Kitchenaid Pasta Attachments

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Chef Munky

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Dec 15, 2008
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Looking to buy the pasta maker attachments. My model is the 5qt tilt head.
Does anyone here have one? Not sure if it would be best I've seen several type kits and individual attachments. Looking into the counter top models to.
Anything in particular that I need to know? Pasta cookbooks to. I've never made my own.

Thank you

Munky.
 
Hey, I found the 3 head set in a thrift store here in Ojai for $5, but haven't used 'em yet. Got the sheeter, fettucini and linguini fine cutters. They look like they'd be easier than my hand crank Atlas.
 
I think you're better off keeping the attachments off of your KA. If you aren't going to be making pasta often, get a hand cranked machine like an Imperia or a Marcato....or just do it by hand, it isn't that hard. If you plan to do it more often, then a motor drive might be in order. I know Imperia has one.

The other exception is if you want pasta's that can't be cut and must be extruded, macaroni, small rigatoni and the like. If you want to make those styles of pasta, an attachment for a meat grinder or the KA might be worthwhile.

The absolute best pasta book I know of is Bugialli on Pasta. It doesn't have many recipes for the actual noodles (they're really mindlesssly simple), but it does have directions for achieving the different shapes of pasta. Mostly, it's recipes that use pasta.
 
I don't have a problem with wearing out or breaking my mixer with attachments, I'm running an older Hobart N-50. I have that macaroni extruder attachment for the meat grinder as well. It's OK for white pasta, but not so much for whole wheat or spinach.
 
I wasn't even thinking of the wear and tear on the machine. The thing I don't like about the pasta attachments for the mixer is the way the mixer is configured, the power takeoff is just up so high. Plus the attachments I see advertised for the KA are more expensive than dedicated tools.

Most of the time when I make pasta, I just bring the machine into the living room on a TV tray, sit on the sofa, and make pasta while I listen to the television.
 
True expensive. Not everybody is gonna find 'em in a thrift store. As for the height of the pto, I won't know if it's inconvenient until I try it. It seems OK when I use the meat grinder and sausage stuffer.
 
The KA attachments are priced out of my league. If it was something that would be used often, cooking for large crowds I could see it. Half the fun of doing something is actually doing it. The KA would ruin all the fun for me. With a manual model I won't have to worry should the power go out. That's an optional feature.

This is the model I'm leaning towards. Still kind of iffy. It's the "made of steel and chrome plated" Can I expect to have the chrome chip off eventually?

Best Manual Pasta Machine: Imperia SP 150

Amazon has a sweet deal, I don't need the rack. The dehydrator can dry the pasta for me :) Looks good anyways.
Amazon.com: Imperia iPasta Pasta Factory Gift Box: Home & Garden

Munky.
 
I have a Marcato Atlas machine that's chrome over steel as well. It's had well over two decades of service (once every other month or so), and still looks like the day it was bought. So, don't let the construction bother you.

That set you linked looks okay and Imperia has a good reputation. I don't think I'd ever use the ravioli attachment. For ravioli, the trays are just too easy. Large Ravioli Mold.

Before investing in any machine, you might want to try making some by hand just to see if you like it. Pick a recipe (here's an easy one, 5 eggs, 1 pound of flour...that's it!). Roll the dough out, get it nice and thin, flour it well, top and bottom, roll it up, then slice it from the end...very easy to make fettucini or tagliatelle that way.
 
Update

Macy's made the decision for me. Thursday was my B-day my husband saw the boxed attachments and bought them for me. The manual units are still appealing I'd still love to have a tabletop unit. I just couldn't find a suitable one. The KA has 3 rollers, basic, spaghetti and thick noodle. It's not just for pasta, can't wait to try pizza dough, egg roll wrappers with it. If all else fails it can be used for my polymer clays :) Not a word to my husband!.

Other units either had a lot of fluffy things that weren't necessary, or had the standard motor speed, s.l.o.w.! The KA lets you decide at what speed to feed the dough through . I'm ok with that :)

I'll be trying your recipe out today JamesS. Thank you for all the help.

Munky.
 
Congratulations and happy belated birthday! Let us know what you think of the KA attachments.
 
I note that this is an old thread, but just signed up and figure I might as well throw in my two bits.

Five bucks for the KitchenAid pasta set?! You killed with that one - I thought I did well at $24 in the thrift shop (okay, I did... it's a $250 set new). I really like mine, and I don't have any problem with the height. We've mostly used it for rolling the noodle sheets for ravioli, not so much the cutters, but they work fine too.

Their ravioli attachment looks like the stupidest idea yet, though: it doesn't take power from the mixer - you have to crank it. The mixer just serves as a stand (in this case way too high, I think), so I think you'd really have to be an idiot to spend another $250 or so on it.

Since gadzooks mentioned the grinder/stuffer... I finally got one of those as well. Bought a Cuisinart grinder/stuffer (I don't have a Cuisinart mixer) at the thrift shop for $5, sold it on kijiji for $50, and gave the $50 to someone else on kijiji a couple of weeks later for the KitchenAid set. To date I've only used it once for making some pork sausage, and it didn't work well. The cutter blade and plate are light and cheap, unlike the heavy-duty cast and machined cutters and plates typical of old crank grinders, and it wasn't good at feeding the fairly stringy raw pork cut I was using. Will have to work with it some more, but so far I'm not impressed and happy I only spent a fiver on it.
 
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I note that this is an old thread, but just signed up and figure I might as well throw in my two bits.

Five bucks for the KitchenAid pasta set?! You killed with that one - I thought I did well at $24 in the thrift shop (okay, I did... it's a $250 set new). I really like mine, and I don't have any problem with the height. We've mostly used it for rolling the noodle sheets for ravioli, not so much the cutters, but they work fine too.

Their ravioli attachment looks like the stupidest idea yet, though: it doesn't take power from the mixer - you have to crank it. The mixer just serves as a stand (in this case way too high, I think), so I think you'd really have to be an idiot to spend another $250 or so on it.

Since gadzooks mentioned the grinder/stuffer... I finally got one of those as well. Bought a Cuisinart grinder/stuffer (I don't have a Cuisinart mixer) at the thrift shop for $5, sold it on kijiji for $50, and gave the $50 to someone else on kijiji a couple of weeks later for the KitchenAid set. To date I've only used it once for making some pork sausage, and it didn't work well. The cutter blade and plate are light and cheap, unlike the heavy-duty cast and machined cutters and plates typical of old crank grinders, and it wasn't good at feeding the fairly stringy raw pork cut I was using. Will have to work with it some more, but so far I'm not impressed and happy I only spent a fiver on it.

5 PC Set Meat Grinder Plates Knife for New FGA KitchenAid Mixer Food Chopper | eBay

Amazon also offers it. Much better than the originals, but nowhere near as good as the LEM stand alone grinders.
 
Ah, very interesting. Thanks for the lead.

I'm sure they'll improve its performance, but I think a lot of the trouble I had with it is just in the auger design. When I was stuffing the sausages it just wouldn't feed the (already ground) meat with any pressure. Struck me as odd, and I want to make another batch with another meat to see whether it was some weird effect of the mix I was using or actually a design weakness.
 
Ah, very interesting. Thanks for the lead.

I'm sure they'll improve its performance, but I think a lot of the trouble I had with it is just in the auger design. When I was stuffing the sausages it just wouldn't feed the (already ground) meat with any pressure. Struck me as odd, and I want to make another batch with another meat to see whether it was some weird effect of the mix I was using or actually a design weakness.

Did it not come with a "pusher" for the feed tube? Our kit did. You must force feed the auger, when grinding and stuffing. I have to do that with the LEM to grind. I got a 5# stuffer that works like a dream
 
Yes, I got the pusher with the kit. I felt that I had to force the mix down into the auger a lot harder than I should have. And when I pulled the pusher back out to feed another handful in, the suction made it really hard to withdraw and tended to pull the meat back up the feed tube. Overall, a pretty nasty experience when compared with the performance of my old cast iron crank grinders. There I drop the meat in and the auger forces it through efficiently with very little - if any - pressure from the feed end.

p.s. As an engineer, I tend to be kinda analytical about these things and unforgiving of bad design.
 
Interesting - I didn't expect that a standalone grinder would be so cheap, but the low-end Lem doesn't sell for much more than this KA kit. I think I can see why you have push with it, though: the auger path from feed tube to plate looks awfully short. I've never studied auger design, but it seems pretty obvious that the longer that path, the more pressure it's going to be able to create (and thus more suction at the feed end, meaning less pushing).
 
We made the mistake of attempting to stuff sausage with the cutting blade in place. We learned quickly that doesn't work.:ROFLMAO:
 
The KA food grinder I have is the older, cast aluminum and steel model, and I have never had a problem with it. I don't think I would buy one of the new plastic ones.
 
Late to the conversation but I have both the pasta and the sausage attachments for my kitchen aid pro. I used the pasta a lot when I first got it but now every few months. Works like a dream.

I got the sausage thing for my partner ( no pun intended) so I don't know much about it.
 
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