KitchenAid Mixer Attachments

[Patapsco Mike]

I've probably put 300 lbs of venison through my meat grinder attachment. It is a real workhorse and has never given me a bit of trouble.

I have the slicer/shredder too, but only used it once. It's just too much of a PITA to get it all rigged up unless you can keep the KA on your counter at all times.

[DMS]

I have the meat grinder and sausage stuffer. I echo the comments above. To me KA stand mixers and 99% about the mixer and 1% about the attachments. As a side note, has anyone tried this?

http://www.sideswipeblade.com/index.html

Dennis

[markabauman]

I have the pasta roller/cutters. After thirty years of hand-cranking pasta (happily), this hass made life and pasta making so much easier- I tend to make it more now and it's especially good if you're making a quantity.

Meat grinder is good; pasta extruder not good.

Have gotten the ice-cream maker this year. Have only made sorbets so far, not ice cream yet. So far, it works great.

[scubadoo97]

I have the meat grinder and sausage stuffer. I echo the comments above. To me KA stand mixers and 99% about the mixer and 1% about the attachments. As a side note, has anyone tried this?

http://www.sideswipeblade.com/index.html

Dennis

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Looks promising. I would get one but not available on the KA lift models at this time.

[Lindacakes]

??? It says they have them for KA 6 quart lift.

Looks promising.

There was a thread a while back on the KA site about a five quart bowl for the 6 quart mixer, supposed to alleviate some of the problems with the side scraping.

[scubadoo97]

???  It says they have them for KA 6 quart lift. 

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Soon to be available in 2008. Coming soon.

[KitchenQueen]

That Sideswipe looks interesting. Verry interesting. I feel a purchase coming on.

But has anyone invented something to push down the kneading dough that's crawled up to the top of the Kitchenaid dough hook?

Does any wannabe inventor have any idea what an insane figure I'd pay for something that really worked?

[Priscilla]

I was always amused by the silver polisher that used to appear in the grid of little photos in older KA informational enclosures. Indeed, it's a motor hub, that spins: Why no grinder while we're at it? Or it could power the revolving gel illuminating an Alcoa aluminum Christmas tree?

However: Just got the KA pasta roller attachment. Why o why did it take me so long?

All sentimental reasons -- my old Atlas has been a good friend since the mid-'80s, its motor attachment nearly as long, which, while amusingly/annoyingly/alarmingly jury-rigged and wiggly, not to mention infernally LOUD, did help the job get done. It was not a night-and-day difference, only an incremental improvement.

I'd even found, at some point between 1985 or so and this week, the ravioli attachment new and unused in its box while thrift shopping, and while I did not like the coarse ravioli it marched out in rows and returned immediately to my usual handmade ones, it seemed the Atlas was drawing to itself a little family of discrete, losable, breakable, well-meant but ill-designed parts, an island of misfit toys in my pantry. Sometimes we have to just let things happen.

And sometimes through the Cloud of Unknowing we order the g.d. KA pasta roller attachment.

[paulraphael]

Another vote for the meat grinder. I have the biggest 6qt mixer and it doesn't strain at all with partially frozen meat. After few pounds the motor is just slightly warm.

I did opt for a vintage Hobart meat grinder attachment. They're all cast metal. The newer KA ones are plastic and have a reputation for developing cracks (though aparently they keep working when cracked). The new ones have the advantage of going in the dishwasher. And costing a lot less than the old ones (always a feeding frenzy on ebay).

[Chris Amirault]

Another vote for the pasta roller. One nice feature is that the height enables you to seal the pasta you're rolling into one continuous loop. That way you only have to feed it through once, stop it half-way, seal one end to the other, and guide the loop through ever-thinner widths. Once you've gotten where you want to go, you cut it off and feed it through the cutter.

As has been mentioned up topic, the meat grinder is good for basic use but needs maintenance and careful cleaning. It also produces only good definition at best -- not a big deal if you're making hamburgers from chuck but a big deal if you want your dry-cured sausage to avoid fat smear.

And I'll fourteenth the criticism of the stuffer, which is terrible.

[Priscilla]

Chris, I'm going to try that loop method.

Even though I was so late to the party on the pasta roller, I've used the meat grinder attachment for years. Sharpening the blade helps definition a little, after long use.

Also the grain mill which I used a lot at one time. Strained the machine a bit, esp. when grinding corn.

[_john]

I am thinking about buying the pasta extruder and the grain mill.

Does anyone know if the grain mill can be used to grind wet corn for tortillas?

[thampik]

I am thinking of buying the grinder attachment and understand that it comes with "coarse and fine stainless steel grinding plates". What sizes are these plates? (I am hoping the answer is 3mm and 8mm - so that I can try Heston's hamburger recipe ).

[MSRadell]

If anybody is looking for coarser plates for the grinder here's a source: KitchenAid Plates the same vendor also has individual plates of different sizes. The coarser plates are great for grinding meat for chili etc.

[David A. Goldfarb]

An interesting attachment, if you can find one and would rather not devote counter space to a food processor, is the DVSA, which is a disk slicer/shredder that uses food processor disks (and has similar safety interlocks to a food processor). They made it briefly, and then discontinued it, perhaps because it competed with their food processors that used the same disks. It cuts more precisely than the cylindrical rotary shredder/slicer, though the rotary attachment works better for some things like shredding cheese. I bought mine as a clearance item on the KitchenAid site, but that was a few years ago.

Edited January 9, 2012 by David A. Goldfarb (log)

[jmolinari]

I am thinking of buying the grinder attachment and understand that it comes with "coarse and fine stainless steel grinding plates". What sizes are these plates? (I am hoping the answer is 3mm and 8mm - so that I can try Heston's hamburger recipe ).

The dies from the KA grinder are 3/16 and 1/4"

[thampik]

Thanks jmolinari - shame, not quite what I need.

[AlaMoi]

off topic abit . . .

I'm okay with grating a couple T of cheese for 'it goes on the pasta, Silly!' but casserole type dishes needing fractions/cups . . .

nah, limited enthusiasm there . . . 

 

so I got a new 'old-stock' grating attachment for the lift bowl KA mixer. 

(the old style has conical grating inserts - the 'new' style has cylindrical grating inserts)

 

the nit with the new style is the gratings do not "auto-exit" - one has to provide some assistance to get the cylinder to clean out in a tidy continuous fashion....  otoh.... the new versions, especially non KA brand, are all stainless steel, no plastics, etc.

so, it's a toss up.

 

but a KA grater / slicer is like "dude - this is rad!" over a box grater for larger qtys.