What to buy for cooking wife (ingredients, bread, soups, vegetables)

[ukrkoz]

Title sounds misleading, I know, but there are so many terms for what I am looking for that I am not sure what to use.

Here's situation. Wife is an old school cook. She cooks from scratch. Makes her own dough, for example, from flour, mixing it by hand. Makes salads cutting everything by hand. Makes pastries mixing stuffing with hand held mixer. Cooks soups again cutting ingredients by hand. And so on. Oh, meat grinding.
After last meat grinding session with hand cranked grinder (that never grinds well anyway) question came up. Well, your 60 is around, maybe you'd like to have a ............... (whatever that thing is called) that does all of those jobs for you in more or less one piece? We actually had one back in 'ol country, power unit with 8 I believe attachments, it was used weekly.
Just like this:


But the thing, for example, had ALL metal grinder and Kitchen Aid has plastic.


So far, I know it's not "food processor" because that looks like a basic slicer/grater to me. Looks more like one of them KitcheAid standing units that you can plug in various attachments, right?

Here's my question to you home cooks:

- what exactly am I looking for to make it as versatile and USEFUL as possible, I don't want another box full of kitchen gadgets sit in closet.
- for this particular cook, what would you recommend? I was lost in pages and pages of same KitchenAid units and kits. I am no particular allegiance to the brand, it's all made you know where, I really don't care, I just want useful, durable and versatile. She always cooks big portions, can's change that cruise control setting, so it should be capable of them. Habit. And no Apple involvement. Yes, Apple as in electronics. Don't ask. She's got i-Phone, that's where the buck stops. I mean - no apps and such and less gadgetry, more functionality, if it makes sense.

Thank you

[JrzDefector]

I believe most of those food processor things have a meat grinder attachment available. However a friend recently bought a meat grinder for making home cooked dog food, and she says this thing even grinds up bone (desirable for dog food). I'll ask her.

[gentlearts]

KitchenAid stand mixer with attachments. I have this, and used the heck out of it when I used to have a lot of people to cook for. I believe the basic attachments come as a group, but some others come separately, according to what you want. I have used it for bread dough, meat grinding, grating and slicing vegetables for salads, and pasta making. I never got into pasta making much, but your wife might.

Perhaps other brands of mixers are good too, but my KitchenAid has been a workhorse.

I’m sure she would enjoy it, once she got the hang of how everything goes together. The manual is easy to follow.

I have a Cuisinart food processor with attachments too, and it does some of the same things, but between the two, I’d go for the mixer.

[rrah]

Look for a multi-purpose blender or kitchen system.

You'll find old older ones on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/VTG-OSTER-R....c100677.m4598

[greatblueheron]

Originally Posted by ukrkoz

Title sounds misleading, I know, but there are so many terms for what I am looking for that I am not sure what to use.

Here's situation. Wife is an old school cook. She cooks from scratch. Makes her own dough, for example, from flour, mixing it by hand. Makes salads cutting everything by hand. Makes pastries mixing stuffing with hand held mixer. Cooks soups again cutting ingredients by hand. And so on. Oh, meat grinding.
After last meat grinding session with hand cranked grinder (that never grinds well anyway) question came up. Well, your 60 is around, maybe you'd like to have a ............... (whatever that thing is called) that does all of those jobs for you in more or less one piece? We actually had one back in 'ol country, power unit with 8 I believe attachments, it was used weekly.
Just like this:


But the thing, for example, had ALL metal grinder and Kitchen Aid has plastic.


So far, I know it's not "food processor" because that looks like a basic slicer/grater to me. Looks more like one of them KitcheAid standing units that you can plug in various attachments, right?

Here's my question to you home cooks:

- what exactly am I looking for to make it as versatile and USEFUL as possible, I don't want another box full of kitchen gadgets sit in closet.
- for this particular cook, what would you recommend? I was lost in pages and pages of same KitchenAid units and kits. I am no particular allegiance to the brand, it's all made you know where, I really don't care, I just want useful, durable and versatile. She always cooks big portions, can's change that cruise control setting, so it should be capable of them. Habit. And no Apple involvement. Yes, Apple as in electronics. Don't ask. She's got i-Phone, that's where the buck stops. I mean - no apps and such and less gadgetry, more functionality, if it makes sense.

Thank you

But since she does prepare foods by hand etc, would she really LIKE to have a new appliance?

[Sundaydrive00]

Originally Posted by greatblueheron

But since she does prepare foods by hand etc, would she really LIKE to have a new appliance wtc.?

That was going to be my question as well.

Some people like doing all that by hand, and buying a bunch of different gadgets is just going to be a waste of money.

[NYC refugee]

I was thinking the same, and also the newer units are never going to be made as well as the older ones were. They were meant to last. I thought someone who does everything by hand might enjoy hand tools, but excellent ones. Good knives and cutting board, newer grinder with sharp blades. You might look at some of the good cutlery brands and see if they have any grinders that would do a good job.

I also have KitchenAid and while the machine and motor are wonderful, I've had to replace the plastic attachments (or just give them up) and the prices are horrible and only getting worse.

[greatblueheron]

I prepare most things by hand too....got rid of single use appliances like toaster.

Like NYC said, some fine knives maybe....the only appliance I use occasionally is the food processor...chops, slices, purees, blends, mixes etc. but could well do without it...plus it takes a lot of space.

[Chaofan]

I don't recommend cooking your wife. It won't end well.

[greatblueheron]

Originally Posted by Chaofan

I don't recommend cooking your wife. It won't end well.

Hee hee