Kitchen Tools, Gadgets & Essentials

Why did this thread die?

groenspookasem said:
kenwood chef major titanium - brilliant piece of kit, get the one with all the attachments
jura f7 - cant live without this, even travels with me
induction stove, le creuset pots, pans no review needed
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I got to this thread after watching a video on the best stand mixers, where they rate a KitchenAid model as their best buy (and another KitchenAid model as the best overall).
I can't find that model locally, and when I look a the price of other KitchenAid models, they are insane!
Kenwood, though, is available everywhere locally and reasonably priced.
So my question: How does the Kenwood stand up (hehehe) to heavy dough mixing? I primarily want it a stand mixer for pizza dough (... the wife wants it for cupcakes and biscuits, but a hand mixer would suffice for that). I wanna make sure I'm not paying a premium for something that can't do the very task I'm buying it for.
Also, anyone know how the Kenwood compares to the KitchenAid?

APoc184 said:
So seeing all the love for pressure cookers, I budged and bought the one on special on Takealot Daily Deals for R899 this morning.
I've never ever used a pressure cooker.
Anybody care to share some tips? What are your favourite meals to cook in them.
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Pressure cooker is the best R300 I ever spent on the kitchen (and that was the cheapie aluminium one from Checkers). I'd love to get the one that America's Test Kitchen recommends but (again) it's not available locally, and I'd have to pay crazy money to import it. I might buy the Tefal Stainless Steel one (available for about R1k) when I can afford it. It's got similar features to the ATK best buy.

JJCT said:
And a couple of Sous Vide machines
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Spacerat said:
Now about that chamber vacuum..... would love one and O, a sous-vide as well. But just to expensive for how often I will use it
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I made one from a temperature controller, a water heater and an aquarium pump :)
I still need to test it on cooking something but it does switch the heating element on once the temp drops below the set point, and it does switch it off once the temp is reached.
 
Purchased the Le'Xpress Stainless Steel Coffee Tamper from Yuppiechef last week. Works great. Very solid item. One side for the espresso machine and the other for the Moka stove type pot.

kitchencraftcoffeetamper50mm55mm-e.jpg
 
Inevitability said:
Why did this thread die?


How does the Kenwood stand up (hehehe) to heavy dough mixing? I primarily want it a stand mixer for pizza dough (... the wife wants it for cupcakes and biscuits, but a hand mixer would suffice for that). I wanna make sure I'm not paying a premium for something that can't do the very task I'm buying it for.
Also, anyone know how the Kenwood compares to the KitchenAid?
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Kenwood is a very very good brand. With the KitchenAid obviously it looks better and is more trendy but from a practical sense it does have a advantage by the weight of the arm over the bowl making things more stable when mixing.

I have a Kenwood Titanium Chef and it has stood up to anything I've thrown at it. It's perfect for dough, I make bread at least twice a week and make all kinds and it has no problem mixing the tougher wet doughs like focaccia or ciabatta. I make all my breads on a spreadsheet by weight so I know it can take up to 2kgs of dough. In fact I have 1.8kg of dough in the fridge that I made yesterday.

Depending on how much your wife bakes at a time the only problem I could think of is that it's quite a big bowl so smallish batches may possibly need a bit more scraping down from the side of the bowl while mixing, if that makes sense.

There's a chart somewhere of bowl capacity I will post it when I find it.
716b41c77b515901fbcee82d07bb287b.jpg
 
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Look at the motor strength (wattage) on the Kenwood chef vs the kitchen aid. Piddly little motors in the kitchen aid. If you like an iPhone you'd like a kitchenaid, looks nice works crap
 
Microwave Omelette maker

41OG7Nz7zgL._SX355_.jpg

Difference from most other gadgets is it is easy to clean.
 
konfab said:
Microwave Omelette maker

View attachment 378602

Difference from most other gadgets is it is easy to clean.
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Second that. We use a Tupperware one.

An essential gadget we use is a Tupperware double layer microwave steamer. Really makes great veggies, potatoes, and meat. We probably use it at some point in the preparation of about 75% of our dinners.
 
JJCT said:
I have a Kenwood Titanium Chef and it has stood up to anything I've thrown at it. It's perfect for dough, I make bread at least twice a week and make all kinds and it has no problem mixing the tougher wet doughs like focaccia or ciabatta. I make all my breads on a spreadsheet by weight so I know it can take up to 2kgs of dough. In fact I have 1.8kg of dough in the fridge that I made yesterday.
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This is GOLD! Thanks so much.

groenspookasem said:
Look at the motor strength (wattage) on the Kenwood chef vs the kitchen aid. Piddly little motors in the kitchen aid. If you like an iPhone you'd like a kitchenaid, looks nice works crap
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I didn't know jack about stand mixers until I stumbled on this video below.
The ATK equipment shootouts (i've watched a few of them) are very good cos they tell you why they choose a particular model as the winner, and the things that make a bad model... which then means that someone can use that info when looking to buy that category of product. Plus they don't just do a review of something the way review sites do... they claim to use the products for months on end in their kitchen and then give their verdict.
They rated the KitchenAid highly, which is the only reason I asked about it.
But yes... I take your point about motor strength (...or torque to be more accurate) and ATK also mentions it as a big factor.
[video=youtube;F5mBOGte5Zo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5mBOGte5Zo[/video]
 
yep - good kitchenaid review right there, no comparison to the kenwood in the review though. I have the chef major titanium and haven't found a single thing that it struggled with. i based my decision not only on looks, but availability of attachments, cost, durability, longevity and tech specs. i do think there is only two you could choose from, i disregarded the smaller manufacturers breville, phillips ...smeg.

good luck with your choice - whichever one you choose will work for you
 
groenspookasem said:
have a read
http://www.charlotteskitchendiary.com/2012/04/16/granary-bread-kenwood-vs-kitchen-aid/
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Thanks for the find...
I did read that article earlier in the day, but didn't really find it to be useful. I prefer "technical" details and that review felt like the opposite of technical! :)
The comments by JJCT on how how handles various dough types easily and that it's being used often for these tough jobs, is the kinda stuff I wanna hear. That's a technical observation :)
Maybe I assume too much by thinking that your post was directed to me specifically, but I appreciate the effort in finding and posting the review. I hope someone else finds it useful.
I'm busy looking around at the Kenwood models.
The thing that's getting me now is that there's many options that Kenwood offer!
 
Cool, dionwired runs a special every now and then R8500 with heaps of attachments.
I liked the contradictions in the touchy feelsy blog review :)
 
Inevitability said:
Thanks for the find...
I did read that article earlier in the day, but didn't really find it to be useful. I prefer "technical" details and that review felt like the opposite of technical! :)
The comments by JJCT on how how handles various dough types easily and that it's being used often for these tough jobs, is the kinda stuff I wanna hear. That's a technical observation :)
Maybe I assume too much by thinking that your post was directed to me specifically, but I appreciate the effort in finding and posting the review. I hope someone else finds it useful.
I'm busy looking around at the Kenwood models.
The thing that's getting me now is that there's many options that Kenwood offer!
Click to expand...

https://www.makro.co.za/appliances/kenwood-major-titanium-food-mixer-with-accessories-260043EA

I got this one for R6999.99 on special at Makro about 6 months ago, i saw it on special again about a month ago. Price is crazy at the moment due to the exchange rate.
 
Inevitability said:
Thanks for the find...
I did read that article earlier in the day, but didn't really find it to be useful. I prefer "technical" details and that review felt like the opposite of technical! :)
The comments by JJCT on how how handles various dough types easily and that it's being used often for these tough jobs, is the kinda stuff I wanna hear. That's a technical observation :)
Maybe I assume too much by thinking that your post was directed to me specifically, but I appreciate the effort in finding and posting the review. I hope someone else finds it useful.
I'm busy looking around at the Kenwood models.
The thing that's getting me now is that there's many options that Kenwood offer!
Click to expand...

groenspookasem said:
Cool, dionwired runs a special every now and then R8500 with heaps of attachments.
I liked the contradictions in the touchy feelsy blog review :)
Click to expand...
What I also forgot to mention is that I bought the Titanium Chef about 6/7 years ago and considering it gets used at least once a week it's a very good work horse from heavy doughs at low speed to lighter things at full RPM.

I also bought it at Makro on special but back then it was R4500. In fact I first bought the smaller one with the plastic bowl, used it for like 2 months then gave it to my sister in law and bought the bigger Titanium. If it's in your budget go for for the bigger one it's worth it.

And just to comment on Kenwood as a brand my Mom got one for her wedding and it packed up after about 25 years of regular use. I'm sure it could have been fixed but she decided to upgrade.
 
Just be on the lookout, I meant to say dionwired had it at R5500 for the major titanium and a shed load of attachments
 
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