Kitchen Appliances Tips
Mixers
Stand mixers are heavy-duty kitchen appliances that can whip egg whites for a chocolate soufflé, mix butter and sugar for shortbread cookies, beat together the ingredients for banana bread, or knead dough for a garlic-and-rosemary focaccia. Whipping, mixing, beating, and kneading are the primary functions of the stand mixer as well as the primary techniques of the devoted baker.
Planetary Action
The best stand mixer kitchen appliances operate with "planetary action": the beater rotates around its own axis (in the way the earth spins) while the beater also orbits the bowl just as the earth revolves around the sun. Planetary action produces greater contact between the beater and the ingredients; it also results in greater contact between the beater and the inner surface of the bowl, which reduces the need to scrape ingredients down. It will speed up most tasks.
In the more conventional type of stand mixer there are two beaters spinning in a fixed position. Some are designed so the bowl will rotate. Scraping the side of the bowl is essential with this design.
Weight
These kitchen appliances should be heavy enough to prevent it from creeping along the countertop as it runs. Heavy-duty stand mixers often need to be left out on the counter because they are heavy.
Capacity
Bowl capacity should be at least 4 1/2 quarts, or large enough to handle a batch of bread dough or the batter for a three-tiered layer cake. The beaters should reach the bottom of the bowl and adjust to the bowl’s clearance if necessary. You should be able to beat two eggs as well as a double recipe of chocolate-chip cookie dough. It should be easy to secure and detach the bowl. A bowl with a handle is convenient to hold when pouring out your mixture.
Power
A higher wattage doesn’t necessarily mean that the stand mixer kitchen appliance is more powerful and thus a better choice. The overall design, including the shape of the bowl and how the attachments move, contributes more to performance. An indication of a model’s power is the maximum number of cups of flour or pounds of dough it can handle.
Speed Variations
A slow speed is essential for adding dry ingredients without sending clouds across the kitchen. A fast or high speed is necessary for quickly incorporating air into egg whites or whipping cream. There should be at least five variations between “stop” and the fastest setting.
Attachments
The best stand mixer kitchen appliances come equipped with a flat beater or paddle for the most basic tasks like mixing cake batters, a dough hook for mixing and kneading yeast bread dough, and a wire whip for beating air into egg whites or cream. Some machines only have a pair of modified whisk beaters. Having different shapes that are tailored for various functions guarantees better performance.
Bar Blenders
The modern blenders are excellent kitchen appliances for blending fruit, rum, lime juice, sugar syrup and ice into a daiquiri, but it will also purée and emulsify. Its tall, narrow container can produce fine-textured puréed soup or sauce better than a food processor's wide workbowl. High-end blenders are also extremely powerful and can crush ice without added liquid. The best-performing blenders feature between 350 and 500 watts.
Containers
The blender jar should set securely into the base. A glass container gives you the ability to see inside while stainless steel offers you less information but will not break. We are less partial to plastic containers; though they are lightweight and hard to shatter, the surface eventually scratches. It’s helpful to have a container with easily readable calibrations and a pouring lip.
Capacity
Container capacities range from 32 ounces (4 cups) to 56 ounces (7 cups). Since you should only fill the container halfway with ingredients (or risk splattering), a large capacity will reduce the need to refill. Choose one with a capacity of at least 40 ounces. The cover should seal tightly to the container and feature an opening for adding ingredients while the machine is running. The opening also allows steam to escape when blending hot liquids, an important safety feature. The best designs for these kitchen appliances have containers that open at the bottom as well as the top. If the blades can be removed from the jar, it will be easier to remove the contents and clean up.
The motor base should be extra wide, as well as heavy enough to prevent the unit from creeping across your work surface when blending heavy mixtures or crushing ice. Because glass containers weigh more they also add to the stability of the unit. A machine should weigh a minimum of 5 pounds.
Speeds
Two speeds—high and low—and a pulse button are the only controls you really need. Nonetheless, most high-end blenders have at least 5 speeds. A wider range of speeds will make the machine a little more versatile, and an ice-crushing speed is a big plus since blenders are often used for making drinks. A pulse function keeps ingredients moving and makes for more even results. When you blend basil, pine nuts, and oil into a pesto sauce, for example, the pulse function helps pull the solids from beneath the blades.
Cleaning
Kitchen appliance blenders with touch-pad controls are easier to clean (but not always easier to set) than push buttons. To clean the blender jar, add hot water and a few drops of dishwashing liquid and run it for a few seconds. Almost all parts of a blender (with the exception of the motor base) are dishwasher safe.
Coffe Makers
Electric drip machines are kitchen appliances that only require you to feed them the proper amount of water and medium-ground coffee, and then you’re free to walk away until the last drip has dropped. With preprogrammable settings, these machines can be set to brew moments before the morning alarm rings, so you can literally wake up and smell the coffee.
Some models have built-in clocks, grinders, adjustable brew cycles, temperature controls, milk frothers, and automatic shut-off switches. For all their bells and whistles, electric coffeemakers don’t guarantee a brew that is any better than the simple manual drip method. But they are convenient and quick.
When we chose from the wide selection of electric automatic drip machines, budget and personal preferences were the big considerations. We found two factors that were most likely to guarantee you superior coffee: fast brewing times and water temperatures between 195°F and 205°F.
These kitchen appliances should also have a filter basket large enough to hold 2 tablespoons of coffee per 8-oz cup and provide ample headroom for agitation and swelling of the grinds as water passes through. If you’ll be keeping coffee hot for longer than an hour, choose a coffeemaker with a thermal carafe rather than a burner plate. Ideally, the water reservoir should lift out for easy filling.
Percolators & Urns
Picture a small fountain inside a covered jug and there you have the basic design of a percolator coffeepot. These old-fashioned kitchen appliances force hot water up through a center tube and then sprays it over the coffee that rests in the filter basket below. A weak brew quickly flows out, collects at the bottom of the percolator, and is then forced back up the tube, to be sprayed over the grinds again and again. Coffee experts maintain that this results in overextraction, bringing out too many soluble substances and bitter flavors and leaving the brew an acrid, unbalanced casualty.
Despite these indictments, the percolator was widely adopted in the United States in the early 1900s. A cup of percolated coffee is much less common now, but fans boast, correctly, that the percolator system makes one of the fastest and hottest cups of coffee around. Percolators are available in both stovetop and electric models with capacities of 2 to 4 cups or 10 cups. Electric urns are available in sizes ranging from 22 to 55.
This article produced by cooking.com
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