KitchenAid Mixer Attachments

[tedwin]

Does anyone have experience with this Kitchenaid attachment?

http://beryls.safeshopper.com/231/7911.htm?407

It's awfully pricey. I'm curious as to whether it would give me a smooth coating of tempered chocolated on candied almonds.

[tan319]

Does anyone have experience with this Kitchenaid attachment?

http://beryls.safeshopper.com/231/7911.htm?407

It's awfully pricey.  I'm curious as to whether it would give me a smooth coating of tempered chocolated on candied almonds.

DAMN!!!

Does that attachment temper?

[Jason Perlow]

Holy Snikeys.

[Michael Laiskonis]

This type of rotating bowl is used in a variety of mass market candy production. I've seen this smaller kind of attachment available through PCB Creation in France, as well.

I make the chocolate coated almonds, followed by a coating of confectioner's sugar, using untempered melted chocolate stirred into the nuts, the bowl of which is set into an ice water bath. It's quite simple, though hard on the stirring arm and somewhat time-critical. I would guess with this attachment, you would need to start with chocolate in temper. I could find other tools that I'd rather spend my money on, but it is kinda cool nonetheless.

Edited April 12, 2003 by Michael Laiskonis (log)

[elyse]

Yes, but can you get the smoothness, even coating, or shine by hand?

[tan319]

This type of rotating bowl is used in a variety of mass market candy production. I've seen this smaller kind of attachment available through PCB Creation in France, as well.

I make the chocolate coated almonds, followed by a coating of confectioner's sugar, using untempered melted chocolate stirred into the nuts, the bowl of which is set into an ice water bath. It's quite simple, though hard on the stirring arm and somewhat time-critical. I would guess with this attachment, you would need to start with chocolate in temper. I could find other tools that I'd rather spend my money on, but it is kinda cool nonetheless.

at 445$ or close, do you think for a little more money there is a small chocolate temperer on the market that is worthwhile?

I think that I've seen them advertised in the back pages of PA&D or Chocolatier, perhaps.

Thought's on this?

[Peter B Wolf]

http://beryls.safeshopper.com/231/7911.htm?407

This works great (on week-ends), combining very fine white beach sand, Portland cement and water for a proper concrete mixture to set fenceposts around doll houses.

[tchorst]

I've been using one of these for a little while now. Before I was using the bowl and wooden spoon method, and it is very tiring.

It's primary function is not to temper, but to coat. You can use all sorts of nuts, and dried fruits etc. in it. I go through about 20 pounds of nuts in a week at my store, so it paid off for me. If it's for casual use, I'd stick to the hand method.

If you're looking for a table top temperer, check out:

ACMC

chocovision

HTH,

Tim

[tan319]

I've been using one of these for a little while now. Before I was using the bowl and wooden spoon method, and it is very tiring.

It's primary function is not to temper, but to coat. You can use all sorts of nuts, and dried fruits etc. in it. I go through about 20 pounds of nuts in a week at my store, so it paid off for me. If it's for casual use, I'd stick to the hand method.

If you're looking for a table top temperer, check out:

ACMC

chocovision

HTH,

Tim

Thanks for the temper machine links.

Very cool!

[tedwin]

I've been using one of these for a little while now. Before I was using the bowl and wooden spoon method, and it is very tiring.

And do you achieve a significantly smoother coating with the tumbler than you do with the wooden spoon method?

[tchorst]

And do you achieve a significantly smoother coating with the tumbler than you do with the wooden spoon method?

Well, it comes out very evenly. But only slightly more than I encountered in the by-hand method. What it does mostly is allows me to do other things while it's working. It can also produce a little more than I could by hand. I go through 20 - 30 pounds in a week, so the more time I can free up the better.

[Lindacakes]

I've searched for this topic, and I see lots of topics on Which Stand Mixer Should I Buy? and individual threads where attachments would be recommended, such as pasta making.

But I'd like to know from the panoply of available KitchenAid attachments, which ones are fabulous and which ones are crap?

It's that time of year when KitchenAid has a sale on attachments, and I'm thinking of buying the juicer. Is it good? Does it truly do key limes up to grapefruit efficiently? Does it really strain the juice? Do blops of pulp fall off that shelf thingy into your juice receptacle? Does the plastique hold up? Most importantly, do the physics of that thing work? Why doesn't juice fly onto the Venetian blinds, or does it?

I have the pasta rollers and cutters for linquine, spaghetti, etc. and I love them. I first used them to make cannoli. I have read that the extruders are not good.

I am aware that many people love their meat grinders.

Help me spend my money!

[milgwimper]

I can't help you on the juicer as I don't have it, but I do have the food mill, meat grinder, and the salad shooter like thing. I haven't used the salad shooter thing, but I don't have a 220v mixer yet to try it out. I love the food strainer. When I had a mixer I used it a lot to strain out berry seeds, and tomato seeds/skins to get ready for canning. Made it so much easier than trying to sieve it by hand. Now I love the meat grinder too but the only problem I have with the meat and food grinder is the small opening to shove it fruit or meat through. It can be a pain when you have a lot of fruit or meat to get through, but it works great. I also had a little attachment for the sausage stuffing and that worked great. Hand stuffing was too much work.

Man I babble.

[JimH]

I have the food grinder, which includes the pasta extruder, I also have the sausage stuffer. Take a pass on the sausage stuffer attachment as it does a pitiful job. The food grinder works well enough but you have to keep the blade & die sharpened. Once they start to get dull, it turns meat into mush. The pasta extruder works well but I bought a pasta machine anyway. I understand that they now have a pasta machine attachment.

Edited: Poor grammar

Edited December 17, 2007 by JimH (log)

[Marlene]

I got the pasta roller and the ravioli maker as Christmas gifts yesterday. I'm looking forward to trying to make fresh pasta.

[nibor]

I use the meat grinder to make duck pate. Works great. I don't find the size of the input opening a problem - the duck parts are pretty small to begin with.

[MSRadell]

I'll have to agree that the meat grinder is great, one of the best and it's also the one I use most. Unless you're going to do a lot of sausage and stuffing attachment works fine and it's certainly better than stuffing by hand.

I've got the juicer and don't particularly like it. I think it's kind of slow and really not that much better than hand squeezing in my opinion.

Has anybody tried the ice cream freezer? It looks like it might work pretty good for a small batch of sorbet or some other small quantity to be used for a palette cleansing course!

[fiftydollars]

I also have the juicer and I have not often used it. Ranking attachments by what is most frequently employed in my kitchen the pasta roller and food grinder are at the top of the list while the juicer is way down there with the pasta extruder* and the sausage stuffer* (just because I'm not making much cased sausage lately).

To answer the questions specifically posed about the juicer:

-Wouldn't say good... maybe so, so.

-Somewhat.

-Sure.

-Yes.

-Quite nicely.

-They work.

-It's meant to be used on a slow speed. If you, knowing that you likely have to hold the fruit in your hand, are willing to brave top speed, something might hit the blinds.

*I'm editing to clarify that both of these are actually sub-attachments to the food grinder. I mostly use the food grinder for grinding meat and I use it alot. Ever since Mark Bittman showed me the way to the 6oz. fresh ground burger, I've been quite fond of them.... speaking of which...

Edited December 18, 2007 by fiftydollars (log)

[scubadoo97]

I can only comment on the meat grinder. I used it for several years. I switched to a dedicated meat grinder since the motor on my KA was straining when grinding partially frozen meat cubes. My KA mixer is from the early 80s when the average out put was like 300 watts. The meat grinder is very good.

[pax]

The only attachement I have is the slicer/shredder and I use it all the time.

I've been secretly lusting after the pasta rollers and cutters, I'mwondering if I should go KA attachments or some other machine entirely. I'd rather go KA if possible. Any thoughts?

(I hope it's ok to hijack a little, if this is bad please tell me and I'll edit it out and go write my own thread, it's just I get notices all the time about my stuff being combined with other threads so I am a little about the right thing to do. Thanks for your patience.)

[Grovite]

I like the meat grinder, but the juicer and the slicer/shredder are "meh" to me.

Has anybody tried the ice cream freezer?  It looks like it might work pretty good for a small batch of sorbet or some other small quantity to be used for a palette cleansing course!

←

I dig the freezer attachment, more than the little Cuis ice cream maker I was given. Easy to set up and easy to clean and the results are great.

[Lindacakes]

Pax, definitely go for the pasta rollers. This is one of the reasons why I bought a Kitchen Aid in the first place. I've read extensively in the pasta threads about pasta machines.

It is easier to use a pasta machine with a motor. Hand cranking gets in the way of being able to control the passage of dough through the machine, not to mention catching luxuriant yards of pasta on the other side. The motor on a KitchenAid is strong and smooth and better than the motors on pasta makers.

The height of a KitchenAid is perfect for catching the pasta, in my opinion.

The roller has settings so that you gradually roll the pasta thinner and thinner. You can stop anywhere in between, so you can control how thick the pasta is. I have the linguini/spaghetti cutters and I love them.

I have read that folks are not so happy with the extruders, but someone above here does like them. If you only get the roller and the long noodle cutters you can make lasagna, ravioli, spaghetti, fettucine, tagliatelle, not to mention all the hand cut types you can end up with, also.

The juicer doesn't sound so great, I suppose I'll just keep my grandma's Fire King juicer.

I don't have the ice cream bowl, I would if I didn't already have a Krups. If you are toying with the idea of making your own ice cream, stop it. Just run out and get just about any ice cream maker for fifty bucks and David Lebovitz's book (there's a whole thread for it). You'll be making divine ice cream and never, ever go back to the store bought version. You won't be able to eat the store bought version.

[Andrew Fenton]

It's that time of year when KitchenAid has a sale on attachments, and I'm thinking of buying the juicer.  Is it good?  Does it truly do key limes up to grapefruit efficiently?  Does it really strain the juice?  Do blops of pulp fall off that shelf thingy into your juice receptacle?  Does the plastique hold up?  Most importantly, do the physics of that thing work?  Why doesn't juice fly onto the Venetian blinds, or does it?

I have the juicer: the best thing I can say about it is that, if you have a KA already, the juicer takes up a lot less space than a stand-alone juicer would. That's important if (as I do) you have a small kitchen. But other than that, the KA juicer isn't that great. It does handle different-sized fruits, which is a plus. But the pulp strainer is small and kind of flimsy, and the angle is a little uncomfortable. If you make a lot of juice, and/or you have the space for a juicer, I'd just buy one.

But the juicer is the weakest of the attachments that I own. I'll share in the love for the pasta roller: a motor is a HUGE help, as is the height. And I've been very happy with the meat grinder/sausage stuffer, and use them both frequently.

[fiftydollars]

...The height of a KitchenAid is perfect for catching the pasta, in my opinion...

←

That's an excellent point about the roller. The height makes it easy to use and you can make pasta using a pretty small amount of counter space. All I need is room for the mixer and a rack instead of having to clear out a large amount of counter and cover it with flour.

[nibor]

My KA is a couple of years old. I don't know it's horsepower, or whatever. But it doesn't strain a bit when I use the meat grinder, even if the meat is frozen. I am afraid of it!