Immersion Blender vs. Hand Blender

Posted by Jenni Osteen on November 16th, 2018

What’s the difference between an immersion blender and a hand blender?

First things first: What’s the difference between a blender and a mixer?

A blender is basically used to convert things into liquids. This is why a common British term for the appliance is “liquidizer”. If you want to make a milkshake or an applesauce from cooked apples or make lemonade, a blender is the machine you would need to use.

A mixer is used to combine ingredients but is not optimized for converting them into liquids. It can be used to combine batters and dough but not much smoothies. Mixers are important for bakers and are nice to have if you cook more than you bake.

An immersion blender and a hand blender, then, are types of those machines that you can hold in your hands. That makes them more flexible, but also less powerful, because the motors are not much heavy.

Using an immersion blender, for example, you can smooth your chunky soups while they are still on stove, instead of pouring a hot soup from a pot into the blender. Find hand blender price in Pakistan on coupons.pk

But it will not make a fresh drink from a lemon or some ice. A list of recipes that call for an immersion blender:

• Salsas
• Soups
• Salad dressings
• Recipes with cooked beans
• Peas or similar veggies

A hand blender can beat egg whites in a bowl, but may not be able to tackle the bread dough. Usually hand blender recipes include waffle or pancake batter, egg dishes, cookies, and other recipes where you need to cream things together and whipped cream.

Hand Blenders and Immersion Blenders have some Tasks in Common

Although they are completely different kitchen gadgets, there are some tasks that can be done either with a hand blender or with an immersion blender.

I’ve used a hand blender to beat eggs for omelettes or scrambled eggs and also with an immersion blender. The immersion blender makes them a little fluffier, but it’s not that good that you would buy an immersion blender just for that purpose.

I have also used a hand blender and an immersion blender to beat egg whites and the hand blender does a great job at that. But if you only have the immersion blender, then that will work fine as well.

How are Food Processors Different from Blenders and Mixers?

A food processor will add a lot of spaces to the Venn diagram of what motorized appliances can do. You can do some blender things like breaking down a fruit into a puree, and you can also do some mixer stuff like kneading bread dough.

Using a food processor, you can also do stuff like shred cheese or slice vegetables. But probably you don’t want to dip one into your soup pots to make a smooth soup.

Call It Whatever You Want

It’s important to know that all the synonyms for “immersion blender” are perfectly fine to use. You can call it a hand blender, handheld blender, wand blender, stick blender – they all mean pretty much the same thing.