Hamilton Beach 10-Cup Review

This model has a list price that is around 25% of most of the model in our review, leading us to believe that this model might be one of the lower scoring models. However, this model completely surprised us, tying with the bulk of the models. This model created the best hummus by a unanimous decision, helping it earn the highest score for pureeing. While it didn't lead any other metrics, it still scored average or above in all of them. However, this model leaked horribly, so this is a bad choice if you are making things like mayonnaise.

The Hamilton Beach 10-Cup is the best food processor if you are on a tight budget.

Performance Comparison

We spent over two months pitting these kitchen appliances against each other to see which model came out on top, sending countless veggies to their untimely demise.

These scores were aggregated from the scores each model received in our six weighted test metrics. In total, we conducted over 25 different tests for each machine to come to our final conclusions and score.

The chopping blade installed and ready to test.

Chopping

The Hamilton Beach 10-Cup did very well in our chopping metric, earning a 7 out of 10 for its solid performance at chopping onions, carrots, and almonds. This model actually tied with a much more expensive model for the second highest score overall in this metric. You can see the results in the following chart.

In addition to the food chopping tests, we timed how long the blade would remain spinning when the "Pulse" button was released, to see how much control you had over the amount of chopping. This model earned extra points by stopping immediately. The Hamilton Beach 10-Cup did an alright job chopping onions, about equal to the Braun

These onions weren't quite as consistent as we would have hoped.

It did much better at chopping carrots, doing an excellent job and creating a uniform mixture of carrots with only a few larger pieces remaining.

This model did about average at chopping almonds, requiring about 10 more pulses than the top model to get a workable product. Unfortunately, it did pulverize a decent amount of almonds, creating quite a bit of almond dust.

Mixing

This model did about average in our mixing metric, deserving a 5 out of 10 for its performance. We mixed up a batch of pizza dough, pie crust dough, and mayonnaise in this food processor and compared the results to its peers to come up with scores.

This model lacks a dough blade but still did a very quick job at mixing the pizza dough. The motor did sound like it was having a very hard time while it was mixing.

It did a little worse with the pie crust dough, shaking violently while mixing and shooting flour out of the top. There was also a copious amount of flour that would become stuck on the lip of the lid, creating a huge mess when the lid was removed. However, this machine still made pie crust dough that was acceptable, in spite of its shortcomings.

This model leaked everywhere when we tried to make mayonnaise, severely dropping its score.

Pureeing

The Hamilton Beach 10-Cup earned an 8 out of 10 for its superior pureeing performance, tying for the top score overall. We made hummus, tomato sauce, nut butter, and applesauce in each machine and had a panel compare the quality of the final product. We also conducted a leak test, seeing if any water leaked out when the food processor was filled to the maximum fill line and the motor engaged. The scores for each model are shown in the following chart.

This leak test did not go well for this model. The Hamilton Beach 10-Cup earned the second-worst score, leaking water everywhere.

When filled to the maximum fill line with water, the Hamilton Beach 10-Cup leaked profusely.

In direct contrast to that terrible performance, the Hamilton Beach 10-Cup made the best hummus of any food processor we tested, with a unanimous decision by our panel of tasters. It also made excellent nut butter, on par with the Breville, though the top did wobble like crazy while it was grinding. This food processor continued its stellar performance in our tomato sauce test, creating the ideal consistency sauce after 30 seconds of pureeing, the exact amount called for in the recipe. Its performance dropped a little with the applesauce, but it was still great.

Shredding

Our shredding test consisted of grading the quality of shredded cheese, potatoes, and carrots produced by each machine, as well as comparing the level of shredding adjustability present on the blade of each machine. The Hamilton Beach 10-Cup delivered an above average performance, meriting it a 6 out of 10 for this metric.

We did need to trim our peeled potatoes to fit in the feed tube, but the quality of the shredded potatoes was very high, on par with the Cuisinart Elite. There were two smaller chunks that became trapped above the blade, dropping this model's score slightly.

The shredded potatoes were very uniform, perfect for hashbrowns.

The shredded carrots were a little on the wet side, not nearly as crisp as the Cuisinart Custom but the shred size was decently even. Once again, there were two small pieces that remained un-shredded.

These carrots were a little to wet to be desirable for a salad, though the size was constant.

The 2lb block of cheese did require trimming to fit in the feed tube, but the shredded cheese produced was slightly above average, with nice looking cheese strands and a good cheese strand to crumble ratio. This model only had a medium shred setting.

The combination slicing and shredding blade, set up to test.

Slicing

We sliced potatoes, tomatoes, and zucchini to determine scores for this metric, looking for slices of even thickness and a consistent performance by each machine. The Hamilton Beach 10-Cup did well, earning a 5 out of 10 for its slicing skills.

This model offers no adjustability on slice thickness, so you get what you get. This model did not do well at slicing tomatoes, basically destroying them. The entire inside of the tomato was flung against the bowl, leaving only a shell behind. We had to cut the tomatoes to fit them into the feed tube, and it appeared this severely impacted slice quality.

The Hamilton Beach 10-Cup partially destroyed the tomatoes when slicing them.

It did a bit better with potatoes, slicing them effectively. However, the slices were a bit rough and had lots of taper.

The results of our zucchini slicing test.

This food processor did substantially better with zucchini, creating slices on par with the Elemental. The cuts weren't quite as clean as we would have hoped.

The components of the Hamilton Beach 10-Cup drying after our cleaning test.

Cleaning

The final aspect of our testing echoed that of actually cooking: dishes and cleanup. We rated these products on how much of a pain they were to clean after being used, something we had lots of experience with after all of the previous tests. The Hamilton Beach 10-Cup was about average, not the easiest but not giving us any grief either.

The bowl, blades, discs, and lid are all safe to clean in the dishwasher, though suitable for the top shelf only. The blade was in the middle in terms of length, but it was much slipperier to hold with its smooth plastic finish. The bowl didn't have any problematic places to clean, but its small size made it a little harder than many other models. All in all, the lid wasn't too bad to clean, with only a tiny gap around the feed tube that would catch food.

The included accessories with the Hamilton Beach 10-Cup.

Value

This model is a fantastic value, offering great performance at a fraction of the cost of other models. This model even outscored models that were close to ten times its price.

The best food processor you can get for close to $50.

Conclusion

The Hamilton Beach 10-Cup is the best food processor that you can get for its price and the only one in our test that scored well while costing less than a hundred bucks. While it did have some major drawbacks, it should do a great job for most food prep tasks — just as long as it's not something that can leak out.