#103: My 1979 Cuisinart

They Just Don't Make 'Em Like They Used To

After forty-three years, the bowl for my now vintage Cuisinart finally gave up the ghost. I have been babying the crack along the edge for the past five years and yesterday when I was pulsing up a juicy ingredient for a recipe, I saw that it was leaking on to the unit. The motor unit is still running strong and probably will out live me!

I’ve had this workhorse since 1979 when I was pregnant with Sara. A gift from my then mother-in-law, she knew that I loved to cook and bake from scratch and thought a food processor would be just the thing for me. She was so very right. I was absolutely thrilled to receive it and made good use of it right from the start. I puréed baby food, divided it up into ice cube trays, popping out one or two to defrost as my daughter needed. I can’t begin to count how many things I have made in it.

Here’s the ad for the DLC 7 that I still have.

I was devastated when I inadvertently sliced the cord in 1980 and didn’t have the heart to tell my MIL what I happened or the money to buy a new one, but my intrepid housemate at the time fixed it up with some red electricians tape and it’s been good to go since. You can even see where the locking latch on the top broke…more than once, too. Many times my son glued and clamped it in place for me and I babied it along but last year that part broke off one time too many, too. I couldn’t believe that it separated in just the right place so I could still lock it on top (sort of) and keep using the machine.

One time at an estate sale, I found the very same model for ten dollars which was an amazing deal as it was unused. It was half-price Sunday, too so I picked it up for Duncan for only five dollars. Five dollars! I love the older models and picked up another one for myself for fifteen dollars at another sale a while back. I seem to recall that when I visited Julia Child’s kitchen at the Smithsonian seeing the same model, too.

So, any ideas of what I might do with a leaking bowl? Retire it? Make a planter? Or maybe I can try gluing it to get a few more years of service out of it?

They just don’t make ‘em like they used to.

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