Grandma looks into buying pouring shield

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=236x54130

Now, I'd like to post this in the food forum here, but I'm utterly confused, and maybe someone here can explain this to me.

hippywife  (1000+ posts)      Tue Jan-27-09 12:12 PM
Original message
 
I've been looking at buying the pouring shield for my KA but now I'm seriously reconsidering. KA site re-design is terrible and I can't seem to even find it on there. The reviews on Amazon are making me think it just isn't worth the money or the hassle and that I'll just have to put less than 1/2 cups of flour at a time into my 4 1/2 qt. bowl.

Okay, what the Hell is a "pouring shield"?

And what's this "KA" nonsense?--why can't primitives spell things out?

spinbaby  (1000+ posts)      Tue Jan-27-09 12:14 PM
Response to Original message
 
1. For what it's worth, I don't use mine

I've found it to be more of a nuisance than useful.

Okay, that's some illumination, but not much.

Apparently a "pouring shield"'s more of a nuisance than useful.

hippywife  (1000+ posts)      Tue Jan-27-09 12:20 PM
Response to Reply #1
 
2. That seems to be the majority opinion. I really didn't ever consider buying one of these contraptions until I found one at a deal I just couldn't pass up. Now that I have it and have been baking more than I used to, I find that the mixer I have is really too small for the way I want to bake. I will not buy the professional model that would work better for me but that in all reality I really don't need.

Maybe I just need to make smaller batches of things.

In case anyone wasn't aware of this, Grandma and her hippyhusband live down south of Nebraska, in some sort of rural setting, imagining they're living life as it used to be lived, the old-fashioned way.

One however doubts Joe and Sadie in their sod house in 1888 had an electric mixer.

spinbaby  (1000+ posts)      Tue Jan-27-09 12:28 PM
Response to Reply #2
 
3. I have the smaller Kitchen Aid mixer

I like that the head tilts up. The larger model has a stationary head and a bowl that lowers. That setup seems to be less convenient for getting at the bowl for additions and scraping.

Oh.  "KA" must mean "Kitchen Aid."

Too bad Grandma, usually a kind person, doesn't have the good manners and common courtesy to spell something out, rather than using stupid acronyms that confuse the reader.

Lucinda  (1000+ posts)        Tue Jan-27-09 12:44 PM
Response to Original message
 
4. I like to use my large 1/2 cup measuring SPOON to add items but I also found a set of inexpensive flexible cutting boards that work beautifully. Mine are white with color coding but the basic idea is the same as those pictured below. I think mine are from a local kitchen store, or possibly wal-mart.

after which photograph of plastic breadboards

You can also make a parhcment or wax paper cone to add stuff to you KA bowl.

Okay, now we're getting somewhere, but we've still got a long ways to go.

A "pouring shield" is perhaps something one uses to pour a specified amount of a specified ingredient into an electric mixer?

Warpy  (1000+ posts)        Tue Jan-27-09 01:06 PM
Response to Original message
 
5. It's called parchment paper if you're feeling fancy or a paper towel/sheet of waxed paper if you're not. Just sift all the dry stuff onto it, pick it up and use it to pour the dry stuff into the mixer.

I thought about that pouring shield, too, and realized it was just another big hunk of breakable plastic that would take up space in a tight kitchen while being another damn thing to wash when I baked.

Needless to say, I passed.

Thank you, warped primitive, for describing what a "pouring shield" is.

hippywife  (1000+ posts)      Tue Jan-27-09 01:08 PM
Response to Original message
 
6. For the record here, I always shut it off when adding ingredients. Those things that everyone is posting they use doesn't keep the flour from shooting back out over the edge of the bowl when I restart it. And I always use the lowest speed.

The sparkling husband primitive, speaking from the commode in the basement:

Stinky The Clown  (1000+ posts)        Tue Jan-27-09 01:32 PM
Response to Original message
 
7. I had one for my older KA and never ever used.

Not once. Not ever.

I didn't bother to get one for the new machine.

housewolf  (1000+ posts)        Tue Jan-27-09 02:56 PM
Response to Original message
 
8. You could try coving the bowl with a kitchen towel

You might be able to clip it (the ends of the towel) together somehow to make a tent, then you'd just need to lift the towel a bit to add your ingredients, then re-cover the bowl to mix them in. That would keep the flour etc. from flying out all over the counter. It would take some experimenting to figure out how to work with the towel and the bowl.

I've never used the KA shield. I think I tried once or twice and found it not worth the effort - it was easier to clean up the counter than to mess with the 2 plastic pieces. I've had a 5-qt bowl and a 6-qt.

NMDemDist2  (1000+ posts)        Tue Jan-27-09 03:03 PM
Response to Original message
 
9. I"m thinking Warpy is on to it

don't turn off the machine, just pour the dry stuff slowly into the bowl as it runs

I do the same with another bowl, but I think I'm gonna try Warpy's idea instead

edit to add, I have a shield that I only use in the cupboard to keep the dust out, it never makes it to the counter

Stupid primitives and their codespeak.

[franksolich]

We have one.
It came WITH our Kitchen Aide stand mixer.

We never use it.

You know, the primitives think they're so cute when they codespeak, like during Doug's ex-wife's Great Mischief nearly four years ago, when recipes for chicken soup were used to get around my fellow alum Skins's ban on discussing a certain topic.

They're not cute; they're just really stupid.

And if franksolich doesn't "get" something, it's a sure bet all the non-baking-and-cooking primitives don't get it either--and that's about 99.786% of all the primitives on Skins's island.

It's just really stupid.

I know it has one of two effects on me.

Depending upon my mood at the time, if a primitive bonfire has all these stupid acronyms, I figure, okay, that's one bonfire I'm not bringing over here, thus depriving the primitives of their sought-after fame and notoriety.

Or if I'm in a different mood, I get so infuriated I feel compelled to bring the acronym-polluted bonfire over here, even if a boring one, so as to illustrate the stupidity of the primitives.

They think they're being cute, but they're actually being stupid.

[Rebel]

We have one.
It came WITH our Kitchen Aide stand mixer.

We never use it.

Oh, that's what it's called? Damn, I should have know it wasn't called "that plastic thing that goes on the top". 

BTW, it came with my Kitchen Aide stand mixer as well. Not to sound gay, but I love that damn thing.

[Chris_]

It's called a manilla folder, they are dirt cheap, adjustable, customizable, they are the perfect do it yourself funnel, shield, paper airplane...
OH, I see the problem, DO IT YOURSELF, which is obviously wrong, an evil plot by the republicans

[Ree]

It's called a manilla folder, they are dirt cheap, adjustable, customizable, they are the perfect do it yourself funnel, shield, paper airplane...
OH, I see the problem, DO IT YOURSELF, which is obviously wrong, an evil plot by the republicans

Yeppers....they work well for so many things...and ya don't have to wash em...

[franksolich]

Well, why does one need a "shield" when using an electric mixer?

Why doesn't one just turn the thing off and add the additional ingredients, and then turn it on again?

[Ree]

Well, why does one need a "shield" when using an electric mixer?

Why doesn't one just turn the thing off and add the additional ingredients, and then turn it on again?

some don't with a stand mixer

[franksolich]

some don't with a stand mixer

You know, at times the cooking and baking primitives can be so stupid, with their wanton lust for more and more and more and more kitchen stuff.

I'll bet they each have a specific paring knife for cutting carrots, another paring knife specifically for peeling potatoes, a third paring knife exclusively for chopping onions, yet a fourth paring knife for cutting hard-boiled eggs in half.

I'll bet they even have a two-quart pot for boiling corn, and boiling corn only, and another two-quart pot for boiling peas, and boiling peas only, and a third two-quart pot for boiling potatoes, and boiling potatoes only.

Apparently the idea that one utensil can serve multiple purposes is too complex of an idea for them to understand.