The only time I have problems with mine overheating is when I make a particular bread recipe that is just at the top level of the machines capacity and needs to be kneaded for 10 mins. The combination of those two facts leads to a few moments of quiet desperation and occasional requirements for me to knead by hand shock, horror. In general pay attention to the rated capacity and you’re fine. I should have bought one level higher (or I should learn to split this recipe in half)
Almost forgot attachements - the slicer/shredder attachments means my family no longer has to listen to me whine when they request coleslaw or latkes. They have to wash the attachment but that’s way less onerous than listening to the whining I promise.
Oh, we did that. That’s pretty much a must for any kind of sausage making, as otherwise the fat and sinew binds up on you and the meat turns into a terrible mush.
Yeah, that’s happened to me, too. Or maybe I had the blade the wrong way around. As soon as you see the meat looking more likes its being squeezed out like toothpaste (and even curling upwards) rather than cleanly coming out in distinct chunks of meat and fat, you know something is wrong. I’ve tried ignoring this before and just forcing the meat through, and you get really mealy sausage with terrible texture. I try to get my meat half frozen before grinding, and also freezing the grinding attachments. The key to good sausage is not the spicing. It’s getting this basic down. Once the fat starts melting and gumming up the works, you’re hosed.
Ours is still on the shelf at Williams-Sonoma, where it’s remained for about twenty years, waiting for a really compelling reason to put a large, heavy, awkward and expensive piece of equipment in the kitchen because it’s a faddish noncessity.
Understand, in that twenty years I cooked for a family of eight, ramped up my interest and abilities to ever-aspiring chef, and my wife bakes something at least twice a week. So we’re not a microwave mini-kitchen sort of family… and we’ve never found the need for a heavy stand mixer.
You don’t need it, but it does help a lot with kneading. I’d rather throw the dough hook on and let the mixer do the work. We just keep ours in the basement and bring up as necessary. Now, I did get it as a gift, but it’s been a great one.
I mean, I cooked for years without a food processor, without a blender, without a microwave, without even a good cutting board or good knives. I had an oven with two settings: I and II. No cast iron pans, just shitty thin-bottomed ones. And, yeah, I figured out how to cook well within this set of limitations. But I like having all the above things–they make my life easier.
I’d use mine more often if there was space to keep it out ready to use. But usually it’s put away and only comes out for some serious usage. If I had the space I’d go get a commercial floor stand model. But even then I don’t bake that often, and it would get limited use.
Non-sequitur, if not actually contradictory. But a common one.
Like a lot of cooks growing into small-c chefs, I’ve had and long since discarded most kitchen “conveniences” as far more trouble than they are worth. They let amateurs and non-cooks make a big production of small things, and feed the notion that every task must have a machine to make it better, faster and easier.
It doesn’t take much experience or acquired skill to learn that good knives - as few as two - and a good cutting/work surface (a butcher-block island, if you have room) with no fixtures or junk on it replace about 75% of “conveniences.” Even kneading and rolling are easier if you’re not trying to do it on a narrow kitchen counter with appliances crowding your workspace.
But as cooking is somewhere between a dying art and a hobby - something people do once a week, as a studied avocation - I guess more toys make up for actually acquiring skill at the trade.
I know, right? If you’re cooking with anything more than one good knife, a mortar and pestle, and a single pot, you must at heart be an acquisitive bastard and a poseur.
Anyway. We’ve had a KSM90 since 1992, and it’s been a workhorse.
I’m really happy that works for you and I wouldn’t presume to judge someone who chooses to not buy a product as a luddite but for some of us the tools make cooking more of a pleasure than a chore.
Hmm, I could try to emulate SDMB poster NitroPress, apparently a fabulous “small-c chef,” or that no-talent hack Julia Child. Hmmm, I’ll have to think about this one.
I don’t get your point, Nitro. I have few unnecessary toys. I know how to knead do. I don’t like it, and the Kitchen Aid makes life easier. That’s it. It’s not a necessity–it’s a convenience.
I am most definitely an amateur. Loved having my stand mixer this Christmas when I had to make 10 dozen raspberry linzer cookies for a cookie exchange. Creaming the sugar and the butter was a joy and not a chore! It was better, faster and easier. Could I have done it by hand? Sure. Could I change my own car oil? Sure. Do I? No!
I have a 5-qt. bowl-lift model in Empire Red, and I consider it more a member of the family than a fad. I don’t even feel defensive enough about it to get indignant at snobby small-c chefs who sniff at me for having it!
My mixer gets used most for bread-baking, since kneading hurts my hands more and more as I get older and more arthritic. It helps a lot with any really stiff dough. My mother-in-law always used hers for making malts, so sometimes I’ll do that too. It’s far easier than using a blender, and the motor doesn’t strain or heat the mixture. I keep it out in a corner of the counter and pull it forward to use it, so the weight and size don’t hinder me. Sometimes we’ll chat while I make coffee in the mornings.
As for attachments, I have a pasta roller, but it’s somewhat difficult to clean and I don’t pull it out all that often. I’ve often wished I had a second bowl when I’m in the middle of a big baking session, but I don’t do that often enough to find storage space for it. I’d suggest using the mixer for a while before before you think about getting any attachments.
Use it everyday. 5 qt model. I don’t touch wet things – slightly OCD for a good home cook – so anything that needs mixing gets put in the KA. Corn bread. Wet beans. And rice.
I am on my second. I wore out my first one after 15 years. The second one is red, which wasn’t available in the 6 qt size when I got my first. I love the red. I find that there are a few things that will heat up the motor but you have to be careful. Don’t set the mixer on too high a setting for the work you are doing. It’s easy to wear it out if you push the speed over what is good for what you are working with. Don’t knead above 2 for example. Anything that will take awhile should be done probably at 4 and under (depending on the thickness of the batter/dough). Set your hand on the top of the machine after five minutes. If it’s warm, turn it down a couple of notches.
I lived without a stand mixer for about 2 years. It’s possible to cook without one, but it’s not fun and cookies are a pain in the butt without a mixer to do it for you.
Or maybe I had the blade the wrong way around. As soon as you see the meat looking more likes its being squeezed out like toothpaste (and even curling upwards) rather than cleanly coming out in distinct chunks of meat and fat, you know something is wrong. I’ve tried ignoring this before and just forcing the meat through, and you get really mealy sausage with terrible texture. I try to get my meat half frozen before grinding, and also freezing the grinding attachments. The key to good sausage is not the spicing. It’s getting this basic down. Once the fat starts melting and gumming up the works, you’re hosed.