Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I think Amy gave you some very good advice - if you've llived this long wthout one, you probably don't need one.

However, they do make life easier and they do some amazing things in a very short time.
fitzie

*snicker*


For ONCE, I'm not being the enabler.

Amy

I question whether anyone actually NEEDS one, but esp a home cook with low volume.
The attachments are worth considering, and I have looked that direction.
It's the only thing that makes me reconsider.


You use yours mostly when the volume is there. That's what I'm talking about!
I have no problem creaming butter and sugar with the hand held. It goes pretty fast since I prep my sugar in the food processor first. Actually, it's kind of therapeutic, well - I find cooking in general is therapeutic, but then again so is washing the car. Yea, I'm weird.


I'm not in denial,
I'm not in denial,
I'm not in denial . . .
Really, I am interested, otherwise I would not have posted the question. You bring up another point that I've been looking at myself about: The EGO of having another toy. But ego is a poor reason to justify getting an overgrown potato ricer. Yes, . . . I'm aware of the audience, and I fully anticipate 90% of you will encourage getting a stand mixer for several reasons.

One of those reasons may be very difficult for you to admit.



Point is well taken, however my favorite cookbook was handed down to me from my parents; first published in 1901. It doesn't mention stand mixers at all.

Cost is not an issue, although I will try to save a buck as well as the next guy. I have shopped a little, and I find there are great deals out there; the best so far is the KA 600 series 575 watt, two mixing bowls, a plastic shield for $270 total. It doesn't need to be a KA either, especially since their patent ran out. The industry is full of competitive products of a similar format for much less (Wolfgang Puck as example). It can be the duo beaters with revolving bowl (which I kind of like because it's easier to distribute ingredients)

I am surprised at the number of people who won't let anyone borrow their KA mixer.

You shouldn't be...KA's break surprisingly easily. I long for a Hobart (which I use exclusively at work), but until I can fork out those kind of $$s, I'll have to stick with my KA.

Amy

oh.

Well, there's another reason to stay away.

If my memory serves, there are at least three serial mixer murderers here who are responsible for the premature death of as many as seven KitchenAid mixers. Yes, it does happen, but I do not believe that it happens to KA mixers with greater frequency than other brands or that it happens to KA mixers under less load than would kill the competition.

I do know that repairing any mixer other than KA requires dealing with a single national repair facility and paying for transportation even if the unit is under warranty. Parts for KA mixers are available and inexpensive if one is inclined to do the repairs and a national network of authorized repair stations still exists even though they are not not as numerous as they once were. KA may still be the best value and best choice out there.

I have a Viking Stand Mixer that I bought from an authorized Viking Appliance repair shop. They are also an authorized Kitchen Aid Appliance repair shop. The man who sold me my Viking said it is very well built and I will probably never have to have it repaired. He then took me into the back of his shop and showed me rows and rows of KA stand mixers that were waiting to be repaired. Not all stand mixers are the same.

Well, even though I essentially have the same mixer as the Viking (I'm one of the KA serial killers), in KA's defence they outsell Viking/Cusinart/etc by many orders of magnitude, so absolute volume at the repair shop is not indicative of their reliability, just their popularity.

True. I'm just going by what the man who repairs the machines said about the Vikings quality.

Hey, I resemble that remark!

Yes, I've broken at least two KA's...oh wait, I broke the same KA twice, but it wasn't my fault. I swear!

Amy