Thermomix review
Really this post is for redbraids.
So...I borrowed a thermomix for a couple of weeks. It was interesting using it without the emotional investment of having just blown $2k. My impression of it is that it is sturdy, well made, well designed, and equivalent to other high end kitchen appliances. The other high end kitchen appliances would all be retailing around the $800 mark, though. Its way overpriced.
I found it intuitive to use. I think all the business about requiring after sales support and cooking classes to use it properly is just another marketing thing to justify the $2k mystique. If you are unable to work out for example, that if something is undercooked then next time cook it for longer, then you probably shouldn't be around hot food and sharp knives.
It is a reassuring thing for non cooks or beginner cooks to use, though. The recipes and cooking style divorces you from the food. Place food in. Press buttons. Add other food. Press buttons. Remove food A, clean. Add food B. Press buttons. Serve food A and B. I think this is where the religious fervor amongst its fans stems from. It is a refreshingly novel cooking style for experienced cooks, too. The beeping, dial twirling and button pressing gets addictive.
The thermomix is no magic bullet. However, it did decrease my time in the kitchen, significantly. I used it to make every meal for over a week. However, when I made our first meal without the thermomix, my husband exclaimed 'at last! Solid food!'. Our diet was basically an invalids diet- I don't think we used a knife to eat all week.
The thermomix was nice and easy to clean. Definitely a plus. The amount of food I could cook at one time was enough for a family of two adults, a teenager, and two kids, but there was not much in the way of leftovers. Generally I would say it cooks a meal for six. You can forget about bulk cooking for freezing later meals.
By far the biggest drawback is the noise. Not the expected noise when you whizz up something on high speed, but the noise when it sits there cooking your dinner. It is irritatingly loud and I found it an unpleasant pitch. The beeping alarm when it finishes something also becomes irritating. My husband used to walk in after work and I would say 'dinner is nearly ready.' He would say 'WHAT?' and I would say 'DINNER IS NEARLY READY'. 'WHAT?' etc. It became our running joke.
Hummus. Tasted exactly the same as food processor hummus. I would prefer to make it in the food processor, as the see through sides means that I can control the texture by watching it as it mixes up, and stopping when it was how I prefer it.
Washing powder. This involved swizzing up at high speed bars of soap, borax and washing soda. I did this and then opened the lid. A microfine dust of caustic stuff wafted out, causing lung irritation and a long coughing fit. It was seriously fucking dangerous. The washing powder was useless - clothes ended up the same as if I had washed them in water only. I binned it.
Steamed fish / rice/ veggies. This was ok. You started off with swizzing up a herb paste to put on the fish, then steam everything in the varoma attachment. The rice was average - I'm picky about rice so I found it a little watery.
Mushroom risotto. A bad risotto but it was a passable weeknight meal.
Minestrone soup. This was a shambles, because I followed the recipe in the thermomix book to the letter. When I swizzed up the veggies, they were in 3mm lumps rather than chopped. I pressed on and cooked it for the recommended time. We had a meal of undercooked onion flavoured slurry.
Potato and leek soup. Major win for the thermomix. Silky smooth and delicious. I had the hang of the thermomix by then, and ignored the recipe in the book. I cooked everything for a lot longer than the instructed times. This seems to be the case for most thermomix recipes.
Bread. This starts off with swizzing up wheat to make flour, nifty trick and adds great flavour. Then you have to add regular flour anyway. It was easy to make, and very quick. The bread ends up like cake because there is no time for gluten formation, but it tasted great.
Beef pasta bake. This was loved by the kids and I made it a couple of times. I cheated and didn't use the thermomix to cook the pasta. The recipe was a good example of thermomix religious fervor. What you are supposed to do is make the bolognaise sauce in the thermomix. Set aside. Clean thermomix. Cook the pasta in the thermomix. Set aside. Clean thermomix. Make the white sauce in the thermomix. Assemble beef pasta bake. This was as opposed to cooking the three things simultaneously in three saucepans. Noone in their right mind could say the thermomix made it quicker and easier. I liked the bolognaise sauce - the constant stirring breaks the mince down beautifully, and the white sauce was just fantastic. I would make white sauce/cheese sauce a lot more often if I had a thermomix. You just chucked the ingredients in and 9 minutes later, perfect sauce.
Tuna dip, sundried tomato cashew dip, herb dip. All great, and made quickly. All equally good in my cheapo food processor.
Beetroot salad, broccoli salad. Baiscally you make these by swizzing up raw beetroot or broccoli with various herbs and salad dressing ingredients. They were fine, nothing exceptional.
Beef stroganoff with mashed potato. The stroganoff was alright, barely. The mashed potato was great and nice and simple to make, just cook the potato in the milk then swizz it up.
Lemon butter. Superb. Chuck the ingredients in and 7 minutes later you have perfect lemon butter.
Sorbet. Superb. Chuck in sugar and frozen fruit and there you go.
Green smoothie. Great. Its a good high speed blender and the kale was defeated, no lumps at all.
In summary, it was ok for getting a main meal on the table, and great for a few other uses. The cooked food all lacked a depth of flavour which the adults in the family didn't like but the kids did. I think it has something to do with the temperature - no maillard reactions. The three year old prefers thermomix meals to my regularly cooked ones. The best way I can describe it is that everything tastes like it came out of a bain marie at a mass catered event. The pasta bake tastes like one from the frozen food section of the supermarket. This isn't a bad thing for weeknight meals, and as I said, very kid friendly.
So...I borrowed a thermomix for a couple of weeks. It was interesting using it without the emotional investment of having just blown $2k. My impression of it is that it is sturdy, well made, well designed, and equivalent to other high end kitchen appliances. The other high end kitchen appliances would all be retailing around the $800 mark, though. Its way overpriced.
I found it intuitive to use. I think all the business about requiring after sales support and cooking classes to use it properly is just another marketing thing to justify the $2k mystique. If you are unable to work out for example, that if something is undercooked then next time cook it for longer, then you probably shouldn't be around hot food and sharp knives.
It is a reassuring thing for non cooks or beginner cooks to use, though. The recipes and cooking style divorces you from the food. Place food in. Press buttons. Add other food. Press buttons. Remove food A, clean. Add food B. Press buttons. Serve food A and B. I think this is where the religious fervor amongst its fans stems from. It is a refreshingly novel cooking style for experienced cooks, too. The beeping, dial twirling and button pressing gets addictive.
The thermomix is no magic bullet. However, it did decrease my time in the kitchen, significantly. I used it to make every meal for over a week. However, when I made our first meal without the thermomix, my husband exclaimed 'at last! Solid food!'. Our diet was basically an invalids diet- I don't think we used a knife to eat all week.
The thermomix was nice and easy to clean. Definitely a plus. The amount of food I could cook at one time was enough for a family of two adults, a teenager, and two kids, but there was not much in the way of leftovers. Generally I would say it cooks a meal for six. You can forget about bulk cooking for freezing later meals.
By far the biggest drawback is the noise. Not the expected noise when you whizz up something on high speed, but the noise when it sits there cooking your dinner. It is irritatingly loud and I found it an unpleasant pitch. The beeping alarm when it finishes something also becomes irritating. My husband used to walk in after work and I would say 'dinner is nearly ready.' He would say 'WHAT?' and I would say 'DINNER IS NEARLY READY'. 'WHAT?' etc. It became our running joke.
Hummus. Tasted exactly the same as food processor hummus. I would prefer to make it in the food processor, as the see through sides means that I can control the texture by watching it as it mixes up, and stopping when it was how I prefer it.
Washing powder. This involved swizzing up at high speed bars of soap, borax and washing soda. I did this and then opened the lid. A microfine dust of caustic stuff wafted out, causing lung irritation and a long coughing fit. It was seriously fucking dangerous. The washing powder was useless - clothes ended up the same as if I had washed them in water only. I binned it.
Steamed fish / rice/ veggies. This was ok. You started off with swizzing up a herb paste to put on the fish, then steam everything in the varoma attachment. The rice was average - I'm picky about rice so I found it a little watery.
Mushroom risotto. A bad risotto but it was a passable weeknight meal.
Minestrone soup. This was a shambles, because I followed the recipe in the thermomix book to the letter. When I swizzed up the veggies, they were in 3mm lumps rather than chopped. I pressed on and cooked it for the recommended time. We had a meal of undercooked onion flavoured slurry.
Potato and leek soup. Major win for the thermomix. Silky smooth and delicious. I had the hang of the thermomix by then, and ignored the recipe in the book. I cooked everything for a lot longer than the instructed times. This seems to be the case for most thermomix recipes.
Bread. This starts off with swizzing up wheat to make flour, nifty trick and adds great flavour. Then you have to add regular flour anyway. It was easy to make, and very quick. The bread ends up like cake because there is no time for gluten formation, but it tasted great.
Beef pasta bake. This was loved by the kids and I made it a couple of times. I cheated and didn't use the thermomix to cook the pasta. The recipe was a good example of thermomix religious fervor. What you are supposed to do is make the bolognaise sauce in the thermomix. Set aside. Clean thermomix. Cook the pasta in the thermomix. Set aside. Clean thermomix. Make the white sauce in the thermomix. Assemble beef pasta bake. This was as opposed to cooking the three things simultaneously in three saucepans. Noone in their right mind could say the thermomix made it quicker and easier. I liked the bolognaise sauce - the constant stirring breaks the mince down beautifully, and the white sauce was just fantastic. I would make white sauce/cheese sauce a lot more often if I had a thermomix. You just chucked the ingredients in and 9 minutes later, perfect sauce.
Tuna dip, sundried tomato cashew dip, herb dip. All great, and made quickly. All equally good in my cheapo food processor.
Beetroot salad, broccoli salad. Baiscally you make these by swizzing up raw beetroot or broccoli with various herbs and salad dressing ingredients. They were fine, nothing exceptional.
Beef stroganoff with mashed potato. The stroganoff was alright, barely. The mashed potato was great and nice and simple to make, just cook the potato in the milk then swizz it up.
Lemon butter. Superb. Chuck the ingredients in and 7 minutes later you have perfect lemon butter.
Sorbet. Superb. Chuck in sugar and frozen fruit and there you go.
Green smoothie. Great. Its a good high speed blender and the kale was defeated, no lumps at all.
In summary, it was ok for getting a main meal on the table, and great for a few other uses. The cooked food all lacked a depth of flavour which the adults in the family didn't like but the kids did. I think it has something to do with the temperature - no maillard reactions. The three year old prefers thermomix meals to my regularly cooked ones. The best way I can describe it is that everything tastes like it came out of a bain marie at a mass catered event. The pasta bake tastes like one from the frozen food section of the supermarket. This isn't a bad thing for weeknight meals, and as I said, very kid friendly.