How do you minimize splatter when using an immersion blender?

Keep the blade under the surface from the first second to the last

You minimize splatter with an immersion blender by keeping the blade head fully submerged before you press the button and until after you release it, blending in a tall, narrow container with the liquid well above the blade guard, and starting on the lowest speed. One of the five hand blenders in our immersion blender guide prints that exact sequence on its listing: the KOIOS tells you to always keep the blade submerged, use a narrow deep container, start on low speed, and turn the blender off before lifting it from the liquid.

Almost every splatter comes from one of two moments. The first is the instant the motor starts with the blade at or near the surface, so the blades fling liquid instead of pulling it down. The second is the instant the running head breaks the surface, either because you lifted it to check progress or because the liquid level dropped as foam collapsed. Fix those two moments and the rest is detail. Lower the head, tilt it slightly so the air trapped under the bell escapes as a bubble, settle it flat, and only then press the button. Release the button, wait for the blade to stop, then lift.

Use a tall, narrow container and fill it past the blade guard

A wide, shallow pan is the worst place to use a stick blender, because the liquid cannot be deep over the blade without being enormous in volume. A tall, narrow container puts the same quantity of food high up the shaft, so the blades work under a column of liquid and whatever they throw hits the wall of the cup rather than the kitchen. Four of the five picks in our guide ship a container built for this. The Ninja includes a 4-cup blending vessel with a lid, the KitchenAid a 3-cup BPA-free blending jar with a lid, the Cuisinart a 2-cup mixing and measuring cup, and the KOIOS a 600ml mixing beaker. The Braun’s listing describes its chopping, whisking and mashing attachments but does not list a beaker among them.

Fill the container so the liquid sits comfortably above the top of the blade guard, but leave room at the top, because blending a thick puree pulls air in and raises the level. If you are blending a small amount, pick the narrowest vessel that fits the head: the KOIOS maker says its shaft fits most pots, Mason jars and wide-mouth cups, and a wide-mouth jar is a very good splatter cage for a single serving of dressing or a batch of mayonnaise.

No maker on our guide publishes a minimum liquid depth, so the working rule is yours to judge: if you can see the top of the blade guard through the liquid, the liquid is too shallow.

Start slow and let the speed control do the work

All five picks give you control over speed, and the lowest setting is the splatter setting. The Ninja publishes 4 speeds. The KOIOS publishes 12 speeds plus a turbo boost and tells you to start low. The KitchenAid uses a variable speed trigger, the Cuisinart a variable speed slide control that moves from low to high, and the Braun has no predefined speeds at all; its Easy SmartSpeed button gives you a coarse, gentle blend when you push lightly and more power the harder you press. Whichever design you have, begin at the bottom of the range with the head on the floor of the container, let the liquid start to circulate, and only then raise the speed.

Suction is the other half of the speed story. A running head pulls itself against the bottom of a pot, and when you move it the seal breaks and a gulp of air comes up through the blades, which is exactly when soup lands on the stove. The Braun’s maker addresses this directly: its SPLASHcontrol technology is described as preventing splashing, and the maker says the MQ7 has 25 percent less suction than its own MQ500, for easier handling and control. On any blender, keep the head moving slowly and steadily rather than lifting and dropping it, and tilt rather than yank when it grips the pot.

What a pan guard and an anti-splash shaft actually do

Two of the five picks describe a pan guard, and two describe an anti-splash feature by name. The Ninja’s 9 inch stainless steel blending arm has a built-in pan guard, which the maker says lets you blend directly in deep pots and pans, and the KitchenAid’s removable 8 inch blending arm comes with a US patented removable pan guard to protect your cookware. A pan guard is a ring or skirt around the bell. Its first job is to keep the blade from scraping a nonstick coating, but it also holds the bell a little off the pot floor, which keeps the suction gentler and the air gulps smaller.

The anti-splash claims are about the bell itself. The KOIOS calls its shaft an anti-splash 304 stainless steel shaft and promises no splashing when you blend hot soup in the pot, provided you follow the submerge, narrow container, low speed and switch-off-before-lifting rules it prints alongside the claim. The Braun’s SPLASHcontrol is described above. The Cuisinart publishes an 8-inch stainless steel blending shaft and a lock and unlock button, and says nothing about splash or a pan guard, so for that one the technique has to do all the work.

The length of the arm matters more than any of these names. A 9 inch arm on the Ninja or an 8 inch arm on the KitchenAid or Cuisinart is what lets you reach the bottom of a stock pot while the motor housing stays above the rim and your hand stays out of the steam.

Blending hot soup in the pot without a scald

Hot liquid is where splatter stops being a mess and becomes a burn, so the rules tighten. Take the pot off the burner first and let the boil die completely; a liquid that is still rolling will throw itself even before the blender does. If the pot is more than two-thirds full, ladle some out. Tip the pot slightly toward you so the liquid pools deeper on one side, put the bell down into that deep side, tilt to release the trapped air, and start on low.

Work in short runs. The KOIOS maker says not to run its blender for more than 60 seconds at a stretch, and also says not to blend ice cubes or whole hard spices with it; the Ninja’s maker credits its SmartTorque technology with holding a steady speed through thick and frozen loads. In a hot pot, a run of ten or fifteen seconds, a pause to move the head, and another short run gives you a smooth soup with far less foam than one long blast. Stop the motor before you lift, every time, and rest the hot head on a plate rather than the counter.

When a lidded countertop blender is the better tool

Some jobs simply splatter less in a jar with a lid. A big batch of thin liquid, a smoothie with ice, or anything you want silky in one pass is a countertop job, and that is where our blender guide comes in. The Hamilton Beach Power Elite there publishes a 40 ounce glass jar with a lid and a pour spout on 700 watts of peak power; the Ninja TWISTi has a 34 oz pitcher with a removable drizzle cap so you can add ingredients while it runs, with the lid still on; and the Reslee publishes a 72oz double-wall 304 stainless jar whose outer wall the maker says stays cool to the touch when you blend hot soup.

An immersion blender wins the other way round: a cup of dressing, a single bowl of soup, a pot you do not want to decant while it is hot, or a sauce you want to thicken in the pan it was made in. For those jobs, the technique on this page is the whole answer. Blade under, container tall, speed low, motor off before the lift.

Cleaning is the last splatter trap. The KOIOS maker’s trick is to run the head for a few seconds in a tall cup of warm water with a drop of soap, and the word tall is doing real work in that sentence; a short cup sends soapy water up the shaft and onto you. The Ninja’s maker clears its parts for the dishwasher, the KitchenAid’s arm is listed as dishwasher safe, and the KOIOS says everything but the motor can go in.