Back to the Mixmaster.....

[dalangdon]

I have totally given up on the Nutone Kitchen Center Mixer. It had a total breakdown today when dealing with some very tame cookie batter. Plus, it's - in my opinion - a really dumb design.

So the turquoise Mixmaster is once again on the counter, and that's where it's going to stay. The Nutone is still a great blender, knife sharpener and meat grinder, but its mixer is dead to me ;-)

 

[chachp]

I love my Mixmasters

I use them often. I have a pink one now as well, but it needs to be rebuilt so it is put away. They sure don't make them like this anymore do they?

 

[perc-o-prince]

Dan, Please don't tell me..

that this is what I'll have to look forward too with our Nutone mixer

I do love my Mixmaster. It was my grandmothers then my mothers and now mine. Just the sound reminds me of my birthday cakes as a child

Rich

 

[hoover1060]

Love them here too

I grew up with a model 11W my mom got for a wedding present in 1955, mom was always making us cupcakes when we were kids, so the mixmaster got lots of use! I remember the motor had this sweet smell when running, and the sound was musical!
Grandma Parker had a well used model 5, and an early 50's GE triple whip that had originally belonged to my other grandmother.
My favorite is a 12C, that model took the 50's look to the excess, and it looks stunning in the chrome.
My kitchen is decorated in Mixmasters today, models 9-12 in white, and an Australian A-24(looks like a combo of the V14 and a model 12)
On my china cabinet in the dining room sits an unused model 11C that I found new in the box in an antique store in Omaha.

I hate to admit it though, but I'm now a Kitchenaid person. 5 years ago I got a KA for Christmas after burning up a beloved model 12C making a chocolate pound cake(if anyone wants the recipie let me know) It took me a while to get used to the kitchenaid, but now that I am I don't curse it every single time I use it, and it turns out a better cake in my opinion. It did take LOTS of practice to get good mashed potatoes from the Kitchenaid though!
Last year I had my fried model 12C restored by Phil's appliance Science. It came back looking and running like new, so now I'm afraid to use it!
Could we have some more pics of this Nutone food thingy? I am curious to see it.

Jeff

 

[Unimatic1140]

I love my model 11 Mixmasters, I use them all the time. The model 11 is my favorite of them all. I find that my KitchenAid tends to get flour all over the place even on low speed. I can't believe you burned out a MM with cake batter Jeff, that must have been one dense cake!

 

[hoover1060]

This is what killed it...

My chocolate pound cake starts out with:
3 cups flour
3 cups sugar
1 cup baking cocoa
2 sticks butter
salt & baking soda
1 cup of milk

Thats what I start with in the bowl, and once it gets mixed up it is supposed to "beat for 5 minutes on medium speed" before the eggs go in.
My mom's chrome Sunbeam from 1986 made this cake ok, and my 12C made it ok quite a few times. It was mixing in that 5 minute stage of the recipie when it went, first with the squeal of a bearing, then the motor just started slowing down.
When I shut it off, there was smoke coming out the front vent...
I was heartbroken!

I'll agree with you on KA's too, they can be messy! I remember one time the EX and I were throwing a b-day party for one of our friends, and I was going to make this pound cake when EX volunteered to do it for me(so I could clean instead... how sweet of him) I gave him the recipie, plugged in the KA and watched in fascination as he measured the stuff out. He appeared to know what he was doing, so I left him, fully dressed, in the kitchen and went upstairs to vacuum and clean the bathroom.
When I returned to the kitchen 15 minutes later, the cake was in the oven, and there was Jason stripped to his underwear, wiping up the floor. The KA was dripping in cake batter, as were the counters and the wall, and his clothes were covered! When I finally stopped laughing(even Jack had cake batter on him!) Jason explained that he didn't realize the speed needed to be turned DOWN before adding stuff to the bowl, and he'd added 3 eggs and cream to this cake with the mixer running at about speed 5! Reducing the speed didn't occur to him... I would have loved to have seen him make that cake, like something right out of "I love Lucy"
Of course I never let him live it down either!
That was the last time Jason ever cooked/or baked anything for me!

 

[dalangdon]

Does anyone know anything about a KitchenAid Golden Aniversary Model K-45? There's one for sale up here.

Although, I have to say that I think that the Mixmasters are much more stylish.

 

[maytagbear]

Jeff--

<U>Please</i> come across with the rest of the cake recipe.

I love pound cakes of all stripes. Might make one for Book Group this coming Saturday.

As for the mixer in the Nutone Food Center, I have never owned one, but used several while I was catering. It didn't impress me. I found the bowl hard to scrape, et cetera.

I've been looking for a vintage Mixmaster, but haven't found one at a price I like.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[chachp]

Phil has restored my MixMasters

Jeff,

Don't be afraid to use it. Phil did an amazing job on my mixers and they are like new when he is finished. I have not hesitated to use mine at all. I have a KA Mixer that I use for my pizza and bread dough and other dough type jobs but every thing else gets a MixMaster. My Aunt had a Model 10 when I was little and I remember helping her make cookies back then. I wish I would have known about Phil before she threw it out. It died years ago and has sat covered in a cupboard. The thing was like brand new on the outside. When she and her husband downsized it went to the trash.

As a matter of fact I have started to make homemade dog biscuits and I have been using my model 11 to mix the dough and it has worked beautifully. Doesn't bog down at all.

Phil has a model 10 that he is going to restore for me after the first of the year and I can't wait to get it.

I love the old Sunbeam appliances. They just don't make them like that anymore.

Ralph

 

[hoover1060]

Hey Dan, how about a pic of the golden anniversary KA? I am intrigued...

Lawrence: I'll get the recipie out tonight and post, just depends on what time I get off work... I've already worked almost 30 hours this week, and its only wednesday! I can tell you its cake that just about fills a 10" tube pan with solid chocolate!

Ralph: I'd like to see your doggie biscuit recipie. Jack went to the vet for his checkup last Saturday, and they told me he's too FAT!!!
Home made has got to be better than Milk Bones!

 

[mixfinder]

Mixmasters

Dear Anyone in the Northwest,
As you may have remembered, I worked for Sunbeam.

Dan, it sounds like a spindle seized. The smoke would be normal because the motor heats up as the fan turns slower.
Take your model 12 and using the red tube that is taped to the side of th WD40 can, spray into the spindle where the juicer goes, taking care to spray around the edge. While the handle is turned over, spray into the hole above the socket where the round beater with the nylon button goes. There is a felt in there, so spray enough to soak the felt. Now travel a few inches down the mixer body and spray WD40 into the hole in the area above the black brush caps. Now, move the rear of the mixer body, just in front of the Mixfinder dial. Make sure the tube is inserted about an inch into the opening. There is another felt there that surrounds a bushing where the armature turns. Give a healthy dose of oil. Wait about ten minutes and try the mixer. You may need to re oil the spindles if thats where the problem is. We have more humidity here which can cause the spindle to rust and seize. If you want me to look at the mixer and give it the once over, I am just in Burien and more than happy to do that for you.
Kelly

It has been my experience that the square drive on the motor for the Nutone rounds out as do the the attachments used, causing the beater to ride up and in that process it takes the edges of the drive on the motor. The motor struggles with heavy batters and the single beater traveling around the bowl tends to push batter out of the bowl ahead of the traveling beater. The mutilple attachments, in later years are all Hamilton Beach, as Scoville bought Nutone in the 70's.

 

[Unimatic1140]

I wonder if there is a difference in taste or texture?

I've never had a stand-mixer new enough to have come with bread hooks. I absolutely love to make yeast breads/dinner rolls and baking powder biscuits from scratch, but I have never used a machine to do it. Most of my cookbooks that I use were written in the 50's and so the recipes all call for hand kneading. I love kneading by hand as it is very therapeutic and it's great exercise, I also can "feel" when the dough is ready.

 

[hoover1060]

dough hooks

Robert,
I can speak from experience, Mom's Sunbeam came with hooks and I tried them once...That was a scary experience! Sunbeams were not made to knead dough!

I have a recipie for 60 minute bread that I make now and again for dinner parties, I've made it with my Kitchenaid a few times, and I've also made it with my Cusineart food processor using the plastic dough blade. I prefer the processor, namely because the bowl is covered, it does not throw flour the way a Kitchenaid does.
I've never made bread by hand, I'll have to try that!

 

[peterh770]

Ahem... Back to the Nutone... We now return to our regularly scheduled program...

Dan, what exactly happened?

I grew up with a Nutone Center. Never had a problem with the mixer, altho' it can be a challenge getting the mixing head to engage into the power unit.

My sister could never get it right. Every time she used the mixer, the bowl and mixing head would spin at motor speed, flinging whatever it was she was mixing all over the kitchen.

"How does a solid tub washer drain?" Here let me show you with this cake batter...

 

[petek]

The Sunbeam and Oster Kitchen Center corkscrew like dough hooks are a poor design that draw up the dough towards the mixer head and do not much more than spin it and make a mess of the body. For any real bread doughs you knead a KA Kenwood or Bosch

 

[mixfinder]

Sunbeam Dough hooks

Sunbeam rushed to add dough hook in 1976. Kitchenaid was beginning to gain a toe hold in the market and there had been no appreciable change in 2 beater technology since it's inception.
The Sunbeam dough hooks made extremely good bread. It developed the gluten quickly and the bread was very fine tectured.
Just like Jeff said, The Sunbeam was wild and scary while making bread and required tons of user intervention.

1. If you inserted the dough hooks in the wrong slot they pulled the dough up into and over the motor housing

2. If you used more than 4 cups of flour it burdened the motor.

3. If you used dough recipes other than Sunbeam you might be doomed if there wasn't enough flour to allow the dough to form one ball and fly through the dough hooks each time the bowl rotated.

4. If the dough was too wet the motor struggled and the switch burned out.

5. Once the dough formed a ball each time it passed through the dough hooks the motor head jumped up and then came crashing down on the bowl with a whack.

6. The wild kneading, jumping mixer head and flying dough ball would break the turn table loose from the stem so it flopped all over and the bowl no longer rotated by itself.

Other than that the dough hooks were a dream and it made great bread. One loaf only, but great bread. I use my Sunbeam off the stand as a portable and attack tubs and vats when ever I am catering. For small batches of yeast dough, I use the Kitchenaid.
Kelly

 

[petek]

Like I said Kelly, a poor design LOL.. I tried them a few times and remember the motor head bouncing up and crashing down. My daily use Sunbeam, the one I bought new in the 80's is designated as my mash potato maker. I make about 10 lbs of potato in my largest pot which can easily accomodate the Sunbeam inside it for hand held use. Makes the best lumpfree taters, though it's best to leave a couple of lumps in there so's people know they're real.

 

[mixfinder]

Stolen Identity

I realize now that it was Jeff's mixer and not Dan's that quit. The bottom line, no matter who owns it, the 10, 11 and 12 Sunbeams require frequent oiling to to prevent bearing or bushing failure. As in all good beating, lubricate first and often.
Kelly

 

[dalangdon]

Peter, it was just a culmination of a lot of things: the badly engaging beater head, the thing that the bowl sits on getting locked into place so hard you have to use a hammer to unlock it, the fixed beater that doesn't allow you to spin off the stuff that collects in it (like you can with a convention mixer by slowing it down and lifting it up), the tendency for everything to collect in/on the beater, and the donut-shaped bowl that makes it hard to do any hand stirring.

I love the blender attachment and knife sharpening attachment, but the mixer just doesn't seem worth the bother.

Kelly, thanks for the oiling tips. I noticed that my mixmaster was a bit whiny and got kind of hot (no smoke, however), so I suspect that some lubing might be in order. I have never lubed it up, so your tips are timely.

One other nice thing about a mixmaster is the handle that tells you what each setting is good for. Since I don't often mix, it's good to have the guidance