Kenwood Titanium Major - KMM023 product reviews

On first glance this is a very expensive Kitchen Machine (their term), it is possible to get the exact same model cheaper without the attachments this one comes with but when you look at it you get most of the attachments for free as the price adds up very quickly.

Like the Kenwood mixers I have grown up with this is a very easy to use machine, everything is pretty self explanatory and the dial is very responsive with lots of variation of speed. The mixing bowl is huge so if you're only whipping up a couple of egg whites they look very lonely in the bottom but if you're making a huge cake you can do it in one go easily. It comes with the standard Kenwood mixing attachments, although they are model specific so you can't interchange them as they're taller than most, the K beater is the standard go to attachment and will do most jobs nicely, the balloon whisk whips egg whites up quickly and the dough hook also works well, although you need to remember that all dough needs a hand knead. The other mixing tool is one with rubber sides on it more in line with what you find on a lot of mixers now days, this works particularly well when doing something like creaming butter and sugar.

As a mixer it's an excellent device, however once you start to use the attachments a whole new world is opened up. The attachments are controlled by the same dial as the mixer and you only use one item at a time, you pop off the chromed covers and the sockets are hidden under them. I haven't had the chance to use the juicer attachment yet as I haven't had that much to juice yet, perhaps I'll make orange juice or lemonade one day soon and have the chance to give it a go. I have used all the other attachments though, there are low, medium and high speed attachments and you can't mix up where they go because the sockets are specifically designed for each one. The glass blender is made of thermoresistant glass which means that your cold concoctions stay cold and the hot ones hot, there is a lot of weight to it which I like, makes it feel as though it will last and doesn't seem prone to the splitting of the base that previous blenders of mine have had, sometimes the lid doesn't seem to want to sit on tidily but it still seals nicely.

The glass mini multimill is excellent, you get 4 jars, 3 tops and a cutting blade, I have used this to turn almonds into almond meal and standard granulated sugar into caster sugar, you could also use it for small serves of pesto and other such items. I cleans up nicely and it's handy to be able to put a top on if you've made more than you need or it needs to sit for a while. The food processor is really good as well, has a number of various blades as you would expect and works like a free standing one. The other attachment is a mincer, this attaches to the front of the machine and can be used on all sorts of items, I was unable to get the mince I wanted the other day so I bought whole meat steaks instead and minced it up, was simple to use with an excellent end product, very easy to clean as well which is very important with items like that.

There are a few bonus extras that aren't used on the machine itself, a set of digital scales, a spatula (same style they've used for many many years), a spanner for adjusting the mixing blades if they aren't low enough or are scraping the bottom too hard, instructions for every attachment and a recipe book full of yummy recipes using every attachment, including some which it doesn't come with such as the pasta maker and ice-cream machine.

Why would you buy this over a $200 machine, well this should last you a life time and if you do have problems being a brand that's been around for such a long time you can get new parts or repairs done to it and they're well worth the cost. As for the attachments I feel that I'd rather have the one device with all the extras rather than a whole pile of extra motors in my cupboard that I hardly use which tends to go against what I'd usually do but I feel that this motor is definitely up to it. I now keep this on my bench and use it at least once a week but usually more often than that, I do need to remember that I've got all the extra bits though.

Overall it is well constructed and assembled, the only down fall I've found is the cord storage, you just push the cord into a small box, about the size of a couple of decks of cards side by side, I stopped using this after I put a hard kink in my cord and had to disassemble it to get it out properly. Everything works just the same as it does on my Mum's brown one from the 1980's which is still going strong, so there's nothing new to learn, definitely a tried and true product that has been brought into the modern age.

If you only use a mixer occasionally or for very small scale items then this probably would be overkill for you, however if you're into your kitchen gadgets but over all the space they take up then this definitely could be the product for you.