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BATTER PRO

Description: Batter Pro Breads Favorite Foods In Seconds! Forget messy bags and one-piece at a time - coat a platter full of chicken, shrimp, pork chops and more without ever getting your hands dirty! Simply fill with with desired breading mix, placefood on top of sifting tray, shake and flip. Patented design catches extra breading on bottom.

Reviews (2):

Maybe they should call it the BREADING Pro...
Reviewer: J3fer Canada 07-01-2005
A previous reviewer wrote about an experience using the Batter Pro for batter, which I must admit, I have never done. Just because battering and deep-frying food is a luxury we very rarely indulge in. Now that I have read of all the problems, maybe I'll try it, just to see!

My husband got me this for a birthday present because I'm an As Seen on TV Junkie (mild case only). I thought it was cute. Tried the bonus slicer it came with the the spatula thingy and gave those away because they're useless. But this gadget is actually not bad for BREADING; again, I have never tried it for batter, despite its name.

Basically, you toss in whatever you want to coat your meat / fish /veggies in, like a mix of flour, corn meal, bread crumbs, etc., then add seasoning. Toss it all evenly to mix it up in the bowl, then put the fish / meat / veggies (pre-moistened) on top of the crumbs. Then, put the red "screen" layer in the middle, and finally, the other bowl right up on top.

Then, shimmy the pieces around in the breading for a bit, and finally, holding the two bowls closed, shake hard and then invert the whole assembly. And as we say en francais - waaaalah! Your pieces are sitting on the "screen" covered flawlessly in an even, lovely coat of breading - hopefully.

The catch is that this doesn't really hold very much. Maybe 2 chicken breasts or 3 thighs at the most. If you overload it, the pieces will touch and then they WON'T be evenly coated.

If you want to do more pieces, though, it's easy.... just take out the first set of pieces and repeat the procedure with the crumbs in the other bowl. Theoretically, you could do this until you ran out of crumbs, though the crumb mixture may get too moist over time.

I was VERY skeptical about this device. I wondered what could be easier than breading food on a plate or in a bag, a la Shake n' Bake. The truth is, though, it does a good job of breading when you don't overload the bowl. I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it made the task. It seems to do well at all the crevices that are hard to do on a plate or in a bag... and the breading doesn't get mushy like when you're doing it in a plastic bag, or go everywhere like with a plate.

Cleanup is okay, I guess, though the whole assembly is rather big and unwieldy in a standard dish basin; all it really needs is a little wipe with soapy water. And then you have to find storage space for the whole thing... it does take up a lot of cupboard space for a one-trick gadget, I'm afraid.

One thing: make sure it is completely dry before you put it away. My husband didn't, and because the two bowls nest very tightly, the damp inner bowl got infected with a horrible smell. Luckily, the smell washed right out again, but since then, we are more careful that they are dry before storing.

Again, ironically, I can't comment on the battering ability of the Batter Pro. I may try it, and let you know how it goes later!

However, that other reviewer also said you need three hands to shake and flip the BatterPro while holding it closed, I haven't found this motion particularly hard. I've found it simple enough to hold both bowls together with two hands - one hand on either side, with a gentle firm pressure to keep the bowls together. However, they might tend to come apart more with a watery mixture inside than with crumbs.

So. Buy this only...
- if you do a lot of breading (I do)
- you are perhaps mildly annoyed with your current breading method
- you have a lot of storage space to spare
- you feel like gambling about $16 to give this a try

You need 3 hands
Reviewer: J3fer Kasnsas 12-15-2004
This product looks good on TV, and my mom really wanted it. I bought it for Christmas. I ordered it and when I received it, I was very disappointed.

I thought there would be some way to lock the pieces together, but there isn't. It MAY work alright, I didn't try it with actual food.

First, it doesn't really seal. The pieces nest together, but there is no rubber strip to keep it from leaking, which it does. Not as much as I thought it would, but water will dribble out.

Second, since that it doesn't actually secure in any way, the pieces fly apart if not held together VERY securely!! To do that, you really need a third hand. If you squeeze one side slightly more the other side seperates, which quickly leads to the whole thing falling apart. This will put food and batter all over the counter and floor. Not a good way to start meal preparation.

I would recommend getting a Tupperware bowl (not Rubbermaid or another imitation that doesn't have an airtight seal) big enough for what ever you are coating and it will work much better.

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