Kitchen gadgets catch-all thread

I have a Benriner Wide Body Slicer which works great. Just be really really careful using them so you don’t chop off a finger.

I stick with kitchen aid, viking and hobart for heavy appliances like that.

If not doing rings, the first thing I do is tap the knife against the outside of an onion so that it pops the outer layer, and peel that layer off before proceeding to chop. You’re right that sharpness can’t do much about that particular vegetable, but there are ways around it.

For those kinds of things, you’re probably best off sticking with the big brands that you already know. Cuisinart, Kitchenaid, etc. Generally, heavier=bigger motor=better.

You could go pro level and get a vitamix or something, but that’s really overkill quite frankly.

Whatever food processor you get, be sure that you can also buy a simple lid:

http://www.cuisinartwebstore.com/detail/CUI+DLC-806GTX-1

To replace the safety bullshit lid that will come with the processor. Those lids will make you never use the thing because they’re so hard to clean. I have a cuisinart, probably 20 years old, that still works perfectly. Avoid any lesser brands as they can be insanely loud.

For mixers, KitchenAid all the way. Keep an eye on Woot!, they have deals on them with some frequency.

Blender, I like a big, heavy, simple Oster. Two speeds, murder and annihilate, the thing is built like an art deco steam engine. Like this:

http://www.amazon.com/Oster-4093-008-2-Speed-Beehive-Stainless/dp/B00005QFKG/ref=sr_1_3?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1361200067&sr=1-3

I’ve never seen a need for more than two speeds on a blender, especially if you also have a processor for fine control of things like salsa.

The only real thing that I can think of re:blenders is glass vs. plastic. I have had a glass blender break, and I can’t see any upside to glass. I guess some people thinks it’s prettier, but my kitchen is about eating, not looking.

Fair enough, I’ve never broken one so it didn’t occur to me. They make stainless but I have to think that you want to see what you’re blending to judge the chop.

Agreed 100%. A good quality food processor is so much better than a blender, far more versatile and quiet. The only thing I use a blender for anymore is ice.

Mandolins are fantastic for a lot of things like making a gratin or a vegetable lasagna - every piece of veg is the same width which means even cooking. And you’re done slicing in a fraction of the time regardless of your knife skills (well, the truly elite might outpace the mandolin but for us regular folks, it’s true).

We have an anti-cut glove that we always wear when using it however as that blade is so stupidly sharp you’ll see the blood pooling before you even realize you’ve been cut. And clean cuts like that take forever to stop bleeding so be careful!

As for set up, we just have a little one something like the one posted above except stainless steel. There is no set up other than getting it out of the drawer. :)

I learned a hard lesson about frozen bananas and spinning blades once and have been a plastic-only man ever since. Thankfully that particular instance was in a plastic food processor bowl, but if it’d been a glass blender? No thank you, ma’am.

We have a glass blender and it’s been to hell and back … we make a lot of smoothies after workouts. Works for us!

MOAR DETAILS.

Did a blade break and then break the bowl, or did the bananas break the bowl, or what? Safety info is important!

I read about how, if you freeze bananas and then blend 'em up (maybe with a bit of chocolate syrup or cocoa powder), it comes out sort of like banana-flavored soft serve. So, I decided to do that.

However, I just broke my two frozen bananas in half and tossed them into my (for the small amount of food involved) very large Cuisinart processor. I kicked it on high and it immediately threw one of the bananas through the lid.

For future reference, slice the bananas once frozen, then blend them.

Hate that safety bullshit lid, but usually I’m using a disc, so I need the chute.

When I researched mixers, I discovered that while KitchenAid is popular, it isn’t necessarily all that good, by the reviews. The power take-off for gadgets interested me until I realized I didn’t want any of the gadgets. Except for maybe the food mill, but I already have a manual food mill that I use primarily for removing seeds from raspberries when making ice cream.

I ended up getting a Breville. And I’m so far, I’m not using it much. I do make yeast doughs fairly often, but I use my bread machine for that, because it will keep the dough warm enough to rise, which is problematic here in winter.

Neat! Thanks for the warning.

Haha. Glad you weren’t hurt. Ideally, I’ve heard you’re supposed to use a Champion juicer for that, although I’m not sure what’s so special about those. (Looking at them online, they look sort of like meat grinders, but I guess for fruits). It’s really good though when made right.

You can also make a raw banana ice cream by using bananas instead of eggs, but still using milk / cream. It’s surprisingly good as well.

On their consumer-line Classics and [maybe?] Artisans, Kitchenaid switched from metal gears to plastic, making them even more susceptible to breakage when the motor grease in there separates either due to disuse or overheating.

I managed to separate my grease while mixing up a big loaf of bread late last year, making the machine get hella hot. Damn thing’s gonna cost $175 to repair before I can use it again.

Bummer. I wonder if they went downhill when hobart sold them off to whirlpool?

I’ve had my kitchenaid pro 600 for over 7 years with weekly use. No problems yet, fingers crossed.

I’m looking at getting back into deep frying, I used to have a fryer and I loved that thing something awful. However my current place has a really nice gas stove. I can use the biggest burner for some top notch wok deep frying, catch is if I do the edge of the wok is about an inch from the fridge and oil will end up on my roommates pictures. Don’t ask me why but she insists on covering that side with family pictures so I have to be extra careful.

What do you guys recommend for a small kitchen? I’ve tried those grease splatter covers but they let grease right through and end up disgusting rather quick. A tight weave doesn’t seem to ever come clean but a more open cleanable one might as well not exist. If I do use the wok, what do I do with the large amounts of oil?

Any advice?

I can’t help you much, but for the oil just throw up a Craigslist ad, there will be some diesel vegan type that will pick it up from you.