On 2/2/2013 11:28 PM, Philip Barnea wrote:
>I have a Kenwood stand mixer that parents bought in 1956 - in fact I
>have the old one and a more modern and larger version that I brought
>about 4 years ago to make larger batches of bread. The old mixer is
>still going strong, but the new one is on its last legs. I now need
>to buy a new one.
>
>I have a choice (realistically) between a new Kenwood with a 6.7
>liter bowl, a Kitchenaid or a MagicMill with a 20 cup flour
>capacity. Any advice would really be appreciated.
I can't comment on the Kenwood, it isn't widely available in the US -
in fact, I've never seen one for sale in a store.
However, I have an older KitchenAid and an Electrolux Assistent (sold
as a Magic Mill) in many parts of the world.
Two major considerations. Were you happy with the Kenwood? Do you
have many accessories for it that you would want to replace if you
get another mixer? Both the KitchenAid and Magic Mill/Assistent have
attachments. However, they aren't cheap, and I know they aren't
interchangeable between those two mixers. Chances are they wouldn't
be interchangeable between the Kenwood and either of the other two machines.
Next, how much bread do you make? The KitchenAid has a definite load
limit, kneading time limit, and back to back batch limit. The
current KA's are rated in terms of "flour power", that is, how many
cups of flour they can handle. If you use whole grain flours, you
have to cut that in half. You aren't supposed to knead faster than a
certain speed, and you should not make more than two batches in a
row. After that, you need to let the machine cool down for at least
45 minutes. They cover this in their manuals. Many of the reported
KitchenAid failures would not have happened if their owners had read
the manuals. So many of the failure stories I've heard are along the
lines of, "I was making my fifth five loaf batch of whole wheat bread
when the mixer just stopped working! The repairman said I'd stripped
out a gear! That's NOT what I expected!" Yeah, I can relate, I'd
have expected flames coming out the back of the mixer.
If you can live within its load and back to back batch limits, it's a
good machine. I've had my K-45SS since 1978 and it's still going strong.
The Magic Mill has a much larger size limit. It's pretty much a
matter of what you can fit in the bowl. And the manual doesn't
mention back to back batch limitations. I've pushed my Magic Mill
hard since I bought it. Large batches of bagels (bagels are the
mixer destroyer). It keeps going and going. I like it a LOT.
However, the manual is horrible. I think it was translated from
Swedish to Taiwanese and then to English by someone who wasn't fluent
in any of the languages and didn't really understand what a mixer was
used for. The mixer has a learning curve. On The Fresh Loaf there
are a lot of discussions of the Magic Mill, usually under the
Electrolux Assistent or Assistant name. (It is Assistent, not
Assistant, don't ask me why.) And many of the stories are very
similar. Someone posts that he hates the new mixer and can't
understand why anyone likes it, and he'll sell it for enough to buy a
KitchenAid. A few people ask how he's using it, and if he's seen
this post or that. He hadn't, and realizes he wasn't using it the
way it really works well. A few days later someone else asks if the
mixer is still for sale. The answer is, no. If I were to sell it,
it would have to be for enough to replace it.
I've done some side by side tests of my KA and Magic Mill and
reported on them at
<http://www.sourdoughhome.com/index.php?content=mixerthrowdown>. If
you're really, really bored you can watch side by side videos of two
mixers kneading dough. In the end, the two mixers produced very
similar doughs, which upset any number of ardent fans of one mixer
over the other.
Hope this helps,
Mike
*Bake With Mike <http://www.bakewithmike.com>*
Mike Avery
18 Bluebird Lane
Sanger, TX 76266
(940) 312-2774
Email to:mavery at mail dot otherwhen dot com
A Randomly Selected Bread Saying Of The Day:
Acorns were good until bread was found.
- Sir Francis Beacon