waking up the kitchenaid mixer thread

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you think the grinder accessory killed it? Cuse I'm chomping for one of the metal ones. but I don't stuff anything and would only use it sparingly to make my own burgers for smash burgers.
The metal grinder is great for small batches. Have used dozens of times for deer sausage.
 
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I broke my plastic KA by dropping a ice cube in as somebody advised to run the last bit of meat out, up till then I had ground hundreds of lbs of meat through it, it still works but has a crack, don't be afraid of plastic, that said I bought a off brand metal, it works well but will ck back in 20 years for a update :emoji_laughing:
 
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You won't be sorry.
Originally bought a lift bowl and wife did not like it so it went back to Costco.
We have a 30 yo tilt head that has been a work horse. Wife baked a lot of cookies for years.
I tried it for meat grinding and was not happy, but much of that was my fault by not chilling the meat enough. The plastic body cracked not from use, but from age. Poorly made in my opinion.
If I didn't have dedicated meat grinders, I would get a metal attachment.
I've made a lot of bread dough and very happy. Love the bowls with handles. Bought an extra flat paddle for the wife in her cookie making mania. Never used the whisk. Got a hand mixer for that.
There is an after market spiral dough hook that is supposed to work better than the hook, but I now do most of my bread baking in Florida when I have the time. KA stays in MN. I can knead by hand just as well.
But I have both hands John. In your situation the mixer is by far the better option.
 
you think the grinder accessory killed it? Cuse I'm chomping for one of the metal ones. but I don't stuff anything and would only use it sparingly to make my own burgers for smash burgers.
Yes. Right in the middle of a batch. I truly think that for 3-5lbs here and there, it's fine. I was grinding briskets (which have to be colder than chuck to grind right IMO) and sometimes 2 at a time. I run ~60% frozen strips though my #12 dedicated grinder, and it's given me the side eye many a time and slowed to a crawl. That's on me, not the machine. Same with the KA
 
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IT'S THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING. $250 STARTS YOU OFF WITH THE 4.5 BOWL TODAY, YOU'RE MAKING THE BEST BURGER BUNS ON THE PLANET TOMORROW, PIZZA TOO
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THEN YOU WILL COME TO REALIZE HOW EMPTY YOUR LIFE HAS BEEN DUE TO NOT MAKING YOUR OWN FRESH PASTA, NOTHING FROM THE LOCAL MARKET CAN COME CLOSE TO THE FANTASTIC FLAVOR OF FRESH MADE FETTUCINI.

View attachment 700688
THERE'S A FEW MORE ATTACHMENTS TO SPEND MONEY ON, SOME OF WHICH YOU MIGHT USE ONCE AND RETIRE. THE LITTLE LADY CAN GO CRAZY CREATING SUGARY TREATS THE WHOLE FAMILY CAN ENJOY. HOW HAVE YOU LIVED THIS LONG WITHOUT ONE? IT'S ONLY MONEY, YOU KNOW YOU WANT ONE, GET IT! RAY
I Don't bake, but mama said she'd talk a swipe at those burger buns with recipe directions
 
We have a tilt head that seems to run non-stop. I have the pasta attachment and love it. I have replaced the plastic knobs with metal ones. Also, if you start seeing a light brown residue around the shaft, it is time to get some food grade grease, disassemble it, clean it, and repack with new grease. It is available on Amazon. I had to replace the lock lever on my daughter’s unit, but it was no big deal. They really are durable units.
 
We have always just had the tilt head but the last few years thought the lift bowl would be better. I’m surprised at all the negative feedback on the lift bowl. Good to know, guess I’ll just pass and when we upgrade we will go back with the tilt head but go bigger although the 4.5q pretty much dose everything we need. KA mixers are work horses.
Well I may be the only one but I like our new lift bowl KA. The larger capacity from our old 4.5qt is nice. It makes mixing small batches of sausage much easier. Having to drop the attachment before removing the bowl is simple and easy after doing it a few times. That aggravates my wife to no end but even she will agree that it does a better job mixing her stuff. She pointed out the whisk attachment runs much closer to the bowl. But it still pisses her off lol. Change is bad I guess
 
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I had to look ours up. My mom got it for my wife some years ago. It is a Pro 500. We don't use it often but it sits on our counter ready to use. I have mostly used it with a stainless steel grinder attachment and the pasta attachment.

I bought an assortment of mixing attachments for it and my wife mixed up some dough and it worked great for that.
 
We have the tilt-head Classic. 20 years old. It's been used for everything from cakes to bread to sausage to pasta. The weak link is a plastic drive gear, which I found out much later. Ours still works but can't handle stiff bread dough kneading any longer. Replacing the gear is not an easy task but can be done with simple tools and time. Having it repaired would cost as much as we paid for the mixer.

When it dies, I'll buy a Pro version with metal gears and will it to one of my kids when my time comes.

The aftermarket spiral dough hook is a game changer, kneading bread and pizza dough in half the time of the OEM C-hook. WELL worth the $30 price.
 
Well I may be the only one but I like our new lift bowl KA.
You're not alone . We have 2 - 5 qt lift bowl mixers , and one tilt head 500 watt .
The lift bowl mixers are performance based in my opinion . Has a larger base and I think it delivers more mixing power to the bowl . The larger footprint keeps it stable when doing heavy mixing .
It also adds a 1/2 speed to the settings that works good for mixing meat paste .

If adding ingredients to the bowl is an issue , get the chute .

My Son has the pasta extruder and the shredder / slicer setup for his .
20240128_112540.jpg
 
I Don't bake, but mama said she'd talk a swipe at those burger buns with recipe directions
Ray , sawhorseray sawhorseray makes great buns! I've made them before. He has a thread on here about them... but if I remember right you have to read through it all... he cut back on mixing time. Also, I think it was him that enabled me into the aftermarket dough hook!

Ryan
 
I looked into those aftermarket spiral dough hooks; there were several of them on Amazon. Seems like a great idea, but I saw many reviews that said the hooks that were supposed to be for the 4.5 qt bowls were too long, and really scraped up the bottoms of the bowls.
When making bread dough with the regular KA hook, it seems that the dough just eventually clings to it and spins around on it, instead of getting kneaded.
 
When making bread dough with the regular KA hook, it seems that the dough just eventually clings to it and spins around on it, instead of getting kneaded.
This is the Dough hook that came with the lift bowl mixers . It actually kneads and stretches the dough . Like you said the " C " hook lifts the dough out of the bowl .
20240718_101843.jpg
I was looking for the chutes to add ingredients , and ended up with an aftermarket .
It works good for eggs and liquids . Flour gets all over the place .
20240718_101928.jpg
aftermarket spiral dough hooks; there were several of them on Amazon.
Posting because I just went through this last Christmas buying these as gifts .
I think you're best off to get the real deal parts from Kitchenaid , but even at that It's hard to know what you need . That's why I ended up with the aftermarket chute .
Couldn't figure out which chute fit what bowl .

Anyway , if you mix a lot of bread dough , that hook is the one to have .
 
We got a model 600 professional about 15 years ago. The one is the bomb. Bought a Smokehouse Chef all stainless meat grinder, pricey but not many available back then. Works very well and we are careful not to overload the grinder. I use it to mix sausage as well. We dont make much sausage, small batch 15 or less pounds. We got the KA pasta rollers and RadioGal makes homemade noodles in pinch. This one is 6qt, 575 watt. When I was pricing these pay attention to the bowl size, some made for Costco / Sams (Artisian?) have a different size bowl and cant be interchanged. I got ours at Bed Bath & Beyond, with a mail in refund.
Hope this helps.

RG

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I bought 1 of the beaters with the Silicon swiper, does a much better job.
The silicon swiper (flex edge, on one side) is awesome. It's the main reason I the Kitchenaid instead of my commercial mixer. With the commercial, I've got to mix meat initially with the paddle and then the dough. With the kitchenaid, flex paddle all the way until sticky.
 
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I had high aspirations when I bought my KA 5 or 6 yrs ago. I bought the best one I could find. I bet I haven't used it the number of yrs that I've owned it.
I mainly bought it for pizza dough and the grinder. Then I took a pizza class at the Napa Culinary Institute in the Napa valley. The class was given by Anthony Falco from NY. He doesn't use a mixer for small batch pizza doughs, everything is combined by hand, so that is how I learned to make my dough. When I use the mixer, the dough is over worked and the pizza turns out too dense.

I used the grinder once and sent it back and bought a Lem grinder, and Lem slicer. The KA grinder worked ok, it was just slow.
I should prob sell the mixer, and use the money to help finance a vintage Fender Twin guitar amp, to P!$$ off the neighbors.:emoji_wink::emoji_laughing:
 
well,, my first pizza dough making was less than successful. most likely pilot error.
On a side note I got to visit another forum for pizza "people"
Let me tell you, this forum is close to my only public social media interaction. Those baking people are a snarky bunch. I didn't post only read. all i wanted to know was approx weight of a dough ball for a 12-14" pizza, back to the story. I used a recipe from a trusted source. Tipo 00 flour is a prerequisite.
anyway did a 36 hour cold fermentation. dough looked good. I use a peel to transfer pizza to a 20" stone. Even with a good bed of cornmeal for friction control the dough was so"wet" it would not slide off the peel. needless to say I have no pictures of my malformed pizza. Thr flavor was great and the dough was tasty as I made a batch of garlic knots with some extra, and they were fablulous. I will work on my flour/water ratios next time. Live and learn.

Thanks again to all who contributed to this worn our mixer thread.
 
This is the Dough hook that came with the lift bowl mixers . It actually kneads and stretches the dough . Like you said the " C " hook lifts the dough out of the bowl .
View attachment 700724
I was looking for the chutes to add ingredients , and ended up with an aftermarket .
It works good for eggs and liquids . Flour gets all over the place .
View attachment 700723

Posting because I just went through this last Christmas buying these as gifts .
I think you're best off to get the real deal parts from Kitchenaid , but even at that It's hard to know what you need . That's why I ended up with the aftermarket chute .
Couldn't figure out which chute fit what bowl .

Anyway , if you mix a lot of bread dough , that hook is the one to have .
Looks like you may need one more Insta pot, or is there more than 2 that can be seen in pic? 😆😆😆
 
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