Cuisinart DLC-8S 11-Cup Pro Custom 11 Food Processor

by Cuisinart

• Ideal for making dough, slicing vegatables, shredding cheese, mincing garlic and herbs, mixing batters, emulsifying mayonnaise and more
• 11-cup work bowl large enough for a family
• Includes steel blade, dough blade, three slicing/shredding discs, spatula
• Extra-large feed tube for larger food slices
• Five-year full motor warranty, three-year limited entire unit warranty

Product Details

View the Product Manual [459kb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 7 x 14.5 inches ; 16.9 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 17 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B00004S9EJ
• Item model number: DLC-8S
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (229 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #957 in Kitchen & Dining (See Top 100 in Kitchen & Dining)
  • #8 in Kitchen & Dining > Small Appliances > Food Processors

Product Description

Color: White

Amazon.com

A perfect gift for new homemakers, the food processor has become an integral part of modern cooking, speeding up a multitude of processes, including kneading dough; slicing; chopping; shredding cheese, vegetables, and meat; mincing garlic and parsley; mixing batters; and emulsifying mayonnaise. Cuisinart's Pro Custom comes with an 11-cup work bowl; five basic attachments for slicing, shredding, chopping, mixing, and kneading; and also features two feed-tube options, one big enough to handle a whole potato. This processor comes with a compact cover for use when the feed tube isn't needed and a pulse control that allows the desired degree of fineness when chopping and puréeing. Remove the detachable stem for compact storage of discs. All the parts are dishwasher-safe and the motor base wipes clean. In addition, a custom-contoured spatula, a 50-page recipe booklet, and a 30-minute video designed to familiarize the new owner with the care and use of the food processor are included. --Victoria Jenkins

Product Description

Great for the chef, features 11-cup work bowl and extra-large feed tube for slicing whole fruits and vegetables. Powerful enough to knead bread dough with ease. With stainless steel medium, thin and shredding/slicing discs, chopping blade and dough blade. 5-year full motor warranty. In white, almond or black. Model DLC-8S.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

137 of 139 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Still the best (DLC-8S & DLC-10S). Period. December 11, 2011

By Muleshoe

Color Name:White|Amazon Verified Purchase

It's true that the current build quality of all Cuisinart food processors does not live up to the rock solid, virtually indestructible reputation of their forebears of the 70's and 80's. ("Nothing is quite good enough" was their former advertising tag line.) However, the DLC-8S (and DLC-10S) is one of the few models that harkens back most directly to the original Magimix 1800 (from France) that Carl Sontheimer introduced to the U.S. in 1973 as the first "Cuisinart." The DLC-8S is the direct descendant of a line that includes the 2800, CFP5 and the first DLC models of the early/mid-80's and it is still the best food processor currently on the market even if it's not quite the mythical beast it used to be.

All Cuisinart food processors used to sport essentially the same basic design except for their size: 7-cup (DLC-10), 11-cup (DLC-8), 14-cup (DLC-7) and 20-cup (DLC-X). It was easy to buy accessories: DLC-10 accessories begin with a "1" or an "8" (the bowl diameter was the same as the DLC-8 and used the same sized slicing discs); DLC-8 accessories begin with "8"; DLC-7 accessories begin with "0" (zero); and DLC-X accessories begin with "3." A Cuisinart was a Cuisinart.

Beginning in 1989 Cuisinart's focus started to transition from engineering and design to marketing when Conair bought the company and greatly expanded the Cuisinart "brand." This marked the beginning of a period of feature stagnation, cost cutting and quality "decontenting" for food processors that resulted a couple of production runs in the late 1990's/early 2000's that were truly questionable. Plus, in 1993 a little competition came into play as Kitchenaid decided to put their own brand of food processor on the market.... Cuisinart was initially caught a bit off-guard as the new Kitchenaid models featured exceptional build quality and a freshly updated design with a "blender-style" rounded oval base. Kitchenaid begin to displace Cuisinart at the top of consumer evaluation ratings around the turn of the century as Cuisinart build quality tanked and Kitchenaid surged with a fresh design and great build quality.

Eventually, Cuisinart decided they had better compete and and introduced newer models (the "Premier" and "Prep Plus" series -- rounded base and a new [not necessarily better] feed tube safety interlock) and they also greatly improved the manufacturing build quality of their original series (DLC). More recently they have introduced the "Elite" series with nesting bowls and a completely new sealing lid and with an even newer safety interlock system.

Here's a break down of the current Cuisinart line-up: DLC-8 and DLC-10 (original style 11- and 7-cup models); DLC-20XX & DLC-30XX (XX=07, 09, 11, or 14 cup Prep Plus or Premier models; these are the "oval, rounded blender base" models with revised feedtube safety interlock); FP-12 and FP-14 (the newest Elite models with beefy square base, full seal tapered and multiple bowls, new snap on lid with built-in interlock separate from the feed tube and "Blade Lock"). There is also another "P" series (DFP or DLC-XPN) that features the "old, original" base and bowl bowl design with a newer feed tube design.

Here's the rub -- you can definitely detect the effects of "marketing" in the design of the newer models. These new features look great as bullet points on the box, but don't add anything to the utility of the original machine. The feed tube interlock on the 20XX, 30XX, DFP & XPN features a long slender stem on the pusher that inserts into a complicated mechanism with two rollers and a linkage that is very easy to jam. Plus, the long slender stem is relatively easy to break off rendering the machine inoperable. The newer Elite series with it's beefy square base (a la Kitchenaid), tapered nesting bowls (a la Kitchenaid), a snap on lid with safety lock independent of the feed tube (a la Kitchenaid) and a so-called Bladelock safety feature is just clumsy to use. I bought and returned the FP-12. It had a "huge" footprint on the counter. The nesting bowls were actually less convenient (the smaller nested bowl made the lid harder to snap on and you always had to remove it to use the big bowl). Worst was the "Bladelock" feature. It's just little nubbed prongs on the inside of the chopper blade hub that are supposed grab onto a raised molded ring on the inside of the central tube of the bowl. The idea is you don't have to hold the blade to keep it from falling out with whatever your pouring. It worked ok on the big bowl, but the prongs in the little bowl chopping blade were incorrectly molded and didn't catch on the raised ridge in the central bowl tube - anyone for a nasty surprise?

The DLC-8S just works -- the way every Cuisinart has worked since the early 1980's. It may not be built quite as good as it was then, but it comes with a 3-year total warranty (for those who abuse their bowls and feed tube/pusher assemblies) and a 5-year motor assembly warranty. It proudly takes it's place alongside a DLC-10 purchased in 1988 that is still going strong (has only needed one new sheath/spindle for $12.95) and has chopped a lifetime of onions and made loaves bread out the wazoo. Every recipe since about 1980 that employs a food processor refers to this type of machine. If you want the easiest and best, this is what you want. Read more ›

307 of 329 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Cuisinart DLC-8S is Shoddy Shadow of former Cuisinarts December 6, 2001

By A Customer

Color Name:White

My 1987 DLC-7 is my 3rd Cuisinart. It has had daily use and is worn and has a small problem. I ordered the DLC-8s only to find it cannot compare to my old machine even in it's state of advanced age and I am returning it. For example the cord is short and light weight. The bowl is actually smaller...11 cups is really an exaggeration. The motor is 5.2 amps compared with the 6 amps of the DLC-7 and the DLC-8S is lighter. The deciding flaw however is the poorly designed switching arms on the feed tube. They are flimsy and an accident begging to happen. I am going to have my old machine repaired and look at the Kitchen Aid processors. Very sad to lose an outstanding product.

117 of 123 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A solid performer, with a few limitations June 18, 2000

By Henry Troup

Color Name:White

I've used my Cuisinart fairly hard - I make mustard (from mustard seed) on a small scale for sale at a farmer's market. I've had it for six or seven years now, so mine may not be identical to this model. But the number and the specs are.

You can swamp the machine in too much liquid - I can process up to about four cups of fairly liquid stuff, but no more or I have an overflow to deal with.

A dishwasher does a good job of cleaning the bowl and knife, and the knife has held its edge well. The bowl has a certain number of scratches after heavy use.

I've hardly ever used the plastic blade - even for dough, I use the steel blade. I have a few shredding/slicing disks, which have seen a reasonable amount of use for large scale salads, turkey stuffing, and sauerkraut. (sp?)

It doesn't dice. There's no technique by which true dice can be made in a food processor. You could use the processor to slice or even julienne and finish by hand, but it's too fussy.

187 of 200 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars This is not the Cuisinart you used to know! October 12, 2004

By Wiley

Color Name:White

Times have changed and so has the parent company that sells and services your food processor. The quality of materials and workmanship have gone downhill too!

My experience with the corporate machine was horrible. Days of long waits to talk to a customer service rep...never paid off. Each time I called I was eventually forwarded to a recorded message that explained that they were too busy and that I needed to leave my name and phone number. I never did get a call-back. Finally, after several attempts, I was able to get past the initial phone queue and actually talked to a live person who took the information about the condition of all the clear plastic parts on the processor. They were all severely cracked and were not far from flying apart. It seems they knew of the problem and offered to replace the parts on warranty. All I had to do was give them a credit card number to charge the shipping to. AND, nothing would happen UNTIL I sent the old pieces back...again at MY expense.

I sent the parts back promptly, but they didn't ship for another two weeks. And, here is the highlight of the episode... The lid they sent was the wrong one. Another round of phone calls yielded a person that said that Cuisinart had not processed the replacement yet...a full two weeks after they were notified. I still have not received the lid and the processor is useless without it.

BEWARE! This company tries to sell their products in the top-end of the price range, but their corporate customer service system is as bad as it gets...at any price. You can do yourself a favor and shop for another brand. I'm looking at KitchenAid. Shucks, it can't be any worse...and MAY be a much better experience over the long run.