BLENDER
A Kitchen blender (sometimes called a mixer) is an appliance used to mix, crush, puree and emulsify foods. It usually consists of container with a lid at the top, a rotating metal blade at the bottom and powered by an electric motor on the base. It is important to note that a blender cannot function without the electric motor.
The kitchen blender was first invented by Stephen Poplawski, A Polish American in 1922, he was the owner of Stevens Electric company that was based in Racine, Wisconsin. He needed an appliance for mixing different drinks and milkshakes, using fruits and malt made him think of the machining process needed to achieve it. Stephen noticed that putting blade inside a container at its base was a great idea to do it automatically, he just had to connect it to a motor for it to function. It took him 10 years to get a patent for his invention. Following Stephen’s success, the blender grew popular in America. This device slowly became a necessity in the American household Kitchen. A decade later, a company founded by Hamilton and Chester Beach also produced a food blender, this blender faced a lot of challenges and had several flaws. Fred Osius later partnered with Fred Waring to produce ‘Waring Blendors’. After the blender’s invention in North America, the waring blendor was later modified by the Europeans. There are so many modifications that followed that led to the modern-day blender. There are even industrial blenders today.
The main features that differentiate one blender from another are the motor speed, controls and design. The motor drives a pitched blade that chops the items that are put into the blender. A tapered cylindrical pitcher with a lid attached to the base. The Pitcher can be plastic or glass. The pitch of the blades creates a tornadic action that circulates the contents and chops them to the desired consistency.
A blender is meant to make work easier and faster in the kitchen. It is a powerful tool appliance that can help us enjoy eating more variety in meals, desserts, beverages and snacks. it is a must have kitchen appliance for nearly all families today. It is important to own a blender because it has varieties of uses. Blenders are used to liquefy, emulsify softer food ingredients such as fruits and yoghurt. It is also used to crush ice and other foods. It is used to puree foods as well.
Growing up as a child in Nigeria, we did not own a blender at home. We used mortar and pestle to grind all our ingredients. It was a tedious chore that we never looked forward to as kids. My parents would tell us to be grateful to God that we owned the Mortar and Pestle, they said in their own time, they used grinding stones to grind everything including habanero pepper. Using mortar and pestle was time consuming and required energy to crush, which in turn resulted to pains in the arm. My mum always had to wait for about two hours for me to grind all the ingredients she needed to cook. Years later, we were buoyant enough to afford a blender, it was a huge relief. Ingredients that usually took about 30 minutes to blend using the mortar and pestle now took about a minute or two to blend using the mortar and we got a better and smoother texture with the blender. It made cooking easier for us. When I moved to Canada last year, my blender was the first appliance I bought in my house because I can’t do without it in the kitchen. At my workplace, we use the industrial blender to make pesto pasta, hummus, falafel mix, etc. I am very certain that I would not have loved the idea of being a chef if blenders were not invented because I do not like to waste so much time on one chore in the kitchen.
