Ninja creami?

Saw an ad for this yesterday. Has anyone ever tried one? I’m not big on buying small kitchen machines, but we have a non-dairy ice cream eater here, so I thought it might be useful. What do you think?

I don’t own one, but have seen several online vids and reviews. It seems pretty limited, plus Ninja stuff is well known for pretty low quality (plastic drive mechanisms, etc.).

Anything you can do with this you can do with a Vitamix, plus so much more… with far greater control. You can snag a reconditioned unit for under $300 that comes with full warranty, new jar and accessories, and end up with way more quality and versatility.

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Thanks - much appreciated. We were thinking of getting this for our daughter and son-in-law, and they already have a Vitamix, so they’re set!

Yup. The ninja requires pre-freezing the pint containers before processing… just do the same in an ice cube try for the Vitamix and use the tamper.

Plus there are quite a number of ingredients you can’t use in the Ninja without voiding the warranty (not so with the VM).

Plus, with the VM, they can make their own non-dairy milks (almond, cashew, coconut). I even make my own tahini paste from hulled, toasted sesame seeds.

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Oh oh. Now you’ve done it.

There is a long discussion with many examples on eGullet and it sounds quite interesting. And no, the Creami isn’t a “competition for Vitamix but a low cost Pacojet version which makes it very interesting

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LOL… I have no experience with what the Pacojet does, but given its price I would not look twice!

As for the Ninja, it slices/grates a limited amount of frozen ingredients, and does a medium to poor job at that.

What does the Pacojet do that makes it worth thousands?

Look just up how much pacojets are used in high-end kitchen to produce many parts of dishes you would have problems to easily produce any other way. The creami doesn’t obviously come to that level (not surprising at the cost difference) but if you are interested sweet or savory icecreams the creami gives you some quite interesting options which are not easily done with regular ice cream machines

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Can you save me the trouble and just tell us what they do to justify that price tag?

Their website sucks!

In short you can make any ice cream you want (sweet or savory) without using the conventional way of custards etc. You want a chicken milanese ice cream so smooth you have never experienced with regular ice creams - pacojet will do it. Here are two older links which focus more on sweet/dessert applications but the savory ones are as important

Thank you for the links… but after reading them I came away with “meh”, and it seems the authors are along that same feeling.

2000 rpm?! A Vitamix runs at almost 6 times that. Sorry, I just don’t get it. Have you used one of these?

You can’t make ice-cream in a Vitamix - this is all about use in professional (high-end) kitchen. It is not only about the rpm etc. Talk with any serious chef and he will tell you how unique the pacojet is in such kitchen setting and that there is no appliances to replace it (and definitely not a Vitamix)

“Another example of European technology finding its way into New York City’s kitchens, Cru’s chef and co-owner Shea Gallante calls this item “one of the premiere inventions of the past 10 to 15 years.” These are strong words coming from a New York Times three-star chef and Food & Wine’s “Best new Chef of 2005”. While preparing freshly-made frozen desserts like ice cream and sorbet is its claim to fame, Mr. Gallante also uses it to create special sauces, flavored butters, and purees. The key is the ability to store multiple natural fruit-laden liquids and flavored concoctions by deep-freezing them and storing them in one-liter steel beakers. When you’re ready to serve, you pull the container from the freezer and place the product in the machine, which then shears the frozen substance so finely you end up with a supersmooth product, at a temperature of about –12C. This process is called “pacotizing”. The machine lets you set the amount of product to pacotize so that the whole container does not have to be used, allowing it to be restored for future use. While the containers are not cheap (4 containers cost about $120), the saved labor results in a reasonable ROI of about one to six months, in addition to the obvious culinary benefits. ”

Have you used it?

I can make a number of ice “stuff” in the VM, from frozen fruit for sorbet, with cream for sherbet, and cream/eggs/milk I can use for freezing in my ice cream maker.

I follow quite a number of chefs, and have never seen one of these mentioned or used. Have you used one?

I personally haven’t used it (too expensive for just home use) but know a number of chefs who use it very regularly and have very often had dishes were different components were “made” through pacojet. Not sure on what level your chefs are cooking but you will find it mainly used in Michelin star level restaurants - we often eat tasting menus and I can’t remember the last tasting menu where they didn’t use a pacojet in some form - it’s for example hard to make a great salmon ice cream without it
And we make a lot of ice cream and no, icecream out of a vitamix is nothing compared to a pacojet

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My two cents…I have a Ninja Creami (since last August), an Italian ice cream maker condenser style (40 yrs old) and a Vita Mix (15yrs). A while back, Mark Bittman had popularized using the food processor and frozen fruit.
The Ninja is a very efficient machine that makes as little as 1 cup of ice cream/sorbet if you so chose. The containers hold a pint, which is a nice size for a small quantity of frozen treats. Simple to use and store the product in its existing container, it has performed very satisfactorily for me.
In the winter I made sorbets with canned pears, I made an apple pie ice cream with apples I had cooked with pie spices, a pumpkin ice cream, tangerine sorbet with fresh juice.
Yesterday, I made a strawberry gelato in the Italian machine. Tomorrow, I will probably get enough strawberries at the Farmers Mkt. to make sorbet in the creami. The creami will blend the fruit , sugar, etc. in the container. You then freeze it for 12 to 24 hrs depending on how cold your freezer is, and then process it in the container for maybe two minutes. It can also be reprocessed if you want a more “creamy” consistency. I got mine, with coupons, etc. when Bed n Bath was running specials on it…it was very reasonably priced. I don’t regret it!

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One correction on how the fruit and sugar is initially added…I use an immersion blender to dissolve the sugar, etc. The fruit can then be added to the container in 1/2” ish pieces…or you can chose to blend everything together prior to adding to container.

Just received one that I ordered last week on Friday, Woot.com has been having refurbished ones for sale from time to time for $109 for the 7 program model and $99 for the 5 program. The inaugural batch was a strawberry ice cream recipe I found online containing just milk, cream, cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and quartered strawberries. No cooking of the base, just whisked until the sugar was dissolved, strawberries added and placed in the container to freeze. Turned out pretty good, my only complaint is that the strawberries didn’t really distribute evenly throughout the batch. Should be able to remedy that by either cooking the strawberries in the base a bit so they aren’t just floating at the top of the jar or blending them in with a stick blender. I’ll probably make a custard base today to have it ready to go for the holiday.

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:face_with_hand_over_mouth:Oh, dear.

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At ceviche you often have avocado as an ice cream component - now just imagine that instead you are using salmon (or any other not too mild fish) as the ice-cream component. It gives you were different textures and flavor combinations

Strawberry raspberry sorbet…1 cup strained raspberry purée, 1 cup strained strawberry purée, 6 to 8 T sugar, 1 squirt Lyles Golden syrup, 1T eau de vie framboise. Processed with the Ninja on sorbet. Soft and creamy, I might have squeezed a little lemon in the mixture.

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