Stand Mixers

This year we celebrate the 100th anniversary of one of the world’s greatest kitchen innovation of all times—the stand mixer. Back in the year, 1908, a man by the name of Herbert Johnson was watching a local baker knead bread dough with a large metal spoon.

It was then that he thought up a mechanical arm which would make this job much easier. It came in the form of an 80-quart mixer and by 1915 it was customary in large bakeries nationwide. In 1919, Johnson sensitive to home bakers as well, reformatted his original idea until it was just right for the every day kitchen of a consumer.

With the birth of this second generation stand mixer, people everywhere flocked to buy a stand mixer of their own. These were called Hobart stand mixers, now-a-days known as KitchenAid mixers.

Today, with a new name, KitchenAid offers many different varieties to Johnson’s classic design. Sizes for the average home, vary from 9-cups to 14-cups capacity. Stand mixers are also capable of doing many other functions besides solely mixing, like Johnson had originally planned.

KitchenAid sells attachments that even Johnson probably never imagined. A stand mixer mixes, kneads, whips, folds, (with the right attachments) makes pasta, makes ice cream, grinds meat, slices/strains fruits, grinds cheeses, grates potatoes, etc.

The possibilities are nearly as endless as the attachments you can buy for a stand mixer of your own! I’ve worked in the kitchen with my stand mixer for as long as I’ve remembered.

While, yes, every now and then it is kind of fun to knead my own breads or hand mix cookie dough, in most cases the added strain on my wrists and hands just isn’t worth the effort. After all, Johnson’s intention with the stand mixer was so that bakers would no longer have to hand mix dough. May the stand mixer dream not live in vain!