Presto 02970 Professional SaladShooter Electric Slicer/Shredder, Black,1 count Import To Shop ×Product customization General

Creative Idea for slicing, hope you like airplane noiseUPDATE, 5/10/13: Downgraded to two stars. I hardly use this anymore. There are too many things it can’t slice/shred well (celery, onions, anything of that caliber); it stains (especially with carrots), is hard to clean, and is loud. Yeah, you can expect it to handle raw potatoes, zucchini, cucumber well. But a regular food processor could do a better job with less rumble, wiggle, and noise. If you have to shred a lot of carrots (especially since the stain lasts), it still works for that, too. But food sticks everywhere in the thing. I understand the problem now: the blades a) aren’t sharp enough, and b) are too flat, so a lot of what you’re trying to slice, just whirs round between the cone and the motor turning the cone. A real mess.If anyone claims they can shred cheese with it, they must be nearly freezing the cheese beforehand, and the cleanup must be horrendous. I’m in the market for something to replace this ill-designed airplane. It sits on top of my range ledge, gathering dust, and is not at all easy to store. Seems like all food processors are problems, these days. Original review, follows below.=====================Just got this from Amazon. Have never used an appliance like this before. So this review will be piecemeal, as I learn the product.UPDATE in this paragraph: they should redesign the product with a wide chute instead of a tall one, and with a corresponding chute pusher cup. That way, if you divide the chute pusher cup it will be meaningful, and a wide chute would accommodate whole onions and potatoes. They could design a wide chute so that it’s sideways, thus not increasing the depth of the machine. End this paragraph’s update.Initial reaction: This is a VERY screechy machine, far louder than a blender. Not a product you’d use for small amounts of food, unless you want wafer-thin slicing (i.e., carrots, using the grey cone). You can slice a few vegetables and clean up in less time than it takes to plug in the product, select the right slicing cone, rinse off the affected parts, and re-assemble. Figure 2-5 minutes wash-up. A simple knife and cutting-board rinse off takes one minute. So you’d use this product if you have a lot of slicing, or you want to do fancy slicing/paring/cutting, or the manual act of slicing bugs you. And with carrots or other vegetables, you must immediately soak the parts, lest they stain. The cones hold a lot of residual material, so if you process larger amounts of food, you might have to take the machine apart, remove the residue, and resume.This machine won’t work well with tomatoes or other fruits/vegetables of like softness, because the flesh won’t cut well. However, if you flash freeze the fruit first, you might get better results. (Flash-freeze means putting the fruit/veggie/cheese in the freezer for 10-15 minutes until it’s firm, but not frozen).Also, the product is large (Professional), but if placed sideways, is narrow enough to sit on the top ledge of my electric stove (that jutting-up back portion with the clock and the dial controls, about 3″ wide ledge). Neither machine nor cones store handily, but the cones do stack atop each other. Nice that it’s white, not black (who on earth likes a black kitchen, yecchhh). Would have preferred a color, but as we all have different color themes in our kitchens, white is better than light-absorbing black. You could take a standard Mixmaster fabric cover (like from the 1960’s) and cover it, to create color.Product disassembles well, and the only cleaning problems will be the blades themselves (within the cones, hence safer); and the socket into which each spinning cone, goes. Means immediate washout after using, to avoid food sticking (use an old toothbrush). Not happy about that, but it beats the typical blender where the blade is at the bottom of the bowl, so you have to exercise caution when you empty the bowl. The other Salad Shooter advantage, is that the cones are easier to change than blades within a typical bowl processor. And let’s not even talk about the mandolin slicers, etc.Manual is well-written. Says it will handle the foods you expect it to handle, will not handle ice, whole coffee beans, will handle nuts. Manual doesn’t recommend processing meat or tomatoes.Usage Results: LOUD. Like a high-pitched chainsaw; five times louder than blenders I remember, sound vaguely like airplanes landing. I happen to like that sound. But if you live with others, don’t make any late-night or early-morning meals with this thing. Takes two hands to hold, machine vibrates and whines due to the cone whir, so steadiness isn’t easy. The blades are meant for hard foods.Tried to slice a fresh onion with it, NIGHTMARE CITY. The onion never went throught the grey slicing cone, finally had to unplug, then dip the cone into water to get the small bits of onion there, else had to tap it out of the food chute, largely uncut. As if the blades were too dull, but more likely the slimy film over onion layers (even when peeled) impaired blade slice-ability. Manual says the Shooter will handle onion, so long as you don’t grate it. Guess they didn’t mean Spanish onion, because the latter doesn’t work at all, at least not in the grey slicer. Would have been great to slice onions with it, to avoid tears. Guess again. But the cone just wouldn’t slice, no matter how I vertically positioned the quartered onion, no matter how gently, loosely, tightly, evenly or hard I ‘guided’ the food pusher.REVIEW UPDATE: It works fine on carrots, uniquely paper-thin: impossible to do that by hand, or with any other type of blender/processor I’ve ever used or seen. Shoots out in an array, if you want to ‘design’ as you shoot, but the output is sporadic: don’t move the Shooter too quickly. This was the main reason I wanted the Shooter, as I hate cutting carrots. So it was worth buying for this function alone, since I’m a carrot junkie.(No extra charge, onion-disaster consequence: throw onion in with Family Size Mushroom Soup can plus one can Mackerel; add water, smoke flavoring and powdered garlic to taste in greased caldera, heat on low for an hour until onion is soft. Tastes great hot or cold.)It did chop cashews well, though very messy to clean. Less mess, had I used a conventional food processor. So this product won’t replace a food processor.Edit again, 2/2012. Finally tried it with yellow and like-shaped squash. Grey cone is for paper-thin slices, but the white cone is better. Thinner slices ‘stick’ better to lettuce, etc. but a slightly thicker slice means better taste, so use the white cone. Tried the grater cone, too. Cleanup is a hassle, you have to rinse everything IMMEDIATELY; again, carrot slicing stains everything, so you MUST soak or rub off the stain. More cleanup than with a regular food processor — but no food processor I know of, can slice so evenly and thinly. Same for the grater cone.Grated size is a lot thinner than the size of the holes, which I don’t much like; thickly-grated items have more taste. Thinner is prettier, but do you make food to look at it, or to eat it? I dread the idea of shredding cheese with this, unless the cheese is almost frozen, for it will stick to the cones and everywhere else inside — cheese grated too thinly, loses its taste.That division inside the pusher cup for a ‘small load’ is useless; never split the pusher cup. Instead, If the vegetable is longer than the chute, use your hand to push the vegetable while you run the machine, until the remainder of the vegetable is somewhat below the chute top. Then ‘top’ the vegetable with the pusher cup. Apply even pressure.The funnel is tricky. Food gets stuck in it, unless you wiggle the Shooter from side to side (turning your wrist back and forth) while also with your other hand, pushing the cup down while running the machine. So the funnel dumps the grated material in clumps.The directions warn you not to use this for celery, with good reason: the strings will create a nightmare. But I just now (3/4/2012) used it on celery and the slices came out wonderfully. Yes, some strings wrapped around the cone, but they rinsed off easily. Hint hint: after you process other veggies, do the celery last. They tend to clean out prior residue, don’t know why. The slices are too thin for my liking, but you need them thin for flavoring sauces or soups, stir-fry, etc. Yippeee!

My parents had one growing up, so I got my own. 🙂I love this thing. My parents had one of the originals growing up. When it wore out after many years I got them a new one. When I got my own place I decided to get one of my own. It does do a lot and it can be used for many things. I highly recommend it. Just wish they came with a fine shredder.

Helpful productHowever, some of the vegetables will remain stuck in the machine.

SturdyWanted it to grate cheese and slice potatoes! The strong motor works well. Appears to handle it well!

Great product bad customer serviceGreat product however overcharged me ordering extra cones