In this review we are going to be doing something a little bit different. Instead of looking at a standalone cheese grater, we will be taking a look at an accessory kit that is made for Kitchenaid Mixers. The Kitchenaid Cheese Grater Attachment kit is what we will be reviewing today, and it adds grating functionality to your current Kitchenaid Mixer. It is a little pricey though, so is it a worth investment? Lets take a closer look at that below.
Product Features:
Thanks to the versatility of Kitchenaid mixers, you can also add a variety of attachments to them on the front of the mixer. These range from mincers to pasta rollers, and of course the grating cones. In this particular kit you will receive the main attachment which connects to the mixer hub. This is connected to the mixer using the included metal rod. There are two shredding cones including a fine and coarse variety, and you will also receive a thin a thicker slicing cone. All the cones are made out of stainless steel, and they feel quite firm. They do look quite small in the photos we have on this page, but they are actually rather big. You can easily fit your hand inside one, so keep in mind these are designed for large and small grating and shredding tasks!
The main attachment is made out of plastic, but it does feel like it is quite durable. The top of the unit has a food pusher built in. You need to lift this up in order to get your food in. If you have a longer item such as a cucumber, you will need to feed this in by hand until it is low down enough to be pushed down by the food pusher.
In the user manual, Kitchenaid recommends that you run your mixer on the number 4 setting for the best results. Our tests began by running it on this recommended speed setting, and put it to the test as a parmesan electric cheese grater. Using the fine cone, it quite happily munched through the cheese without any real hassles. The size of the chute means you don’t need to cut down your cheese if it is small size. Next up we tried some cheddar and again had some positive results. After that we switched over to the coarse shredding cone, although this was somewhat difficult at first. Once you get the hang of how to swap the cones it does make this task a little easier. Moving onto the shredder blade, we again using some parmesan to see how it would cope. This time round it seemed to go a little faster. Sticking with the parmesan again, we turned the speed up a little to see if we could get it to perform as a bit of a power cheese grater. This made quite a difference, and helped the cheese to shoot through a little faster. Please bear in mind though that we were running it above the recommended speed setting, so this is not something you should do all the time (or perhaps at all).
Switching to a softer variety of cheese such as mozarella did make more of a challenge for the machine. It managed to grate it with both the fine and the coarse cones, but it did take a little longer. This is not necessarily the fault of the attachment, as many graters we have tested struggle a little with softer cheese. It you freeze the cheese beforehand it will make this task easier, so keep that tip in mind. After those tests we switched to the slicing blades, and ran a few shorts tests. Our first test was with two cucumbers. One we ran though on the thin blade and the other on the thick blade. Naturally the thicker blade was the winner in our opinion, as the cucumber was shredded faster and the thinner cone perhaps slices it a bit too thin for your liking. After that we did the same test with a potato with more or less identical results. There are definitely times when you want thinner slices, but in our opinion the thicker cone will the the one that is used more.
Cleaning the cones is quite easy, and this can be done in the sink or in the dishwasher. The main attachment unit is quite easy to clean, and there are no little awkward nooks or crannies for the food to get stuck in. The entire unit doesn’t fit together or clamp together in any way which is a bit of a letdown, so you will need to find a storage space for each individual part.
With the price tag of around $60 it is a bit of a pricy accessory. So the big question is whether or not it is a replacement for a quality shredder. In our opinion it does provide a similar level of functionality as a professional cheese grater, although it is a little more expensive than some standalone models. However for those looking to enhance the functionality of their Kitchenaid mixer, it does do what it claims to do.
Pros:
- Adds grating functionality to your Kitchenaid mixer
- Two shredder & two slicer cones
- Works well on cheese
- Large food chute
- Easy to clean
Cons:
- Cones are awkward to remove
- Pricey
Summary:
The Kitchenaid Cheese Grater Attachment Kit is a good way to enhance the functionality of your mixer. It comes with a few different cones, all of which work quite well to grate cheese. It may be expensive, but it does a decent job of shredding and slicing. You can find out more info on it and check out the current pricing on the Amazon page.
| Our Rating: |
|---|
| 3.5 |