[Sca-cooks] mixers

[KristiWhyKelly at aol.com]

I'll admit I'm a gadget junkie.  But if you have a food processor with a good 
dough attachment it works just as well as a mixer for small batches of dough. 
 If you are planning on using the mixer just for mixing and money is a 
consideration, maybe you should think about a really good hand mixer.  The cuisinart 
hand mixer that I have has a stronger motor than my girl friends low end 
KitchenAid.

I will say that I really like my KitchenAid for the big jobs and recipes that 
I will be doing large or repeated batches.  I like that my hands are free to 
do other stuff while something is being mixed and it makes adding ingredients 
much easier.  But don't bother with the smaller mixer, if you're going to 
spend the money might as well wait for the big sale at Macy's and get the big one.

Just my two cents.

Grace

In a message dated 12/11/2003 12:09:29 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
Mark.s.Harris at motorola.com writes:
Johnnae said:
>>>
I did 600 plus by myself for the Midrealm Crown feast in 2001.
That took an entire day (9 hours) with breaks. I do an assembly line.
Melted the butter in the microwave, used the kitchen aid mixer for the 
batter, and used electric irons. 
<<<<

I don't have a mixer, which would seem to definitely help when you are making 
multiple or large  batches. After comments here and watching folks use them 
(pretty much always the KitchenAid ones) to cook for feasts I'm considering 
one. But they aren't cheap and take up storage room and I don't know how much I 
will use one. The KitchenAid ones seem to come in different sizes and colors. I 
don't particularly care about the color, but do folks here find the larger 
size better than the smaller one? And what accessories do you find you really 
use with them? And which aren't worth spending the money on?

I don't know if I've ever made a cake but the bundt cakes in the recent Cooks 
Illustrated looked wonderful and it has been years since I made bread. I have 
thought about making sausages but I did buy one of the cheap stuffers and 
haven't used it yet. So I really don't know if I would make full use of a mixer, 
but perhaps I would.

I did buy a food processor after the discussions here and I do use it 
occasionally, although I'd use it more if I could figure out how to chop things 
consistantly with it, rather than simply pulverizing them or ending up with some 
pulverized, a goodly amount okay and some too big chunks.

Stefan