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See why.Baby Food Makers
Do these specialty appliances make cooking purees from scratch any easier than a blender?
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What You Need To Know
While packaged baby purees continue to be popular, some parents opt to make homemade versions. It doesn't require much: just something to cook the food in, such as a steamer basket, microwave, or roasting pan, and a blender or food processor to puree the food. Many parents already have all the tools they need to cook for their babies, but a growing category of dedicated “baby food makers” promises a hands-off approach to preparing baby food from scratch.
These machines come in two styles: those that only puree food and those that both cook and puree food. We focused on the latter. We rounded up six of these small appliances, priced roughly $75.00 to $160.00, and used them to prepare recipes from our upcoming The Complete Baby and Toddler Cookbook for pureed peas, fresh mango, and sweet potatoes and apples. All the machines cook by steaming the food with water from a tank that you fill. As the water heats up, the steam is pumped into the cooking container. Once the food is soft, you either blend the food right in the steaming container or transfer the food to a second container for blending with the push of a button depending on the model. After we'd prepared our purees in the baby food makers, we compared the results to batches we'd either cooked on the stovetop in a steamer basket (peas) or roasted in the oven (sweet potatoes and apples) and then pureed in our favorite food processor or midpriced blender, depending on what the recipe called for.
The Advantage: Walk-Away Cooking
Baby food makers do offer one big advantage over traditional cooking methods: You can walk away without fear of burning the food. The machines stop cooking either when the timer goes off or when they run out of water, which is great for busy parents with roaming toddlers to watch over.
The Murky: Nutrition Claims
Many of these machines also claim that they allow you to better preserve nutrients that can be lost during cooking. In a traditional steamer basket, moisture from the food drips down into the cooking liquid. For our baby food recipes, we add some of that liquid—a mixture of food liquid and steaming water—to the solid food before blending because it's convenient and may contain a bit of flavor. However, the liquid collected in the baby food makers is more concentrated because it collects in a separate cup and doesn't mix with the steaming liquid. Before blending, this concentrated liquid can be added back in with the food in place of (or in addition to) water, formula, or breast milk. Manufacturers claim that this liquid is filled with nutrients that otherwise would be lost during cooking.
However, our science editor explained that this nutriti...
Everything We Tested
Recommended
- Blending: 3 stars out of 3.
- Capacity: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
The roomiest product of the bunch, this baby food maker consists of a two-tiered steamer basket and an attached blender. It easily accommodated entire recipes, and we loved the stackable baskets, which could be arranged to fit either a lot of one food or smaller amounts of multiple foods. The large steaming chamber and multiple functions also give this product more versatility: You can steam fish fillets for dinner while simultaneously cooking veggies for baby. And it also functions as a bottle warmer, defroster, and “sterilizer.” (A bit of bad labeling: Our science editor pointed out that it sanitizes—reducing the number of microorganisms on the surfaces—rather than wholly sterilizing them. Our temperature tests found that it gets hot enough to sanitize, which is considered 200 degrees for 5 minutes for most commercial dishwashers.) Its blender was powerful and made silky-smooth purees with little fuss. While it takes up a fair amount of counter space when fully assembled, the blender section can be detached and stored when not in use, nearly halving the footprint.
Recommended with reservations
- Blending: 2 stars out of 3.
- Capacity: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
This machine had very few parts: just a base, lid, blade, and measuring cup for water. Steaming and blending happen in the same chamber—no transferring required. Though it couldn't fit an entire recipe, it did a decent job at pureeing half batches; however, it took a few extra minutes of blending to get smooth results. Our main gripe was its lack of a timer—it just steams until it runs out of water. Figuring out how much water to add was complicated, too: The cup has milliliter markings, while other products we tested have markings for specific times and foods.
Not Recommended
- Blending: 1 stars out of 3.
- Capacity: 1 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
This petite machine certainly was cute, but it performed more like a toy than a tool. While the blender was fairly roomy, the steamer basket held only about 1.5 cups of food at a time, and its paltry 110 watts of power could barely process steamed foods—it left completely untouched peas and chunks of sweet potato and mango behind. When we attempted to process the chunks further, the motor started to smell like burning rubber (the manual recommends blending for only 30 seconds at a time). While you have to use an included plastic cup to fill the steam chamber each time, the cup is marked with the amounts needed for certain types of food, and the machine operates with a dial timer—qualities we found useful for controlling cooking time.
- Blending: 1 stars out of 3.
- Capacity: 1 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
This baby food maker was nearly identical in design to the QOOC and featured the same lackluster blender and reduced capacity. It also let off a noxious smell when we blended for more than a few seconds. The interface wasn't quite as intuitive as the QOOC's—there's no timer, and the unit stops when it's out of water. The markings on its water cup were fairly accurate to our desired cooking times, but we still prefer the added control of a timer.
- Blending: 1 stars out of 3.
- Capacity: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
Like others, this baby food maker relies on a small steamer basket set inside a roomier blender. While it steamed food just fine, the blender was useless and couldn't operate for more than 30 seconds without letting off a terrible burning smell. To fill the steam chamber, you have to pour water into a narrow hole using an imprecise measuring cup. Most oddly, the lid to the cooking and blending container is attached to the base unit, so it can't be removed for cleaning.
- Blending: 1 stars out of 3.
- Capacity: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
This product's blending function was a disaster. It made a strange frothy concoction out of everything we gave it, partially liquefying the food while leaving grainy, chunky bits untouched. Any attempt to remedy the problem with additional blending just made the puree even thinner and more liquid-y. This is likely because of the unusual design of its blade: It has four large metal paddles with lots of holes in the metal, which likely aerated the liquid and allowed chunks to pass through. The glass container also wasn't easy to clean. The part that connects the blender to the base isn't dishwasher-safe, so we had to remember to unscrew it every time we cleaned the container. Bits of food and liquid also got trapped between the glass container and its plastic base—green pea liquid was still floating on the underside of the container after five washes.
Reviews you can trust
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
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