Heavy Duty Mixer does a lot

Introduction
If you ask many people, their one ideal kitchen appliance, the one they aspire to own is a KitchenAid. This retro-looking, heavy mixer is unique in its field. With a powerful motor, a number of available attachments, it is almost as versatile as a food processor.

What You Get
The 575 Watts model is a heavier motor version of the beloved Artisan. The bowl is stainless steel and fits on pegs on an arm that can be raised and lowered (the Artisan sits on a socket and stays at one level.)

The unit comes with a bowl shield and flour spout (allows you to add flour or liquids without splashing back at you), a dough hook (for bread), a whisk (for egg whites and such) and a standard flat paddle beater. And one steel bowl with a handle.

On the front of the motor head is a socket with a flap. This accesses the motor drive; attachments can be put on here, such as vegetable shredders, meat grinders, grain grinders and pasta rollers.

The unit is a bit utilitarian-looking (the smaller units come in more colors.) But now I have seen one website where you can buy flame decals specifically for your larger unit to dress it up. Uh, ok. If that floats your boat, go for it.

Uses of the KitchenAid
The KitchenAid first and formost is a mixer for dough and pastes. You can make a quick, well-beaten cake, bread (the 575 watt lets you do up to about 2 normal sized loaves of even heavier rye.) You can make beaten egg meringues, whipped cream and mashed potatoes. This is normally how I use the KA.

The attachments include meat grinder, sausage stuffer (a tube that allows you to attach a casing and fill it), a grain grinder, pasta roller and a vegetable slicer. The vegetable slicer is one of those cone-shaped blades with various edges that spews the sliced or shredded veg from the inside of the cone. It's kind of goofy. Frankly, I prefer a hand-cranked old Moulinex or a food processor. I'd skip the vegetable slicer set, if I were you. It's clunky.

The grain grinder works pretty well, slow, somewhat noisy (as they all are) and gives you a cup or two of fresh whole wheat or rye flour in a few minutes. For home use, this is fine. If you are doing artisanal breads or pancakes in a professional setting, you'll want a dedicated grain grinder (and a soundproof room.)

I have not tried the pasta roller, but I think it would work fine unless you were very short and didn't have a stepstool. The height of the unit plus the counter height and the fact the roller is placed at the top of the unit might make this difficult for short people (I'm tall--but I'm not insensitive to those who aren't so endowed. You'll need a comfy stepstool.)

Performance
For fast whipping of egg whites and making a quick bread dough, I love the KA. Unlike a food processor, this does not heat up the dough, and it's easy enough to clean. The dough hook is made of cast metal, not polished, so it takes a tad more scrubbing to clean off, but nothing out of the ordinary.

I like the quality of the cake batters I make--smooth and well-beaten with plenty of air. The paddle is more or less easy to spatula-clean. Maybe a bit easier than double beaters on a standard hand beater.

If you have a largish family, this is great for bread doughs (multiple loaves) or big batches of mashed yams and potato. You can buy extra bowls, if you do a lot of baking and switch out a bowl for egg whites to batter, which for pastry chefs is a handy idea. If you are doing a lot of cakes requiring separated eggs, you'll want the extra bowl.

Disadvantages
A food processor, with a sharp blade, makes quick work of pastry dough and can do vegetables and purees. This cannot. If you do more slicing and dicing and less dough, a food processor may be a better bet.

If you like breads and cakes, and mashed potatoes or yams, the KA is your mixer. The Artisan (small size) is fine for one loaf, but the bigger motor will stand up to heavy dark grain loaves and multi-loaf baking days.

Durability
I've heard of people burning out motors on even the heavier units. If you hear your motor struggling with a super-heavy dough load, go easy on it. KA has an excellent reputation for service, but why mess it up?

My unit had one failure: the little black knob on the speed selector lever split and broke off. I can use it without the knob just fine, but it was a needlessly cheap knob construction.

Summary
If you bake a lot, this unit has a lot to offer. Attachments can increase the utility of the KitchenAid, but a food processor may be a better bet for some culinary tasks.