@N00/1829413071/
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11-02-2007 @6:18PM Berkana said... I don't use pastry blenders/pastry cutters anymore. My friend and I discovered the perfect way to cut butter into pea-sized chunks for making pie crust:
1) Freeze your flour/sugar/salt
2) use one of those wire cutters that cuts sticks of butter into pats, and cut a stick of butter into pats.
3) Dust the pats of butter with your frozen flour/sugar/salt mix so they don't stick together.
4) stack the powdered pats of butter, and use the wire grid thing to cut the pats into sticks. Dust with the frozen flour mix.
5) cut the sticks into cubes, dust with flour mix.
Voila! your entire batch of butter will have been cut into pea sized cubes. Kneed as you please.
This technique totally beats using a pastry cutter. Here's a gallette I made using this technique: http://dietarydiaries.blogspot.com/2005/09/add-one-more-dessert-to-menu.html
Here's how I did it: http://dietarydiaries.blogspot.com/2006/04/secrets-to-flaky-pie-crusts-are.html
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11-05-2007 @11:55AM Tony C said... The two don't look to be very different in basic design... Is it just a matter of thicker gauge wire and a sturdier handle attachment? Maybe in a few years you'll be lamenting this purchase! :D
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11-05-2007 @11:56AM Marisa McClellan said... Tony, the thicker gage wire and the sturdier handle make all the difference. And if I do regret it in a couple of years, it won't matter too much, since I only paid $.80 for it.
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11-05-2007 @1:46PM Holly Gates said... Yeah, using a crappy pastry blender is the worst. I think the bladed ones are better than the wire ones, but I almost always use the food processor with butter precut to 1/2" cubes on a cutting board.
Just the other week I was making a pie at someone else's house and they didn't have a food processor OR a pastry blender. So I had to use the two knife method, which I hadn't done in like 15 years. Made me remember why I stopped doing it as soon as someone showed me a pastry blender!
-Holly
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11-05-2007 @3:37PM MrsBug said... I use one like the one on the left because it was like what my grandmother used, and I'm a sentimental sucker. But, I've found lately that just rubbing the shortening/butter into the flour with my fingers actually worked pretty darn good too.
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11-05-2007 @8:00PM AJ said... Pastry blender? I find the best way to blend butter and sugar is by hand. Simply knead the two togeather. The warmth of your hands and the motion blends it all quite nicely.
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