This is the third instalment of our Cooking with Small Appliances series. Additionally, see Part One: Simple Tips for Making Juices and Smoothies and Part Two: Three Great Panini Maker Recipe Ideas.
Stand mixers make excellent gifts, and many home cooks are surprised to see one under the tree on Christmas morning. However, if you’ve never used a mixer before, you may be unaware of how really flexible these frequently underutilised equipment are. This essay is based on the techniques detailed in Meredith Deeds and Carla Snyder’s book The Mixer Bible — a must-have guide to this incredible kitchen appliance.
More than only “mingling”
At the very least, stand mixers have a bowl, a flat beater, a dough hook, and a wire whip. However, depending on your cooking preferences and the sort of mixer you own, you may have access to a plethora of extra attachments and accessories.
A basic summary of mixer equipment is as follows:
It’s always beneficial to have a second mixer bowl on hand to prevent cleaning the bowl between jobs.
Flat beater: Used to incorporate batters and ingredients in a wide variety of recipes, from pie dough to mashed potatoes.
This attachment is most frequently used to knead dough. A dough that takes ten minutes to knead by hand will only take five minutes with the dough hook.
The wire whip is a more forceful mechanical equivalent of the handled whisk.
Pouring shields: When adding ingredients to the mixer bowl while the mixer is running, pouring shields will avoid spatter.
Rotor slicer/shredder: A true time saver when it comes to chopping and grating vegetables – particularly useful during canning season.
Grinder for meat: Make your own sausages, hamburgers, and pâtés. Additionally, you may use it to purée soups and grind beans for falafel, among other things. Additionally, the food grinder serves as the foundation for additional accessories, like the pasta maker, sausage stuffer, and fruit/vegetable strainer.
Fruit/vegetable strainer: An absolute must for preparing soups and sauces. The strainer is designed to be used in conjunction with the food grinder and includes a grind worm, strainer cone, strainer tray, and splash guard.
Sausage stuffer: A must-have for serious sausage makers, this handy tool features two tubes that make it simple to shape homemade sausage into large or little links.
Roller and cutters for pasta: The pasta roller is used to roll the dough into thin sheets that are ready to cut. Two pasta cutters, a broad fettuccine cutter and a narrower spaghetti/linguine cutter, simplify the process of cutting fresh pasta.
Pasta maker: This attachment replicates the operation of an extrusion pasta machine. It features five replaceable plates that enable you to create a variety of pasta shapes, from thin spaghetti to lasagna noodles.
Maker of ravioli: Although this attachment requires some practise, once mastered, creating ravioli is a breeze. The idea is to stretch out the pasta sheets as broad as possible and avoid loading the ravioli maker too full of contents.
Citrus juicer: This attachment simplifies an otherwise time-consuming task. It is intended for the juice extraction of lemons, limes, oranges, and grapefruit.
Maker of ice cream: Comes with a freezer bowl that must be frozen for at least 15 hours before to use; a dasher that stirs the ice cream in the freezer bowl; and a drive assembly that powers the dasher.
Meat grinding
When grinding meat in a food grinder, it should be slightly frozen to aid in the grinding process and prevent fat from melting, but not completely frozen. Our recipes call for freezing the meat for 30 minutes, but because freezer temperatures vary, a reasonable rule of thumb is to check that the meat can be pierced with the point of a sharp knife. This will ensure that it is not sufficiently dense to cause harm to the grinder.
Food straining and grinding
When using the fruit/vegetable strainer or food grinder, gradually add food (particularly hot liquids) so that items do not require an excessive amount of power to pass through the feed tube. This will protect the mixer from damage and dangerous spattering.
Making use of the dough hook
When combining bread and pasta dough using the dough hook, do not exceed Speed 2.
Cleaning the mixer bowl
Stop the mixer occasionally while mixing batters and doughs to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl using a rubber spatula. This will ensure that all components are evenly distributed throughout the batter.
Pans that rotate
The majority of ovens feature hot spots. As a result, when baking cookies, cakes, or pies, rotate the pans 180 degrees halfway through the baking process to guarantee even baking. If you’re baking more than one pan at a time, you should also rotate the pans halfway through.
Utilisation d’un thermomètre d’instant-read
When roasting meats or baking breads, instant-read thermometers are indispensable because they eliminate the guesswork associated with judging doneness. To obtain the best accurate reading, insert the probe near to the centre of the meat or bread. Avoid inserting the thermometer adjacent to a bone when checking the temperature of meat.
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