Anyone ever use a Thermomix?

My wife has been checking out the Thermomix website lately, looking at their videos and such. I think she's considering getting one of these. At least part of the justification would be that should we ever get our kitchen remodel going, we could use this device to greatly increase the range of dishes we could cook in our family room. (The "rangeless range", so to speak.)

I'm not thrilled about another counter-top appliance but I thought I'd see if anyone here knows anything about them. Website is here for anyone curious.

From the website...

The Vorwerk Thermomix TM 31 is a multifunctional kitchen machine that can do almost anything in no time at all: weighing, chopping, mixing, stirring, cutting, grating, grinding, pulverising, kneading and emulsifying. It cooks, simmers and all but cleans itself. The Thermomix is child's play to use and will whip up even the most sophisticated dishes

If Martha ends up purchasing one of those, may I have your Bass-o-Matic? I don't think you will be needing it anymore. I would be happy to pay for shipping.

From the website...

The Vorwerk Thermomix TM 31 is a multifunctional kitchen machine that can do almost anything in no time at all: weighing, chopping, mixing, stirring, cutting, grating, grinding, pulverising, kneading and emulsifying. It cooks, simmers and all but cleans itself. The Thermomix is child's play to use and will whip up even the most sophisticated dishes

If Martha ends up purchasing one of those, may I have your Bass-o-Matic? I don't think you will be needing it anymore. I would be happy to pay for shipping.

"It slices, it dices, it shaves feminine legs silky smooth! Buy it now! comes with hook, line, and sinker!!"

Yeah, they promote it for a lot of things. They seem to function well for a surprising number of these uses (according to some eGullet threads and such) and they're supposed to be popular in Europe and Australia but I'm still not sold.

I have a friend who bought one. We christened it Barry, and I think she used it about five times. Cost a fortune. It really was interesting the range of stuff she could cook in it, though, from soups through to desserts.

Thanks, Celia. If they're too pricey then I doubt my wife will want to get one. Hard to find pricing for North America, though.

Mike, didn't know anything about this appliance so went googling. Check out this link, it's informative.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124112844457074685.html

Thanks, Shel - that's easily the best summary of its capabilities that I've seen. The author of that article sure likes his. If the Thermomix people had half a brain between them, they'd put a link to that article on their website.

But the price!!

[Jenise]

Wow. I've heard of these, but usually when a chef like Adria refers to it as part of the process of making X--I never quite understood what it was, or all it could do. To go from pot au feu to Genoise batter--HMMMM. Actually the latter makes more sense to me than the former, and the pot au feu idea has ridicule nervously rising in my throat, the kind I feel for those dippy informercials where you can make "anything" as long as you're happy to reformat everything you eat into two half circles one inch high.

Is it possible that the machine is actually so complicated that you'd just about have to run it every day in order to know/remember how to run it?

Thanks, Shel - that's easily the best summary of its capabilities that I've seen. The author of that article sure likes his. If the Thermomix people had half a brain between them, they'd put a link to that article on their website.

But the price!!

Over here, I think they're around $2,000 delivered. Or at least they were a couple of years ago...

Really they sound great, but...I actually like to cook. I don't want to put all my ingredients in a machine and get a finished meal out, Jetson-style. It's the reason we gave away our breadmaker...

Thanks, Shel - that's easily the best summary of its capabilities that I've seen. The author of that article sure likes his. If the Thermomix people had half a brain between them, they'd put a link to that article on their website.

But the price!!

Unless I'm reading it incorrectly, the writer of this piece is Raymond Sokolov, former restaurant critic and food editor for the N.Y. Times, who's been with the Wall Street Journal the last several years. He's also written one of my favorite cook books, the "Saucier's Apprentice", IMO a must for anybody who is serious about making sauces.
He's someone whose opinion I value...if you can bear coming up with the bread for what he's recommending!

Well. Looks like I'll be getting my education in Thermomix cooking. Got home tonight and my wife came in with a large box and a "Guess what arrived today!!??"

I was a bit shocked - she's normally pretty reticent about spending this kind of money on something like this. I guess that there was money left over from her Christmas bonus, it was on sale, and she really liked the looks of this thing. (And she works very hard, so if this makes her happy I am good with it.) So far, we've unpacked it and run all of the appropriate parts through soap and water. It came with a cookbook, so I've been looking through it. I guess what you get is precise temperature control up to 212 °F, stirring at various speeds, chopping capabilities (like a food processor), and it functions as a scale so that you can weigh directly into it. There's a steamer basket that can go on top as well.

Pot au feu, here we come!

MMMM! Not interested, at the moment, in the Thermomix but am excited about the "Saucier's Apprentice" book! Thanks for that delightful nugget. Checked it out on Amazon and it sounds wonderful. Has there been a thread here recently on everyone's favorite cookbooks?

Keep us all posted on your experiences with the Thermomix!

[Jenise]

Thanks for that delightful nugget. Checked it out on Amazon and it sounds wonderful. Has there been a thread here recently on everyone's favorite cookbooks?

Katie, no there hasn't. Why not start one?

Mike--congratulations. Can't wait to hear about your adventures. And don't forget to send the Bass-0-Matic to David.

Mike,

How do you like the Thermomix? Is it worth the money? Have you made some good meals with it?

Well, I've scoped it out a bit. So far, there are some things it does really well. These include the following:


Precision melting - you can get a fairly precise temperature on it which allows for easy and more or less automated melting of chocolate for baking. It's pretty nice to be able to put the chocolate in a container, press a few buttons, and walk away knowing that it wont get messed up.

Risotto - This is the one that really surprised me. When I saw the risotto recipe in the book that came with the Thermomix, I was very skeptical (to say the least). I make a lot of risotto and it's maybe the only dish I think I consistently make as good or better than what I can get at a very good restaurant. I was confident that this thing could not come close to what I make. I was wrong. Using the instructions from the book and Arborio rice, it made an absolutely perfect risotto with very little attention required from me. Although this doesn't matter all that much if I'm making a one-pot risotto meal for the family, it comes in really handy if I'm making a three-course meal and don't want to stir rice for a significant amount of time while other things are cooking.

Soups - The soups I've made in it have been great. Very easy, very fast, very tasty.

Steaming - No problems with this. It does very well.

Where it comes up short:

The big shortcoming is in sauteeing vegetables. For instance, when making risotto I will saute onions and any other required veggies on the stove top rather than in the Thermomix. They say you can saute in it but I just don't see 100 °C as an adequate temperature for this (and that's where it tops out).

I think the bottom line on this is that it is a very handy machine for kitchens with limited space. I can see why it's popular in Europe, where kitchens tend to be smaller than here. For a footprint only slightly larger than a food processor, you get something that can do a lot more. I think it will come in handy when we're forced out of our kitchen for the re-model. With this and a single burner (maybe one of the induction burners), you could make quite a variety of dishes in a very small space.

For most Americans, though, I doubt that it's worth the money. It's handy and I am sure there are a lot of things it can do that I haven't figured out yet. But the bottom line here is that most people have the space for a big stove, a food processor, something for steaming, a blender, etc. I may change my mind as I continue to work with it but I don't think the U.S. is really the right market for them.

I'll keep working with it, though, and I'll report back as I continue to learn on it.

Thanks for the details, Mike. As you have probably surmised over the years, I am a rather skeptical chap but I am impressed that the Thermomix makes a perfect risotto among other things. If this machine could make risotto and beer, I would be sold.

The Thermomix'n'Brew? That would be a definite winner!

I have been thinking about trying it out for sous vide cooking but I'm guessing the temperature control isn't precise enough for that. Further experimentation will tell...