July 27, 2008: I finally found a copy of a post that somehow got lost when I migrated over to WordPress. It’s a post from June 30, 2005 — thank you, Web Archives!!!
This week is Utensibility Week at Becks & Posh. Sam needs some help spending her $300 SurLaTable gift certificate and has asked for suggestions from us food bloggers.
The utensil I can’t live without is my Electrolux DLX-2000 N24 Assistent, which I got from EverythingKitchens.com. I’ve been meaning to post about it so the timing couldn’t be more perfect. Things I love about it, in brief: it has a large capacity for several batches of bread dough, it is very well designed (just ask my mechanical engineer husband who is very impressed with it), it can whip egg whites in under 5 minutes, all the attachments work great — besides the regular attachments (dough hook, double whisk, dough roller, and “knife”), I also got the pasta and cookie attachments and the meat grinder/sausage stuffer. When my 15+-year old Oster blender dies I’m considering getting the blender attachment too. Oh, and lastly, I like the little orange dials that light up when the unit is plugged in. It also has a timer so you could put your ingredients in, turn the mixer on the prescribed number of minutes. It turns itself off and you return to perfectly kneaded dough. If you’re interested in finding out how I came to own this incredible machine after the untimely demise of two Kitchenaids, just click on “Continue Reading” below.
Here’s my utensil drawer for the under $25 category: I figure I’d post an image of the whole drawer since you can buy several of the items to total $25. Utensils from the top row: Vac-U-Vin Wine Saver Pump and stoppers, Oxo peeler, a lemon reamer from W-S, my Microplane grater which I use for everything from lemon zest to ginger to chocolate to parmigiano; next row, Amco lemon zester, a little sieve from an Asian store, my favorite ice cream scoop, also great for making professional looking cookies; last row: Leifheit cherry/olive pitter, and a strawberry huller, both from W-S. The wine saver is top-rated by the folks at America’s Test Kitchen, though of course nothing can match freshly-corked wine. Oh, and the drawer and drawer organizer are both Ikea.
Edited to say: I realized after typing this post that Sam already has a much beloved mixer, so it’s unlikely she’s going to replace it anytime soon, therefore I’m adding a brief second suggestion for a Nutrimill — for anyone who wants to grind their own flour from whole grains and beans. Again, this gets top marks from serious bakers like the people at BreadBeckers.
Tags: Food | Blogging | Meme | Kitchen | Utensils | Utensibility
KitchenAids are wonderful, and I really agonized about the decision for several months before I got the DLX (in the meantime I got some great practice hand-kneading my own bread so no harm done). I still miss the colors and curves of my KAs. But I had to be practical: we are a family of 6, which means I have to bake a serious amount of bread each week. We also have been trying to eat healthier, which means the breads are usually whole grain. It’s the heaviness of whole-grain flour that killed both my KAs. KAs can handle egg whites, cookie dough and cake batter with aplomb, but don’t ask it to tackle the job of mixing a couple of batches of whole-grain dough. Mine was actually suffering for a few months before one day it suddenly started smoking, filling the room with this unbelievably horrible stench — the motor burning. I had left the machine to run for 15 minutes as called for by the recipe (a whole-grain bread recipe from Baking with Julia), and when I came back I could hardly breathe in the kitchen. It was wintertime, and I had to pack all 4 kids into the van and leave the house because the smell was just all over the place and I was afraid whatever gases there were could cause cancer in my kiddies’ lungs. We returned 3 hours later to find that the house still smelled. I unplugged the unit (a bandana around my nose) and took it outside, and then we left again and didn’t return ’til evening. Even then the smell wasn’t completely gone. Well anyway, enough of that horror story.
After the last one died I set on a quest to find *the best* mixer out there. I would have bought a Hobart (the predecessor of the KA, which was made better than the KAs of today) off of eBay but the models I found were too large for our family’s needs. Several fellow homeschooling moms who bake their own bread told me about their Bosches and referred me to the King Arthur Flour forum for more advice. Some posters there referred me to the yahoogroups mixer-owners, where I finally found the answers I was looking for.
Initially I thought my choices were either going to be the most powerful KA available or a Viking. The Viking users who were KA graduates naturally said the Viking was a much better machine. But if I were going to spend that much money on a mixer I wanted to explore all my options first so I can make a better-informed decision, so I started looking at other machines in that price range. From there it became a choice between the Bosch and the DLX. After e-mailing back and forth with several people, some of whom owned both machines (a couple actually became dealers because of their experience!), I decided on the DLX. Yes, it is on a higher price tier, but this is a lifetime investment for me and my family. I have yet to find a task that it can’t handle. Here is a link to more information on the DLX, from Pleasant Hill Grain; Everything Kitchens also has a comparison on several mixers. I’d love to tell you more about my DLX, but I’ll stop here and encourage you to do some googling yourself if you’re in the market for a mixer (or e-mail me at stefoodie (at) gmail (dot) com).
I have one of those too! It was recommended to me when I started baking whole grain bread, and you’re right – I couldn’t do this without it. I don’t have the NutriMill, but that’s next on my list (I’m hobbling along with an Ultra Mill). 🙂
Stephanie
thank you for joining in with your very detailed post. I have to admit I knew nothing about these kinds of machines til recently.
On my blog everyone persuaded me to knead my dough by hand instead of with the Kitchen Aid so I have been doing that since and it works very well – but then again, I don’t have a family to feed!!
I love how neat and tidy your draw is – if only you could see mine. I am glad you have a lemon zester – I love those too – but the microplane seems to be more in fashion these days.
Depending on how many entries I get – I hope to do the round up by sometime next week.
Thank you for joining in
sam
oh and ps – I LOVE the little orange light too – glad you got it in the picture!
Your utensil drawer is frightening (perfect)!! My husband was standing over my shoulder looking at your blog and told me never to take a picture of my drawer! hahaha!
Your write up of the DLX was really something! Funny, what dough were you kneading when your KA began to smoke? It was brioche that made me turn to the Electorlux Assistant!
You mention buying a Grain Mill, I thought the Electolux had one you could buy.
I’m enjoying your extensive blog!
Melissa
Wow
That is a fantastic post! I soooo want a mixer! I had thought a KA was the mixer of my dreams and now I am not so sure especially considering there VERY HEFTY price tag in australia ($800+). Both my Oma and my partners Mum have Kenwood mixers and have had them for 30 years each??? I am so amazed at how tidy your draw is… mine has so much stuff in it I would need soo many drawers to be that organised. I love my Le Creuset pot too 🙂
Oh I so want a good mixer…. even just an electric egg beater would be nice. I had wanted a KA but they are really expensive in OZ ($800+) so perhaps I will do some more research as I love wholegrain bread too and I need it by hand at the moment. Both my Oma and my partners mum have a Kenwood and they have lasted for 30 years each….
I agree your draw is so tidy!
Great post
oh clare, i’ve heard great things about Kenwood! in fact it was on my list of brands to consider, but i didn’t find a dealer here that really knew a lot about them. and yes, a good mixer is wonderful for wholegrain breads, but i also love hand-kneading — i really learned a lot when i was forced to do it for several months. just too tiring when you’re baking for a bunch of folks:-D. thanks for stopping by!
hi melissa, thanks for stopping by! yes, the electrolux has a grain mill attachment; however i’ve been advised by people who have used it that the nutrimill was a better choice because of a) capacity, b) noise level and c) the ability to grind coarse to fine. the nutrimill and the dlx are my “unbeatable duo” 😀
sam, clare and melissa, didn’t you figure out that i prepared that drawer just for that shot? LOL — it doesn’t look *that* neat all the time, though the organizer really helps.
stephanie, i hear the whisper mill is awesome. the only reason i didn’t get it was the dealer said they were starting to have problems the past couple of years with customer support — but that the units themselves perform well.
hi sam, yes, hand-kneading is still best if you have the time — i really learned how to “develop a relationship” with dough when i was forced to work without a mixer.