Aldi 'kitchenaid' style mixer

Danii86

hey guys,
Saw Aldi have this food mixer coming in on Sunday, any one have any thoughts on how good or terrible this could be? my goal is a kenwood kmix but i don't have the 500e to be spending on it anytime soon so figuring this might fit the bill for awhile!

loveisdivine

Unless removeable, the 'clear plastic splash guard' would make it a no for me. At some point you're gonna need to be able to add ingredients while the mixer is going and looking at the picture, that splash guard covers the whole bowl.

Faith

loveisdivine wrote: »

Unless removeable, the 'clear plastic splash guard' would make it a no for me. At some point you're gonna need to be able to add ingredients while the mixer is going and looking at the picture, that splash guard covers the whole bowl.

It might have a little flap in it. My mums Kenwood does (but the guard is also removable so that might be a moot point).

My concern would be that it's only 600W. That's not a lot of power. It'd be grand if you're only making light batters like sponges and cakes, but if you want to make bread or anything, it might not be great.

CJhaughey

I haven't had great success with Aldi or Lidl kitchen appliances apart from the breadmaker.
They tend to break and while the warranty is pretty good the inconvenience of having to buy another appliance is a pain.
Not to mention that I don't really like the idea of disposable appliances in an ecological sense.
Kenwood Chefs can be bought for not even twice the price of that Aldi version and will have better spares and accessories available.
Have a look on Amazon, the base model 800w version is 179 with a liquidiser.

Danii86

Thanks for the replies guys, regards the power of it, the basic kitchenaids are only 300w and the kenwood kmix mixers are only 500w, so this at 600w mightnt be too bad, not looking too do anything to heavy duty with it, don't make a huge amount of bread it's mainly cakes and th e likes.

Aongus Von Bismarck

I'm living in Germany. The appliances in Aldi are competent devices. If you're looking to pick up something like a waffle maker that you will use 3 or 4 times a year then purchase. If you are looking for an appliance that forms a core part of your cooking then I'd suggest holding out for a kitchenaid. Or a good Kenwood.

To be honest, I find that chopping, dicing and slicing is rather less effort by hand. And an investment in a really good kitchen knife pays itself over far more than relying on an appliance.

Faith

Hmm, I never actually realised a Kmix and KitchenAid had such low power...

CJhaughey

Faith wrote: »

Hmm, I never actually realised a Kmix and KitchenAid had such low power...

Kmix and Kitchenaid are design statements, you pay for the Glam!
Kenwood chef is a workhorse.

Faith

CJhaughey wrote: »

Kmix and Kitchenaid are design statements, you pay for the Glam!
Kenwood chef is a workhorse.

Apparently so. I thought they were both stylish and workhorses and I'm disappointed now. I'd want one that will go the distance if I'm to invest that much money in one.

Still, they use KitchenAids on the GBBO, so they can't be that bad!

Slaphead07

CJhaughey wrote: »

Kmix and Kitchenaid are design statements, you pay for the Glam!
Kenwood chef is a workhorse.

Any Kitchenaid device I have has been a serious workhorse! Built out of granite! They may well be trendy but they are tough too.

pwurple

Aongus Von Bismarck wrote: »

To be honest, I find that chopping, dicing and slicing is rather less effort by hand. And an investment in a really good kitchen knife pays itself over far more than relying on an appliance.

I would have agreed with you, up until we got very much into growing veg, and dealing with gluts etc. Any time you end up doing things in bulk, the appliance is fantastic.

Chopping 5 kg of onions, followed by 10 kg of apples, similar of ginger etc, and grinding all spices for pickles was just crazy chopping workload.

We make bread 3 times a week as well, and they are fab for that.

dudara

Kenwood Chefs are the only serious option in my view. The Kitchenaids look great, but I've heard too many stories about breakage. I invested in one last year, here's hoping it lasts as long as my mother's and my mother-in-law's (37 and 43 years respectively).

Keep an eye out for sales - it can bring down the cost of a KW to a more reasonable figure.

CJhaughey

The thing I like about the Chef is that it can do lots with a few attachments, if you want to mince meat and make sausages you can do it as well as whipping up a meringue.
I guess it all depends on what you do in the kitchen, if baking is all that you do then a lightweight mixer will do you fine.
For heavier food processing like mincing, heavy doughs and the like a KW chef would be a better choice.
Much cheaper as well by the looks of that Amazon price.

corblimey

Quick question about food processors. I've got a cheapie Kenwood model and use it sparingly, usually when I'm doing a stew or something with plenty of veggie chopping.

My problem is that even with just the simple 'blade' attachment, all veg comes out "mushed". It has the consistency of baby food basically. It's fine, I guess, tastes ok and cooks ok, but I like my stews chunky. Are all food processors below a certain quality and price-line basically the same in terms of chopping? Since I use one so rarely, I don't really want to splash out a large sum of money just to get chunky veg, especially as a good knife and time will work just as well. But if there's a sub-e100 f/p that can do the job, I'd be willing to take a look.

mimihops

Did anyone get their hands on one of these? Would be curious to see what the quality is like. Didn't get to the shop on time to get one unfortunately! I'd love to know is the splash lid fully removable and independent of the whisk attachment? Hope they come up again soon!

The Hill Billy

corblimey wrote: »

Quick question about food processors. I've got a cheapie Kenwood model and use it sparingly, usually when I'm doing a stew or something with plenty of veggie chopping.

My problem is that even with just the simple 'blade' attachment, all veg comes out "mushed". It has the consistency of baby food basically. It's fine, I guess, tastes ok and cooks ok, but I like my stews chunky. Are all food processors below a certain quality and price-line basically the same in terms of chopping? Since I use one so rarely, I don't really want to splash out a large sum of money just to get chunky veg, especially as a good knife and time will work just as well. But if there's a sub-e100 f/p that can do the job, I'd be willing to take a look.

Threads merged.

tHB

pwurple

corblimey wrote: »

Quick question about food processors. I've got a cheapie Kenwood model and use it sparingly, usually when I'm doing a stew or something with plenty of veggie chopping.

My problem is that even with just the simple 'blade' attachment, all veg comes out "mushed". It has the consistency of baby food basically. It's fine, I guess, tastes ok and cooks ok, but I like my stews chunky. Are all food processors below a certain quality and price-line basically the same in terms of chopping? Since I use one so rarely, I don't really want to splash out a large sum of money just to get chunky veg, especially as a good knife and time will work just as well. But if there's a sub-e100 f/p that can do the job, I'd be willing to take a look.

The blade should be well able to do chunky, just pulse once or twice and you're done. Leaving it running might be what turns things to mush?

For a stew I probably wouldn't do much chopping at all except the onion garlic leek at the start. Carrots etc I'd leave in quarters.

corblimey

Hmm, so I've been processing wrongly? I've just been turning it on (there's only 1 speed) and feeding chopped veg into the food chute. I have no idea how to use it then. Time to go buy some carrots for testing...

dudara

How you chop depends on the attachments you have. Are you chopping using the blade, or passing through a rotating disc?

pwurple

If it's just the blade, I chuck everything into the bowl, stick the lid on, and pulse. If you feed, the stuff at the bottom will be pureed.

The disk will grate or slice.

The link says it has a pulse abilty, maybe that's just turning it on and off quickly? hah

corblimey

Nope, it does have a pulse option, so it seems I should be throwing everything into the chopping bowl, pulse once or twice and out. It'll take me longer to get it out of the cupboard than it will to use it, but hey.

Faith

Why are you chopping the vegetables before putting them in? Unless you mean like quartering an onion so it fits better?

Prep the veg, put them in the bowl, lid on, pulse a couple of times. Job done.

pwurple

corblimey wrote: »

Nope, it does have a pulse option, so it seems I should be throwing everything into the chopping bowl, pulse once or twice and out. It'll take me longer to get it out of the cupboard than it will to use it, but hey.

Yup! And even longer to clean it up. But if you only want a couple of rough chops for a stew, then that's what it is.

I only use ours for that sort of thing if I'm doing batch cooking for the freezer, or whizzing up v small.

Johnny_Fontane

this mixer from amazon gets great reviews. probably €120 all in including delivery. 1500w, 5.2 litre bowl....

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Andrew-James-Electric-Stunning-Cookbook/dp/B00HH494B8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1411482837&sr=8-2&keywords=kitchen+mixer