Kitchenaid mixer vs Food processor

Drew Cutter said:

I'm having a hard time deciding whether to buy a kitchenaid professional
mixer or a Food processor. Looking at using them for pasta sauce ,
chopping up vegetable ,etc . Thanks . This posting is not a troll
message. Just trying to spend money wisely and save storage space.
Planning on making pizza dough with the mixer.

Personally, I'd go for the KA stand mixer. How hard should I twist your
arm <g>?

I've had a food processor (FP) for decades, and I haven't had it out of
the cabinet/closet for more than five years, at least! The KA is much
more versatile than a FP (IMO). I do, however, use my KA often. I use
its slicer-shredder attachment, and that works fine for what I do
(mostly to shred brick cheeses). I haven't used the meat grinder
attachment yet. The ice cream maker attachment is really nice too 😉

Sky

Skyhooks said:

Drew Cutter said:

I'm having a hard time deciding whether to buy a kitchenaid professional
mixer or a Food processor. Looking at using them for pasta sauce ,
chopping up vegetable ,etc . Thanks . This posting is not a troll
message. Just trying to spend money wisely and save storage space.
Planning on making pizza dough with the mixer.

Personally, I'd go for the KA stand mixer. How hard should I twist your
arm <g>?

I've had a food processor (FP) for decades, and I haven't had it out of
the cabinet/closet for more than five years, at least! The KA is much
more versatile than a FP (IMO). I do, however, use my KA often. I use
its slicer-shredder attachment, and that works fine for what I do
(mostly to shred brick cheeses). I haven't used the meat grinder
attachment yet. The ice cream maker attachment is really nice too 😉

Sky

I'm leaning toward the mixer. I was not aware of how close i live near
the factory. Apparently , they give tours and classes.

Drew Cutter said:

I'm leaning toward the mixer. I was not aware of how close i live near
the factory. Apparently , they give tours and classes.

Speaking of neighbors, I grew up three blocks from the Post Cereals
factory in Battle Creek, Michigan. About less than a mile away, I'd
say, on the same set of Grand Trunk tracks was Kellogg's. With the
right breeze, our neiborhood smelled like breakfast. 🙂

--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html

Drew Cutter said:

I'm having a hard time deciding whether to buy a kitchenaid professional
mixer or a Food processor. Looking at using them for pasta sauce ,
chopping up vegetable ,etc . Thanks . This posting is not a troll
message. Just trying to spend money wisely and save storage space.
Planning on making pizza dough with the mixer.

I wouldn't buy either unless you had a physical handicap. There is
nothing a food processor can do that can't be done better and quicker
with a sharp chefs knife. And for the amount of dough those ittsy
bitty stand mixers can handle you have much better kneaders at the
ends of your arms... the only mixer anyone really needs for a home
kitchen is a good quality hand mixer. With the money you'll save by
not buying those space wasting eye candies you can buy a superlative
chefs knife, a terrific hand mixer, a great blender, and a fantastic
meat grinder... and still have money left over for food. But if
you're lazy, have a physical disability, have an addiction to snobbery
then by all means spend your money on those monuments.

Sheldon

Drew Cutter said:

I'm having a hard time deciding whether to buy a kitchenaid professional
mixer or a Food processor. Looking at using them for pasta sauce ,
chopping up vegetable ,etc . Thanks . This posting is not a troll
message. Just trying to spend money wisely and save storage space.
Planning on making pizza dough with the mixer.

A mixer won't chop up vegetables, unless you spend some time getting
the attachments attached. What a bother!
There are kinds of things you can do with a food processor that you
can't do with a mixer. A mixer mixes, that's generally it.

If I could only have one of the two, I'd have a food processor. I made
butter in mine today. I guess someone in the family could've shook it
in a jar for a while and got the same results. Used the left-over
buttermilk to make a soda bread.

You can make most doughs in a food processor, and IMO a lot faster and
easier, and the experts say that they can tell no difference.

Also, I prefer the KitchenAid Food Processor to the Cuisinart food
processor. I had 3 Cusinarts.

Dee Dee

"Drew Cutter" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm having a hard time deciding whether to buy a kitchenaid professional
mixer or a Food processor. Looking at using them for pasta sauce ,
chopping up vegetable ,etc . Thanks . This posting is not a troll message.
Just trying to spend money wisely and save storage space. Planning on
making pizza dough with the mixer.

Depends or your persona needs. The mixer is good for baking, some of the
attachments work well, like the pasta, puree large amounts of tomatoes, meat
grinder. but a food processor is good for making nut butters and I like the
way it chops cabbage for cole slaw. Other than that, a sharp chef's knife is
actually faster and easier than using the processor.

In our house, the mixer gets used 4x more than the fp. And we can really
live without either so think about using that money for a good knife if you
don't have one.

On Mon, 07 May 2007 02:17:23 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

"Drew Cutter" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm having a hard time deciding whether to buy a kitchenaid professional
mixer or a Food processor. Looking at using them for pasta sauce ,
chopping up vegetable ,etc . Thanks . This posting is not a troll message.
Just trying to spend money wisely and save storage space. Planning on
making pizza dough with the mixer.

Depends or your persona needs. The mixer is good for baking, some of the
attachments work well, like the pasta, puree large amounts of tomatoes, meat
grinder. but a food processor is good for making nut butters and I like the
way it chops cabbage for cole slaw. Other than that, a sharp chef's knife is
actually faster and easier than using the processor.

In our house, the mixer gets used 4x more than the fp. And we can really
live without either so think about using that money for a good knife if you
don't have one.

I use the food processor quite a bit. I'm not very fast with a knife.
I do have good knives but don't have the dexterity or interest in
doing the chop!chop!chop! thing. I have a 3-cup fp that gets used
enough to warrant a permanent place on my kichen counter.

I also have a KitchenAid Artisan mixer which I like a lot. I resisted
buying a heavy duty stand mixer until I got into cookies. The dough
for many recipes is too stiff for me to mix sufficiently. But for
many other things, the hand mixer is indeed as good or better. I also
have a couple of attachments for the KitchenAid: grain mill and food
grinder.

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

Curly Sue said:

On Mon, 07 May 2007 02:17:23 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

"Drew Cutter" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm having a hard time deciding whether to buy a kitchenaid professional
mixer or a Food processor. Looking at using them for pasta sauce ,
chopping up vegetable ,etc . Thanks . This posting is not a troll message.
Just trying to spend money wisely and save storage space. Planning on
making pizza dough with the mixer.

Depends or your persona needs. The mixer is good for baking, some of the
attachments work well, like the pasta, puree large amounts of tomatoes, meat
grinder. but a food processor is good for making nut butters and I like the
way it chops cabbage for cole slaw. Other than that, a sharp chef's knife is
actually faster and easier than using the processor.

In our house, the mixer gets used 4x more than the fp. And we can really
live without either so think about using that money for a good knife if you
don't have one.

I use the food processor quite a bit. I'm not very fast with a knife.
I do have good knives but don't have the dexterity or interest in
doing the chop!chop!chop! thing. I have a 3-cup fp that gets used
enough to warrant a permanent place on my kichen counter.

I also have a KitchenAid Artisan mixer which I like a lot. I resisted
buying a heavy duty stand mixer until I got into cookies. The dough
for many recipes is too stiff for me to mix sufficiently. But for
many other things, the hand mixer is indeed as good or better. I also
have a couple of attachments for the KitchenAid: grain mill and food
grinder.

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

Is the grain mill for converting your garden herbs to be used in daily
cooking ? - instead of buy a coffee grinder for crushing your herbs.
Would the group recommend buying a smaller food processor instead ? But
the problem is cooking for a larger group of people from time to time.
Looks like I'm now leaning to buying both , but getting a smaller food
processor.

Drew Cutter said:

Is the grain mill for converting your garden herbs to be used in daily
cooking ? - instead of buy a coffee grinder for crushing your herbs.
Would the group recommend buying a smaller food processor instead ? But
the problem is cooking for a larger group of people from time to time.
Looks like I'm now leaning to buying both , but getting a smaller food
processor

A chefs knife will make quick work of a lot of herbs in very little
time, and will do a nicer job than a food processor unless what you
want is puree, and then a mortar and pestle works better, but a
blender will do a nice job pureeing any herbs.

Drew Cutter wrote on 07 May 2007 in rec.food.cooking

Quoted message said:

Curly Sue said:

On Mon, 07 May 2007 02:17:23 GMT, "Edwin Pawlowski" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

"Drew Cutter" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
> I'm having a hard time deciding whether to buy a kitchenaid
> professional mixer or a Food processor. Looking at using them for
> pasta sauce , chopping up vegetable ,etc . Thanks . This posting
> is not a troll message. Just trying to spend money wisely and save
> storage space. Planning on making pizza dough with the mixer.
Depends or your persona needs. The mixer is good for baking, some
of the attachments work well, like the pasta, puree large amounts
of tomatoes, meat grinder. but a food processor is good for making
nut butters and I like the way it chops cabbage for cole slaw.
Other than that, a sharp chef's knife is actually faster and easier
than using the processor.

In our house, the mixer gets used 4x more than the fp. And we can
really live without either so think about using that money for a
good knife if you don't have one.

I use the food processor quite a bit. I'm not very fast with a
knife. I do have good knives but don't have the dexterity or
interest in doing the chop!chop!chop! thing. I have a 3-cup fp that
gets used enough to warrant a permanent place on my kichen counter.

I also have a KitchenAid Artisan mixer which I like a lot. I
resisted buying a heavy duty stand mixer until I got into cookies.
The dough for many recipes is too stiff for me to mix sufficiently.
But for many other things, the hand mixer is indeed as good or
better. I also have a couple of attachments for the KitchenAid:
grain mill and food grinder.

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

Is the grain mill for converting your garden herbs to be used in daily
cooking ? - instead of buy a coffee grinder for crushing your herbs.
Would the group recommend buying a smaller food processor instead ?
But the problem is cooking for a larger group of people from time to
time. Looks like I'm now leaning to buying both , but getting a
smaller food processor.

For small processing jobs I recommend a stick/wand blender...Some models
come with a chopper and other attachments...they start at a reasonable
price and take up very little room. You can whip cream, unlump gravy,
puree soups, make mayo, chop garlic etc and they clean up easy. I used
mine just the other day to puree a pot of beans for soup right in the pot
they cooked in so way less mess and clean up. With a stick blender you
don't need to do the drizzle in the oil step required in a FP or Blender
as they spin so fast immulsion occurs anyway.

I rarely bake so no stand mixer for me...I do have a large kitchen aid
blender and a seperate Food Processor. These are used sporatically as
living alone I rarely cook large enough to require their use except for
holiday family feasts and coleslaw.

I find my KA FP a PIA to clean requiring way too much dishwasher space;
all those cracks and creavaces make hand washing it is too much of a
chore.

They do say though, if the FP has a spot on the counter it will be used
more.

Quoted message said:

Drew Cutter said:

I'm having a hard time deciding whether to buy a kitchenaid professional
mixer or a Food processor. Looking at using them for pasta sauce ,
chopping up vegetable ,etc . Thanks . This posting is not a troll
message. Just trying to spend money wisely and save storage space.
Planning on making pizza dough with the mixer.

If you do a lot of baking, the mixer would probably serve you better.
Mine is on my counter all the time and gets a lot of use, but I bake a
lot. The food processor does get taken out and used a few times a year,
but if I didn't have it, I wouldn't miss it as much as my mixer. Though
it can be a great convenience.

--
Caryn
Caryn Nadelberg - Mommy to Sam and Queen of the May
www.carynen.blogspot.com

(Curly Sue) said:

I use the food processor quite a bit. I'm not very fast with a knife.
I do have good knives but don't have the dexterity or interest in
doing the chop!chop!chop! thing.

I'm not the fastest with my knife, but I'm not big on that
whole "wash!wash!wash!" thing that comes with food processor
usage.

BillB

Squidly said:

(Curly Sue) said:

I use the food processor quite a bit.  I'm not very fast with a knife.
I do have good knives but don't have the dexterity or interest in
doing the chop!chop!chop! thing.

I'm not the fastest with my knife, but I'm not big on that
whole "wash!wash!wash!" thing that comes with food processor
usage.

And you still gotta prep stuff... if I'm gonna slice a bunch of
carrots I still gotta trim and pare by hand, and since I have the
knife and board out and all stained orange anyway how big a deal is it
to just slice away... I typically slice carrots lined up three at a
time, a dozen carrots are sliced in less than four minutes... I'm all
done and have neat pretty slices and all cleaned up and your processor
is stll struggling making sloppily hacked up carrot pieces on only
carrot number two. And damn, if you need dice yer screwed... yeah,
you can slice your carrots into strips (by HAND), but from what I've
seen the best a processor can do at dicing is no better than coarse
sloppy shreding, a combp of big bits, small bits, and pulverized
mush... not very appetizing and definitely not dice. Starting right
from the line I can out shred cabbage faster and neater with my deadly
sharp 12" carbon steel chefs knife than any home type processor can...
by the time you have your head sectioned into small wedges to fit yer
silly little tube, and cored (what makes em fall apart) I'm aready 3/4
the way done... I don't need to wedge or core, I don't even bother to
slice the head in half... just shred the first inch off the very top
of that head and then flip onto the flat and shred around the core.
And I end up with nice whole cores to trim away the bitter outsides
and enjoy the cook's treat sweet middles. Unless someone is actually
physically handicapped the food processor is about the stupidest
gadget a kitchen can have. Whenever I'm in someone's home and see a
processor displayed out on the counter I know two things, they are a
snob who can't cook or they''re physically handicapped.

Sheldon

Drew Cutter said:

Skyhooks said:

Drew Cutter said:

I'm having a hard time deciding whether to buy a kitchenaid professional
mixer or a Food processor. Looking at using them for pasta sauce ,
chopping up vegetable ,etc . Thanks . This posting is not a troll
message. Just trying to spend money wisely and save storage space.
Planning on making pizza dough with the mixer.

Quoted message said:

Personally, I'd go for the KA stand mixer. How hard should I twist your
arm <g>?

Quoted message said:

I've had a food processor (FP) for decades, and I haven't had it out of
the cabinet/closet for more than five years, at least! The KA is much
more versatile than a FP (IMO). I do, however, use my KA often. I use
its slicer-shredder attachment, and that works fine for what I do
(mostly to shred brick cheeses). I haven't used the meat grinder
attachment yet. The ice cream maker attachment is really nice too 😉

Quoted message said:

Sky

I'm leaning toward the mixer. I was not aware of how close i live near
the factory. Apparently , they give tours and classes.

Plus, you can buy the attachments you need to make your KA act like a
food processor, for the most part, more easily than you can get your
FP to act like a mixer. Dough is better made in a mixer with a dough
hook, and so are things like cookies and cakes.

I use the shredder/slicer and grinder attachments for my KA a lot
more often than I get my FP out of the cupboard. The only thing I
really like the FP better for, is making fresh bread crumbs. There's
nothing like an FP for that.

N.

Nancy2 said:

The only thing I really like the FP better for, is making fresh bread crumbs.  
There's nothing like an FP for that.

Nope. Meat grinder... produces the most *consistant* texture bread
crumbs, or whatever... everything passes through but once, everything
is processed equally. For fresh bread cumbs I find the 3/8" hole
plate works perfectly. With a food processor you end up with all
different sized bits, and any attempt to even it out will eventually
produce all dust.

Sheldon

On May 7 said:

Dough is better made in a mixer with a dough hook.

Actually with a dough hook is the most micky mouse way to knead
dough. Lots of commercial bakeries use the dough hook with a stand
mixer because they don't make enough dough to warrant the cost or just
can't afford a real dough kneading machine, one that most emulates
hand kneading... nothing can knead dough better than the human hand.
For the quantity of dough a 5-6 quart bowl toys r us mixer can handle
it just doesn't warrant spending all that money unless you have
crippled hands... and even than there are real dough kneading machines
sized for home use, and are well worth the money for those who bake
bread often. The vast majority of 5-6 quart stand mixers just sit on
the kitchen counter for show and rarely get used for anything... for
most things needing mixing a wooden spoon or hand wire whip is what's
used 95% of the time, the rest of the time a hand mixer is best.

Sheldon

Sheldon said:

On May 7 said:

Dough is better made in a mixer with a dough hook.

Actually with a dough hook is the most micky mouse way to knead
dough. Lots of commercial bakeries use the dough hook with a stand
mixer because they don't make enough dough to warrant the cost or just
can't afford a real dough kneading machine, one that most emulates
hand kneading... nothing can knead dough better than the human hand.
For the quantity of dough a 5-6 quart bowl toys r us mixer can handle
it just doesn't warrant spending all that money unless you have
crippled hands... and even than there are real dough kneading machines
sized for home use, and are well worth the money for those who bake
bread often. The vast majority of 5-6 quart stand mixers just sit on
the kitchen counter for show and rarely get used for anything... for
most things needing mixing a wooden spoon or hand wire whip is what's
used 95% of the time, the rest of the time a hand mixer is best.

Sheldon

I was comparing a mixer with dough hook to trying to make dough
(including the kneading) in a food processor.

N.

Sheldon said:

Nancy2 said:

The only thing I really like the FP better for, is making fresh bread crumbs. ?
There's nothing like an FP for that.

Nope. Meat grinder... produces the most *consistant* texture bread
crumbs, or whatever... everything passes through but once, everything
is processed equally. For fresh bread cumbs I find the 3/8" hole
plate works perfectly. With a food processor you end up with all
different sized bits, and any attempt to even it out will eventually
produce all dust.

Sheldon

I've never had any problems with my FP and fresh crumbs. I'd think a
meat grinder plate would compress the bread....in any event, I don't
make huge batches, and putting a couple pieces of bread in the FP at a
time seems to work great.

N.

Quoted message said:

physically handicapped the food processor is about the stupidest
gadget a kitchen can have. Whenever I'm in someone's home and see a
processor displayed out on the counter I know two things, they are a
snob who can't cook or they''re physically handicapped.

Sheldon

All those chefs on the TeeVee must fit into one of your two
categories, then, since most of them have been seen to use a food
processor now and then. LOL.

N.