Food! [The thread that started this section]

In my opinion you can use both salted and unsalted butter no matter what you're making (okay, there are certain exceptions). Even sweet recipes often call for a pinch of salt. A pinch of salt in the sweet kitchen is like a pinch of sugar in the savoury kitchen.

For your particular recipe, a pinch of salt would probably enhance it anyway.
 
Bought a KitchenAid stand mixer for no real reason other than it was a good price. What should I make with it first? A cake? Bread? (Note: I don't have any of the attachments like the meat grinder, pasta roller, etc).
 
but...you don't use a mixer to make pizza dough, do you? I never have...
 
Why not? There's dough mixing attachments. They usually look like someone went berserk on a piece of metal and bent it at weird angles. The one I have certainly looks that way.
 
True. The couple times I've made pizza dough, it took so little mixing by hand anyways, I wouldn't imagine dirtying a mixer bowl/tool.
 
True. The couple times I've made pizza dough, it took so little mixing by hand anyways, I wouldn't imagine dirtying a mixer bowl/tool.


It's not about the mixing, but the kneading.
Saves a lot of effort.
 
It's not about the mixing, but the kneading.
Saves a lot of effort.

Don?t know if that is just me, but pizza dough is quite pleasant to knead by hand ... unlike other dough-stuff. If I wasn?t doing a huge amount of it, I would prob prefer to do it with my hands. But either way this argument is quite theoretical as I do not have a kneading-machine ... just a mixer with some rather useless hook-thingies.
 
The issue with kneading by hand is that it often results in people using large amounts of extra flour. This alters the recipe and is probably why homemade bread turns out so dense.
 
The issue with kneading by hand is that it often results in people using large amounts of extra flour. This alters the recipe and is probably why homemade bread turns out so dense.


This.


It's just easier using the hook.
 
The issue with kneading by hand is that it often results in people using large amounts of extra flour. This alters the recipe and is probably why homemade bread turns out so dense.
What do you mean by "so dense"? Bread isn't supposed to be fluffy (says the German)! :-D
 
I like nice, big air pockets in bread.
I think that's how most people like their bread, however German bread is a peculiar cultural item and most of us like it dense. Which is why "this bread is too dense" is not something you'd be likely to hear in a German bakery.
 
Hand/stick/immersion blenders:

Corded or cordless?

Corded generally have higher average reviews, and less low reviews...but I feel like I would want to use it less. Gas stove + hanging electric cord = nervous (especially since we don't have a spare plug on that side of the kitchen.)
 
i would go for corded.
a blender like that is not something you (i) use very often
and i would be afraid the battery will have drained each time you need it...

and to have it charging all the time, would be a waste of energy
 
Corded ones are usually more powerful than cordless ones. That being said, my cordless one is powerful enough for what I do with it (mostly soups). If I want to properly liquidise stuff, I use my blender, because it's a lot easier.
 
Hand/stick/immersion blenders:

Corded or cordless?

Corded generally have higher average reviews, and less low reviews...but I feel like I would want to use it less. Gas stove + hanging electric cord = nervous (especially since we don't have a spare plug on that side of the kitchen.)

Corded, no question. Get a good quality one like Bamix or KitchenAid.
 
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