Cuisinart Pro Custom 11-Cup Food Processor (DLC-8SY)

The Pro Custom 11 is the smaller sibling of the Cuisinart Custom 14: the same squat shape, the same lever controls and the same idea that a food processor should need no manual. America's Test Kitchen made it its Best Buy in the August 2026 update of its food processor review, and Consumer Reports lists it among its recommended full-size models in its March 2026 ratings.

It suits a household of one to three people that uses a food processor for pesto, hummus, vinaigrettes, aioli, pie crust, bread crumbs and slicing a few potatoes or cucumbers on a weeknight. ATK advises most home cooks to buy at least 11 cups of capacity, and this is the smallest machine on our list that meets that line, so it is not a compromise model for the jobs most people actually do.

Skip it if you regularly make large batches of coleslaw, soup or double pizza dough, or if you want to set the slice thickness yourself. The Custom 14 and the Breville Sous Chef 16 are built for those.

The blade position is the detail that separates it from its bigger sibling. ATK found that the Pro Custom 11's S-blade sits low enough in the bowl to catch the egg yolks in a single batch of mayonnaise, and the emulsion came together. The current Custom 14 blade leaves a slightly larger gap and needed a double batch in the same test. If your food processor work leans toward small sauces, dressings and spreads, that difference matters more than three cups of capacity.

It also comes with more ways to slice. The box holds a 2 mm thin slicing disc, a 4 mm medium slicing disc and a shredding disc, according to Cuisinart's listing. The Custom 14 ships with only the 4 mm slicer. The thin disc is the one you want for scalloped potatoes, cucumber salad and cabbage for slaw. ATK also liked the flat cover, a lid with no feed tube for jobs such as pie dough or salsa where nothing is added mid-run. With no tube there is less to wash.

Performance in independent tests is strong where it counts. ATK reports that it aced its chopping, slicing and shredding tests. Consumer Reports gives it excellent scores for slicing and shredding and very good scores for chopping. The controls are levers with one speed plus pulse, according to Consumer Reports, which is all a processor needs when the blade is doing its job.

The body is manageable. ATK weighed the base at 10.4 pounds against 12.45 for the Custom 14, which makes a difference if the machine lives in a cabinet and comes out a few times a week. Consumer Reports lists the same warranty as the bigger model: 3 years on parts and 5 years on the motor.

Capacity is the obvious limit. ATK puts the liquid maximum at 2.25 cups, against 3 cups for the Custom 14 and 5 cups for the Breville. Pureed soups and large batches of sauce go in rounds, and anyone who shreds a whole head of cabbage at once will be emptying the bowl.

ATK also flagged a small design change: the pusher is now attached to an outer sleeve and cannot be fully removed. It still works, but food can hide where the two parts meet, so cleanup takes slightly longer.

Consumer Reports found its grating and pureeing only middling. For silky soups, nut milks and smoothies, a blender does the job better; see our best blenders list. There is no mini bowl for one garlic clove, no dough blade (ATK's view is that a good S-blade does not need one) and no adjustable disc.

A note on history: in the 2016 Cuisinart blade recall, models starting with DLC-8 were among the processors sold from July 1996 through December 2015 that received replacement blades because the riveted blades could crack. A machine bought new today falls outside those dates. If an older Pro Custom 11 is in your cupboard, check the blade and contact Cuisinart.

Against the Cuisinart Custom 14, you give up 3 cups and some motor (625 W against 720 W), and you gain a thin slicing disc, a flat cover, a lighter base and a blade that handles small emulsions. Pick the 14 for families and batch prep, the 11 for smaller households and sauce work.

The Hamilton Beach 70733 is the budget alternative at 10 cups. It purees well in TechGearLab's tests but is far louder, leaks with liquids and has one fixed disc and a 1-year warranty. The Breville Sous Chef 16 adds a mini bowl and a 24-setting slicer in a much larger machine. All four are compared on our best food processors list.

The Pro Custom 11 is the right food processor for smaller households: simple levers, excellent slicing and shredding in two independent test programs, two slicing thicknesses and a blade that works on small batches. Its limits are batch size, a pusher that is fiddlier to clean than before and middling pureeing. If you cook for four or more, step up to the Custom 14.