The big mixer

A little while back I decided that I wanted a stand mixer. The classic stand mixer is the Kitchenaid. The design hasn't changed markedly in the past 30 years, and the reputation of these machines was that they would last 30 years. I was all set to buy one and had my usual wave of research madness wash over me.

Good thing. Kitchenaid was a brand owned by Hobart, which makes those huge stainless steel appliances you see in commercial kitchens. A few years ago Hobart sold the Kitchenaid brand to Whirlpool, which immediately outsourced production to China. I surfed for reviews and found that quality control had become spotty and that people were stripping the gears on their Kitchenaid mixers. I looked on Ebay and found an ominous sign: replacement gear sets for them.

I looked at a number of models, including Bosch, Viking, and Cuisinart. The only one that got consistently good reviews was the Cuisinart SM-55. Ok, there were a couple in the used car price range that got good reviews, but, I mean, come on. I bought one on Ebay for $250. A hefty price tag, but I am hoping to get at least 15 years out of it.

I immediately put it to the test, making two kinds of bread and then crackers. At maximum power it drew about 800 Watts, just over a full horsepower. On low speed it pulled about 200 Watts. It didn't seem to labor at all, even with a load of dense whole wheat bread dough.

It has the great feature of a timer, so I could set it to knead for 5 minutes and just walk away to do something else. The 5.5 quart bowl is large and deep, so it doesn't spray the ingredients on the counter. It comes with a dough hook, a flat mixing blade, and a wire whip. It has low, medium, and high speed power takeoff ports on the top and front. You can get various food processing attachments that plug into these ports for slicing, juicing, grinding, and warping the time-space continuum. Like all smart consumer goods manufacturers, Cuisinart subscribes to the Malibu Barbie philosophy: It's not the doll that brings in the money, it's the accessories.

My complaints are few and minor. The clear plastic splash guard and ingredient chute seems chintzy in comparison to the construction of the rest of the machine. The speed dial is plastic and also seems under-engineered compared to the chassis. With its big bowl it is not a device for small batches. I tried an experimental half-sized recipe with just one cup of flour and the dough hook just toyed with it. So I guess I'll have to bake bigger batches of goodies - weep for me.

The MSRP is $300, comparable to the same capacity Kitchenaid, but you should be able to get $25-50 off that if you look around.