Food Mixers – Everything About Food Mixer
As more recipes require ingredients that are whipped, beaten, and mixed, you simply will not be able to cook your recipe in mind in time for the deadline you’re trying to beat. This problem has already been solved more than a century ago, when electric mixers were sold in markets by KitchenAid in 1908.
What is a food mixer?
A food mixer’s essential function is simple: to mix, fold, aerate, puree, beat and whip food ingredients. It function used to be limited to that of whipping egg, but with more inventive ways of cooking and preparing recipes came a lot more methods of making food mixers an indispensible kitchen tool.
If you’re wondering what you need a food mixer for, you only have to take a quick glance at the different attachments available for purchase. You can transform it into an ice cream mixer, an attachment widely available for stand mixers. Or you can use it as a fruit and vegetable strainer. Kneading and rolling pizza dough or pasta are also popular uses of food mixers. You can also use it to extract juice, mill grain, or stuff sausages. With all these uses of food mixers, you must be asking yourself: what have I been doing without a food mixer all this time?
What are the types of food mixers?
There are two general types: standard mixers and hand mixers. Hand mixers, basically, are hand-held. Equipped with a handle, this has an enclosure that contains the electric motor, which powers the beaters. With a hand mixer, you can easily dip the device into a bowl of any size and switch to your desired speed. This type is ideal for chefs who shift from cooking one recipe to the other.
The other type, a standard mixer, is the one usually found in home kitchens. Like a hand mixer, it is equipped with a motor that powers the beaters, only it is placed neatly on a stand, sometimes accompanied by a special bowl. With a standard mixer, you are entitled to your choice of bowl size—from 3 liters to even 10 liters. A standard mixer usually comes with attachments, such as a dough hook, wire whip, and flat beaters to name a few.
How does a food mixer differ from a blender?
Mistaking a food mixer for a blender is a mistake often made. A hand mixer is easy enough to distinguish; after all, blenders are not sold in this particular type. The line is blurred when standard mixers and blurred are placed side by side. The main difference lies in the attachments. Standard mixers contain attachments that are for whisking and mixing—usually four metal bars that are conjoined from both ends. Blenders, on the other hand, have sharp blades as attachments. These are used to slice, chop, and grind soft solids. Another difference is the speed with which they operate. Blenders are usually very fast—precisely why a lid on the bowl is required. Mixers do work quite as fast, because beating and mixing dough, egg, and other food ingredients require moderate speed.
Why should you get a food mixer?
Gone are the days when food mixers are mere kitchen accessories. Food mixers are not just for convenience, but also for necessity. How else are you going to knead the dough for the healthy pizza you’ve been dying to cook? Can you think of any other way to bake an egg pie, a chore than in itself entails beating and whipping dozens of eggs to perfection? Also, if you’re planning to open a pastry shop, then by all means buy a durable and dependable food mixer as an investment.
How should you shop for a food mixer?
Fortunately, the market is teeming with excellent food mixers. For your sake, it’s all a matter of finding the perfect balance between quality and the price you are willing to pay for one.
The most popular brand in this appliance category, without a doubt, is KitchenAid. Being the first manufacturer of the modern electric mixer we know today, they’ve had plenty of time to develop their products and come up with mixers that are both easy on the pocket and multipurpose. Another popular brand that’s slowly catching up in the market is Philips. Their latest product works not just as a food mixer, but also as a blender and a food processor.
For hand mixers, take your pick from the following recently released products: Breville, Marks and Spencer, and Breville. You will find their products not only extremely functional, but also chic.
