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Steve Yun posted:http://www.amazon.com/Wusthof-In-Dr...ry+tray+wusthof Thanks, but what I meant was something like this for flatware, not a knife storage tray. 
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Dec 28, 2012 14:22
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:Hobart, period. Yep. Hobart, no questions asked.
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Dec 28, 2012 14:29
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:Hobart, period. This is the right answer for multiple reasons (power, quality, durability). However, money really has to be no consideration, given that the n50 starts at around $2200.
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Dec 28, 2012 14:45
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We have a Hobart that they don't even make anymore at my work.
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Dec 28, 2012 14:50
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My kitchenaid is so old school it still rocks a Hobart badge 
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Dec 28, 2012 15:10
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Kreez posted:I've used a friend's tilt-headed model for bread dough a few times and the mixer bounces around due to the head not being sturdily locked. Will the lock loosen up over time like this even if the mixer is well treated (ie. not carried around by the head with the lock engaged)? If so I'll probably get the bowl lift. If there's hundreds of people out there who've kneaded a loaf of bread once a week for years with the Artisan with no issues, I'll just get that one and spend the saved money on an extra bowl or something. I have a KitchenAid tilt-head and, like your friend's, the head bounces around when mixing pizza/bread dough. I've never carried it around by the head and I really don't think it would matter at all if I did. The locking is very solid and certainly won't unlock itself, but there just seems to be a few millimeters of extra wiggle room when it's locked. It's kinda annoying since the mixer has probably spent 70% of its life kneading pizza dough. I'm also on my second one. My first one lasted about 1.5 years before something died. I'm not a super serious baker or anything, and I'm guessing my mixer got a lot less use than the average mixer over 1.5 years. If the mixer was off and I turned it on to a high speed, it often wouldn't turn on at all. Usually the only way I could get it to turn on would be to turn it on to the slowest speed, then slower work up to the faster speed I wanted. Sometimes the mixer would turn off as I was slowing increasing speed too. I returned it and got a new one that I've had for almost 2 years and it's worked well so far. The head does bounce around on this one too, though.
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Dec 28, 2012 15:22
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Dacap posted:Thanks, but what I meant was something like this for flatware, not a knife storage tray. I realize this might be ghetto rear end, but I have drawers that are 7.5 inches wide. I took the Rationell cutlery trays from IKEA (99¢) and cut them up to fit my tray: 
Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 15:32 on Dec 28, 2012 |
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Dec 28, 2012 15:26
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MeKeV posted:I got myself a manufacturer refurbished thermapen just before Christmas. £28.80. Calibration certificate, full 12 month warranty. They have an ebay store. I had a look, and I found a couple of used ones, one which had a missing battery cover but was £30. I'll keep an eye out!
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Dec 28, 2012 15:46
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Steve Yun posted:Hey Arcturas, want to post a longer review of your Breville? It's good and not too loud? I dunno, I guess it'd help to have a more specific set of questions, but that's mostly because I'm bad at doing product reviews. Fair warning: I haven't done many batches of dough recently because my wife and I recently switched to a low-carb/keto diet, but I used to bake a fair bit of bread. It's wonderful, and most of what we wanted in a mixer. The most important thing about the Breville is that it's fairly quiet for a mixer. It's quieter than my parent's old 4.5 qt bowl-lift kitchenaid. I'd say it's about as loud as doing something noisy in a food processor? (We have a relatively recent quisinart, for reference) I can watch football while mixing basically anything, and my TV is in the other room, plus we can still carry on a conversation while doing so. The noise was our biggest concern because we had just purchased a 6qt kitchenaid and were very disappointed. As far as actual mixing goes, I've been pretty pleased. My wife finds it a touch cumbersome because the head is wide and low, as discussed below, but will still use it to make cheesecake once or twice a week. She'd rather just use our hand mixer to make whipped cream, and I'm more likely to use our immersion blender. It does cookies rather well, and back when I did bread did a good job at that. It doesn't seem to overheat or strain too much, even when we have an awful lot in the bowl. I did single loaves of bread at a time (20 oz. flour, 12 oz. water), and it didn't complain at all. I haven't tried a double-batch yet. Her biggest issue is that it's a bit harder to scrape the sides than a kitchenaid. I find the beaters/bowl are pretty well designed and I don't have to do that much scraping, but I do agree with her. The attachments are solid. I don't recall what they're made of exactly, but they all look metal except the scraper-paddle. It comes with a whisk, paddle, dough hook, scraper beater and flour/pouring shield. They work well? I'm not really sure what to say about them. They're probably machine-washable, though I wash most things by hand because I have a tiny dishwasher. The scraper-beater is my least favorite. It's a great idea but just isn't quite as well executed as I'd like and it never seems to scrape as cleanly as a spatula. It's got a digital display, which is used for various fancy things I haven't figured out yet. Mostly it's a timer that counts up as you mix, which is nifty but not really necessary since most tasks are results-based. It probably has some kind of feedback readouts, but I haven't messed with those. The manual claims that you can set it to mix for a set amount of time and let it go, which sounds interesting if you want to set it and work on something else while monitoring things, but I haven't bothered using it. It's also got a digital/spinning knob for selecting the speed. I'm used to the kitchenaid slider, and would have loved that, but this works adequately. Turn clockwise to go fast, turn counter-clockwise to go less fast. Fairly simple. The one annoyance is that the machine will force you to wait about a second after lowering the head before starting the motor, and if you've already started spinning the selector before it's ready it'll ignore your choice and make you do it again. I imagine it's a safety thing, but it's silly. My wife is a little annoyed with the head-tiltiness. She finds it a little cumbersome, and that the neck is a bit thick, while the head is a bit wide and low, making it harder to scrape the sides in any position. Also, I don't think the head gets enough clearance out of the bowl for her, both up and down. This makes it a little harder to add ingredients both when it's up and down. I don't have any problems when the head's up, and if it's down I'll often just pull out the attached cover/funnel/flour ramp thing, which fits very well. Unlike the kitchenaid shield, it's not two semicircles. It's one almost circle which the funnel bit slots into. That means it does a better job at staying on and preventing spillage/leakage, but it's a little harder to slide on. It's a super minor difference, and is basically as good as kitchenaid's. I really like the head-tilt mechanism itself. While I still prefer bowl-lift mixers for ease of adding, awesomeness, etc, this has been pleasant. It's got a locking button that has to be pressed both to raise and lower the head, which is good if you're nervous about the head dropping at inopportune times. It's also nice because the head has a little handle on the front, so I can haul it out of our cabinets and onto the counter one-handed, whether the head is up or down. The bowl locks nicely. Our 20 year old found at a thrift store for $30 kitchenaid head-tilt was either not quite precise or just over-tightened, so grooves wore in the bowl and heavy-duty work (bread dough) would spin the bowl past the lock points and start flopping it around. I am not concerned about that at all here. Overall, it's done everything I wanted it to do. It's a quiet mixer that will handle every task I use it for. It's light enough that my wife and I can get it out with ease. The local Sur Le Table replaced all their ktichenaids with brevilles for their kitchen classes, and say it works for them there, too. (That's actually how we found out about it, since they let us plug in and try out all the mixers they had in stock. I strongly recommend trying that if you can) We've got a few minor gripes, but that's to be expected with any mixer. :EDIT: One other thing. I love that it doesn't have an exposed neck hinge. My last head tilt mixer had an exposed neck pin, and when doing a loaf of bread would often shake the pin partway out and I'd have to push it back in with one finger while stabilizing the mixer with my hand. This one has been rather stable, even though it's very light, and doesn't have that problem. Arcturas fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Dec 28, 2012 |
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Dec 28, 2012 16:05
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Pantsmaster Bill posted:I had a look, and I found a couple of used ones, one which had a missing battery cover but was £30. I'll keep an eye out! Posting from phone - hopefully this link works http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&id=290836682616
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Dec 28, 2012 16:36
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So I just noticed that Williams Sonoma sells a Polyscience Immersion Circulator Pro Creative for $500. That's $70 more than the SVS, and it looks like I can move it around pretty easily when it's not in use. Does anyone have any experience with the Polyscience circulators? Fakeedit: Williams Sonoma is charging me $55 for shipping and processing of a small 5lb package. Ugh.
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Dec 28, 2012 19:24
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Hmmm. So why would someone hypothetically get a KitchenAid classic (4.5 qt) versus a KitchenAid refurbished pro (6 qt)? And, obviously, money would definitely matter now. I'm still highly skeptical about the whole thing- that is a LOT of money for something that just kneads. I was totally down for shelling out money for high quality pots and pans, but a standing mixer? Ack. It just seems like such a luxury unless one comes in the way of an awesome sale + coupon...
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Dec 29, 2012 01:52
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Kitchenaids aren't just for kneading dough. I grind meat, roll pasta, mix meatloaf, whip potatoes, whip cream and eggs,make cake batters, make my own butter if I really feel like it. A stand mixer is one of the most versatile things you can have in your kitchen, as long as you think to use it.
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Dec 29, 2012 02:08
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Chef De Cuisinart posted:Kitchenaids aren't just for kneading dough. I grind meat, roll pasta, mix meatloaf, whip potatoes, whip cream and eggs,make cake batters, make my own butter if I really feel like it. Wait wait wait hold the phone- you can grind meat with these things?? Can you grind them WELL? I was always under the impression that proper meat grinding required an old school hand crank if you don't have access to a commercial quality grinder. Suddenly I am quite interested.
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Dec 29, 2012 02:16
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http://www.amazon.com/KitchenAid-FG...nder+attachment One of the least expensive attachments, but still $50.
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Dec 29, 2012 02:28
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Yehudis Basya posted:Hmmm. So why would someone hypothetically get a KitchenAid classic (4.5 qt) versus a KitchenAid refurbished pro (6 qt)? I wish I had gotten a bowl lift model.
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Dec 29, 2012 02:45
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Bowl lift won't fit under certain cabinets though.
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Dec 29, 2012 02:52
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I should add to my Breville review that I have absolutely no idea what the attachment situation is, and whether you'd be able to get an ice cream maker (maybe/likely, but I haven't heard of one), pasta roller (doubtful, not sure where it'd attach), or meat grinder (again, doubtful) attachment.
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Dec 29, 2012 04:08
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Yehudis Basya posted:Wait wait wait hold the phone- you can grind meat with these things?? Can you grind them WELL? I was always under the impression that proper meat grinding required an old school hand crank if you don't have access to a commercial quality grinder. I don't have personal experience with it, but a few other people in this thread have bought the meat grinder and I believe the consensus was don't buy the meat grinder if you plan on using it anywhere near frequently. It apparently functions, but is just a hassle to deal with. edit: On second thought that discussion might have been in reference to the sausage stuffer that goes with the meat grinder. Doodarazumas fucked around with this message at 06:24 on Dec 29, 2012 |
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Dec 29, 2012 06:22
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Doodarazumas posted:
Sausage stuffer is poo poo, meat grinder is great. And you can often find the grinder attachment for $30 on sale.
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Dec 29, 2012 12:37
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As far as I know the reason why the meat grinder attachment isn't amazing sauce is that there's a lot of plastic, and plastic doesn't stay ice cold like a nice metal one. That said, I love the poo poo out of mine, so it can't be that bad.
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Dec 29, 2012 17:42
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As said, the grinder is very decent, the sausage stuffer is 'usable' at best. I use the grinder on a regular basis and it does a fine job. If I needed to use it every day, I'd probably upgrade. The main thing to remember is to cut the meat into chunks (not strips), and only plunge one chunk at a time, otherwise you end up with a suction vacuum and hinder the process. It may not stay as cold as a full-metal grinder, but as long as your meat is chilled, the grinding mechanism/plates/blade will stay cool for a while (put them in the freezer first). When you're done grinding, run some balled up plastic wrap through to push out the last bits of meat. Also, if you didn't trim enough connective tissue from the meat, it will get wrapped around the blade and impede progress, so keep an eye on that. The main problem with the sausage stuffer is the aforementioned vacuum suction effect when using the feed tube. It ends up being a two-person process, with one person focusing on plunging the meat without gaps, and the other guiding the sausage and pricking airholes. A real stuffer with a large feed tube and mechanically pressured plunger is a huge upgrade over it.
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Dec 29, 2012 17:56
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They make metal meat grinders now, well other manufacturers make them that work on KA mixers. I have a plastic one from many years ago. The plastic one works okay, I mean, I don't make like 40lbs of sausage at a time with it or anything, honestly I use it more for grinding up nuts but it works alright if you're an occasional novice hamburger maker type person. I have the sausage stuffer attachment too but I've never used it. I have not used a metal one.
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Dec 29, 2012 18:16
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Having a KA stand mixer is like having a second set of hands in the kitchen. I can't imagine questioning owning one if you have the means. I just got the meat grinder yesterday actually -- just ground up 1.5lbs of leaf lard for rendering for pastries and 2.5lbs of fatback for general lard no problem. And that's pure fat, it's gotta kick rear end with something like pork belly or any sort of beef. I was taking my time and I wasn't feeding it fast enough. It seems silly to buy a ~300 dollar mixer just to use a $50 attachment but again, I use a stand mixer in the kitchen constantly.
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Dec 29, 2012 18:34
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I need to get a new fridge, it's almost certainly going to be a french-door type due to the kitchen layout. Does anyone have any recommendations, advice, or even just basic things like "I've had a brand X fridge for 10 years they're great" or "stay away from brand/feature Y it's poo poo"? I'd like to go under 1,500$ total, preferably closer to the $1,000 side, and am totally fine with old/used/clearance/scratch stuff. It'll be for me and my husband, and we cook a pretty decent amount, but we're not having kids or weekly dinner parties so we don't need it to be huge (not sure how much cubic feet to go for, haven't had a chance to look around in physical stores yet). Ice-makers and water dispensers are cool I guess, but I can really do without them, especially if they affect space/durability; and hooking up a waterline here might be too much of a pain in the rear end anyway. A big freezer would be great, we live close to a Costco so it'd be nice to be able to take advantage of that.
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Dec 31, 2012 05:58
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So, this has probably been asked countless times, but I've read the last dozen or so pages and haven't found an answer. Any recommendations for woks? Looking for something around 12"-14" or so. Can be a little more expensive, but in my limited experience, that isn't necessary. Thanks.
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Jan 2, 2013 06:33
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What's the general consensus on what pizza stone to get? I've been making using a pizza pan for a while and am looking to upgrade (and also a stone seems useful for naan and other types of bread). I know that some types of stones can shatter if you get sauce or something on them, so I'd like to avoid that. I've seen people talk about it here before, but I can't find the discussion offhand - if I'm remembering right, the go-to choices were Fibrament stones or pizza steels?
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Jan 2, 2013 06:45
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FrictionlessEmu posted:What's the general consensus on what pizza stone to get? I've been making using a pizza pan for a while and am looking to upgrade (and also a stone seems useful for naan and other types of bread). I know that some types of stones can shatter if you get sauce or something on them, so I'd like to avoid that. I've seen people talk about it here before, but I can't find the discussion offhand - if I'm remembering right, the go-to choices were Fibrament stones or pizza steels? Having owned a bunch of pizza stones in my day, this is the one I currently have and it's lasted longer than any other: http://www.amazon.com/Old-Stone-Oven-4467-14-Inch/dp/B0000E1FDA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357107521&sr=8-1 I like that it's rectangular (more flexibility in what you can use it for, less mess) and really sturdy. Also Amazon packaged mine up ridiculously well, almost to the point of overkill.
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Jan 2, 2013 07:21
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ddonahue99 posted:Having owned a bunch of pizza stones in my day, this is the one I currently have and it's lasted longer than any other: http://www.amazon.com/Old-Stone-Oven-4467-14-Inch/dp/B0000E1FDA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357107521&sr=8-1 I don't own one myself, but I've heard nothing but good things about the baking steel. http://bakingsteel.com/shop/baking-steel/ Edit: oops meant to quote the original question re: pizza stones A Bug fucked around with this message at 09:37 on Jan 2, 2013 |
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Jan 2, 2013 08:41
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I have this Emile Henry stone: http://www.amazon.com/Emile-Henry-Flame-Pizza-Stone/dp/B003UI8B2S It's worked very well. Apparently you can use it on a grill or gas burner - I haven't tried that yet.
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Jan 2, 2013 15:14
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Please can someone recommend the best waffle iron for me to get? Requirements: - Available online in the UK - Electric - Makes loving awesome waffles
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Jan 2, 2013 16:45
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Goddamn posted:I need to get a new fridge, it's almost certainly going to be a french-door type due to the kitchen layout. Does anyone have any recommendations, advice, or even just basic things like "I've had a brand X fridge for 10 years they're great" or "stay away from brand/feature Y it's poo poo"? For the record I went with a Samsung bottom freezer which I really enjoyed (and it did need a circuit board replacement within 3 months). After I sold my place and moved into my latest place, I remain disappointed to use a top freezer.
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Jan 2, 2013 17:08
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Does anyone have any suggestions for remote thermometers where the leads won't break? I've used a Maverick dual probe but the leads keep breaking. I use them for smoking meats and making beer. I think they are breaking when I use them in my mash tun possibly? When I screw the lid on I think it's breaking them, but I'd like to find something that I can do that with.
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Jan 2, 2013 17:29
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If you brew beer, considered getting a PID with a PT100?
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Jan 2, 2013 17:38
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I'm homeschooling myself in the art of basic sushi making. The first go went alright, but trying a variety of the usually-up-to-par cleavers and knives we kept around the house yielded an end product that looked like I had tried to slice up the rolls with the edge of my hand, often because the nori wouldn't cut right. What am I looking for, entry-level knife-wise? Is this what a santoku might do, or am I looking for a different type altogether? Our current knife lineup is pretty solid so we probably don't want to break the bank for a specialty roster player.
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Jan 2, 2013 17:51
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BlueGrot posted:If you brew beer, considered getting a PID with a PT100? I've thought about it, but I just need it to check the temp of the mash while it's in the tun (10gal water cooler). I'm not doing anything fancy.
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Jan 2, 2013 17:52
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LTBS posted:Does anyone have any suggestions for remote thermometers where the leads won't break? I used a remote thermometer for yogurt once and the lead was screwed up afterwards. I'm pretty sure they are not waterproof, which is indicated in the manual of my new Maverick. I found this while searching: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/remote-probe-thermometer-wort-proofing-26905/
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Jan 2, 2013 17:54
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LTBS posted:I've thought about it, but I just need it to check the temp of the mash while it's in the tun (10gal water cooler). I'm not doing anything fancy. I got one for controlling the heater of my brew pot. I stopped using it as that and I'm now using it as a thermometer. It's the most accurate and sturdy thermometer you'll get for $35.
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Jan 2, 2013 17:57
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drat, I always just assumed they were waterproof. Makes much more sense now. I will look into the PT100s now that I know that.
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Jan 2, 2013 18:16
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SKULE123 posted:I'm homeschooling myself in the art of basic sushi making. The first go went alright, but trying a variety of the usually-up-to-par cleavers and knives we kept around the house yielded an end product that looked like I had tried to slice up the rolls with the edge of my hand, often because the nori wouldn't cut right. Be forewarned: the internet nerd fury surrounding sushi knives makes the internet nerd fury surrounding western chef's knives look tame. But basically a slicer, like you would use to carve prime rib, might be your best bet. The Japanese equivalent for this kind of knife is yanagi/yanagiba. The basic idea is you want something very sharp and long enough to cut in one stroke. I'm sure you could cut sushi adequately with an extremely sharp chef's knife, or any other long, thin-ish western knife in your setup. Sharpness rather than blade shape may be the issue here - how are you sharpening your knives?
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Jan 2, 2013 18:27
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