Sorry gents, I posted this on another shave forum, but I'm really stoked about being back in the "making our own bread and pizza" mode. I just had to share this here as well.
A few months ago we were given an essentially 3 year old Kitchen Aid stand mixer. OK, it was older than that, but for most of the time it was just an ornament in the kitchen of the owner. She actually used it for just 2-3 years at most before it was given to us. We used it for bread and pizza dough for 2-3 months and it pooped itself. Typical of KA, it was the worm gear. Got that fixed and more, but clearly it isn't going to do the job for us. So began the search for a new mixer that would stand up to the use we put a mixer to.
OK gents the hammer dropped on the new mixer today.
First, it works nothing like the KA planetary gear motion. It takes awhile for one to wrap ones head around it. The bowl spins and the mixing action happens because of that motion.
In my researching, videoing, digging, and whatnot, and I put many hours into this, I almost dropped the hammer on a KA Pro600, but more digging showed present owners of other machines who previously had P600s and traded them for their new machines because the P600s just couldn't hack heavy duty use either. I don't want similar problems with a new machine. I'm trying to make my life easier, not continue the aggravation. Kitchen Aid disqualified itself; what a shame, I really would have preferred to buy American, but I won't buy American and shoot myself in the foot. KA needs to get their act together.
I looked at commercial planetary gear mixers, but they were just far too industrial and I require a meat grinder and don't want an additional machine for every use. I looked at Kenmore and the Bosch MUM, but near as I can figure they're just in Australia and maybe Europe. My search then centered on the Bosch Universal and the Ankarsrum (sp?). The Bosch fell by the wayside because of problems with the beaters, they're plastic and break, but the machine had no reported problems with bread. If I only used it for bread I would have bought it and saved some $. That left the Ankarsrum. No reported problems, they had all the attachments I want (or may want) and it's also reported to have low current draw. That's important when we're switched onto solar (PV) power. I dropped the hammer on one of them. I shopped around and found a discontinued model at Bread Beckers. A discontinued model is not as bad as it sounds. It's the current model with everything included, but it has the old name "Assistent" on the bowl and not Ankarsrum; I'll just be forced to live with the shame of it. Too, the colors were restricted to just a few. Our first choice was sold out, our second choice was ours. That saved $50, plus the folks I ordered from have free shipping. That saved ~$35.
I haven't ordered the meat grinder yet, but that will happen soon.
I just hope the learning curve is short since the operation is completely unlike any mixer I've used in the past.
Dropping the hammer on the new mixer happened just in time since I took the last loaf of homemade bread out of the freezer a few days ago and we're about going into homemade pizza withdrawal. I've had plenty of pizzeria pizza in the last few weeks; too much. I want my pizza with my own homemade hot sauage on it!
The only consideration for the meat grinder may be that the sausage stuffer may not be able to handle hot dog casings. I may need to find a narrower one to fit. I'll also need to get 2 more plates of the right grind size. No big deal.
FWIW, other names this mixer has gone by over the years... Electrolux Assistent, Verona, Magic Mill. There are plenty of youtube videos if one is interested.
A few months ago we were given an essentially 3 year old Kitchen Aid stand mixer. OK, it was older than that, but for most of the time it was just an ornament in the kitchen of the owner. She actually used it for just 2-3 years at most before it was given to us. We used it for bread and pizza dough for 2-3 months and it pooped itself. Typical of KA, it was the worm gear. Got that fixed and more, but clearly it isn't going to do the job for us. So began the search for a new mixer that would stand up to the use we put a mixer to.
OK gents the hammer dropped on the new mixer today.
First, it works nothing like the KA planetary gear motion. It takes awhile for one to wrap ones head around it. The bowl spins and the mixing action happens because of that motion.
In my researching, videoing, digging, and whatnot, and I put many hours into this, I almost dropped the hammer on a KA Pro600, but more digging showed present owners of other machines who previously had P600s and traded them for their new machines because the P600s just couldn't hack heavy duty use either. I don't want similar problems with a new machine. I'm trying to make my life easier, not continue the aggravation. Kitchen Aid disqualified itself; what a shame, I really would have preferred to buy American, but I won't buy American and shoot myself in the foot. KA needs to get their act together.
I looked at commercial planetary gear mixers, but they were just far too industrial and I require a meat grinder and don't want an additional machine for every use. I looked at Kenmore and the Bosch MUM, but near as I can figure they're just in Australia and maybe Europe. My search then centered on the Bosch Universal and the Ankarsrum (sp?). The Bosch fell by the wayside because of problems with the beaters, they're plastic and break, but the machine had no reported problems with bread. If I only used it for bread I would have bought it and saved some $. That left the Ankarsrum. No reported problems, they had all the attachments I want (or may want) and it's also reported to have low current draw. That's important when we're switched onto solar (PV) power. I dropped the hammer on one of them. I shopped around and found a discontinued model at Bread Beckers. A discontinued model is not as bad as it sounds. It's the current model with everything included, but it has the old name "Assistent" on the bowl and not Ankarsrum; I'll just be forced to live with the shame of it. Too, the colors were restricted to just a few. Our first choice was sold out, our second choice was ours. That saved $50, plus the folks I ordered from have free shipping. That saved ~$35.
I haven't ordered the meat grinder yet, but that will happen soon.
I just hope the learning curve is short since the operation is completely unlike any mixer I've used in the past.
Dropping the hammer on the new mixer happened just in time since I took the last loaf of homemade bread out of the freezer a few days ago and we're about going into homemade pizza withdrawal. I've had plenty of pizzeria pizza in the last few weeks; too much. I want my pizza with my own homemade hot sauage on it!
The only consideration for the meat grinder may be that the sausage stuffer may not be able to handle hot dog casings. I may need to find a narrower one to fit. I'll also need to get 2 more plates of the right grind size. No big deal.
FWIW, other names this mixer has gone by over the years... Electrolux Assistent, Verona, Magic Mill. There are plenty of youtube videos if one is interested.