I have to admit it: I have been the proud owner of a Thermomix for 3 weeks and I love this household appliance. Actually nobody should hear this, because for years I have vehemently resisted this appliance. But pureeing is more important than studying and so I dared a self-experiment. Meanwhile I am enthusiastic.

„I’m a man, I cook my own food. I don’t need a device to give me instructions. You’re completely losing touch with cooking and food.“ 

I, UNTIL 3 WEEKS AGO

 

A gain for my laziness

Anyone who has ever made a large amount of bolognese sauce himself knows that cutting vegetables and co. and stirring them forever will eat up most of the time. So I stand there at the stove and do nothing else for 30 minutes but make sure that nothing boils over and stir the red mass over and over again with the big cooking spoon.

Thanks to Thermomix I can chop ingredients to the right sizes in seconds and automate the stirring. Set the time, set the temperature, set the stirring level – in the meantime I can indulge in other “man things”: fathering children, planting trees, building houses, drinking beer.

 

 

Most women love the Thermomix. As a man, I was skeptical not to say “totally opposed”. But pureeing over studying.

ME, ALWAYS ON A SCIENTIFIC MISSION.

 

Mastering the digital transformation

With the Thermomix TM6, Vorwerk has achieved what many other companies and their products can only dream of: An actually analogue product has been sensibly brought into the digital world.

The Thermomix is mainly operated via a touch display. Even here you can see that solid and fast software is behind it. The device reacts quickly and reliably to inputs, the controls are arranged intuitively. So intuitive that, in my opinion, no one in this world ever has to read a manual to operate the part. Except my father, he would press everywhere on it until the part explodes sometime.

The Thermomix cannot simply be operated via the display. In the “Guided Cooking” mode the device shows us step by step which ingredients have to be added next, how long they have to be processed at which temperature and which stirring or mixing stage and supports us with an integrated scale. Filling in exact quantities has never been so easy and fast. Anyway, my old green kitchen scale from the 60s is now retired and I no longer make measuring cups dirty. The scale is also available when the appliance is busy with other activities.

From a professional point of view, I always look at digital user interfaces with a very critical eye when it comes to ergonomics and intuitiveness. I have absolutely nothing to complain about here, my IT nerd heart is thrilled.

 

 

„Does the appliance really take the cooking away from me? No. My recipes are now only shown on a display directly on the pot.“

I, AFTER THREE WEEKS OF THERMOMIX

 

And it’s exactly these smart functions that I have been demonizing for so long. Why is that? Maybe because my ego didn’t want to give up control of the cooking. But on closer inspection, I never put down the wooden spoon: I used to cook from recipes on paper, in books or on the smartphone screen. Now the Thermomix shows me these instructions. I haven’t lost the closeness to food or even cooking, but it saves me a lot of time.

 

 

A lot of money is gone

Let’s get straight to a disadvantage: Yes, the Thermomix is expensive. I am 1300€ poorer. In the past I would have said “1300€ for a mixer? Get away from me with that thing and please never talk to me again”.

But in the past I only had mixers for a maximum of 150€ in the kitchen. And since I made icing sugar myself for the first time with the Thermomix and made flour from whole grains, I know that 150€ mixers are junk. At the latest with the flour they would all have let me down.

Nevertheless I had to talk myself into the big issue. I did that successfully by making myself aware that I had always wanted to buy a decent sous-vide cooker. I would have paid at least 400€ for it.

Note: Yes, I know there are also sous-vide sticks that you can hang in a pot like an immersion heater and yes, I know they are cheaper. But they take longer to heat up and have an exorbitantly high power consumption, because energy is constantly lost through the lid of the pot.

To cut a long story short: The Thermomix can also be used for sous-vide cooking, so you save 400€. Under this argumentation the purchase hurt me a little less.

 

 

Used kitchen grater to sell cheaply. Top condition, slight traces of blood. 5€.

Craigslist

 

 

Speaking of “hurt.” I hate my old kitchen grater. How many times have I sliced my knuckles off while grating carrots, potatoes or parmesan cheese from scatterbrains? That too is over now. Big advantage, justifies the rest of the expense for me. I’ve always been good at talking myself into expensive things – I have rarely regretted it.

 

 

Against food waste

I save time not only when cooking, but also when shopping. Using the “Cookidoo” app I plan the menu for the whole week – and only shop once. The app adds up the quantities of the individual ingredients for me, making it easier to plan my shopping.

By automatically adding up the required quantities of ingredients, I can buy larger packaging units and thus save money in most cases. 500gr pine nuts are cheaper than 4x 125gr pine nuts.

Positive side effect: Since I use the Thermomix, I hardly throw any food away. On the one hand because the “Cookidoo” app supports me with its weekly shopping function to buy only the right quantities, on the other hand because food leftovers can be used for smoothies
Note: I mean for example salad or fruit, not necessarily fish leftovers.

I can transfer the recipes selected in the app for the whole week to the Thermomix with just one click. This way I have them prominently on the display for selection and don’t have to search for the right recipe on the integrated display for a long time before cooking. Another example of the perfect digital functions of the appliance.

 

Sitting at the bar with a Thermomix…

For what I write now, any bartender would probably beat me up.
But if I have to prepare Whisky Sour with fresh egg in a shaker for 8 guests, I am in the kitchen for about three quarters of an hour. When I finally serve the drinks, the first ones already go home.

So yes, damn it. I’m so lazy that I prepare cocktails with the Thermomix in absolute emergency situations. Shame on my head.

 

 

If someone tells me once again that I can make ouzo with the Thermomix, I’ll freak out. Seriously. It’s gonna be in the papers.

 

 

Less reprehensible is the use of Thermomix in the bar environment for the production of cocktail ingredients such as fruit puree. Ice cubes of fruit sorbet, chocolate chips or coatings for the edge of the glass. Spirits can also be mixed with flavours and even liqueurs can be produced.

In the depths of the Internet and in many a recipe book, however, adventurous recipe ideas also appear time and again: For example, for ouzo. And somehow everyone who has ever heard the word Thermomix knows this. Because every second person feels that it appeals to me.

Are you stupid? These recipes read something like this: Put grain into a blender jug, add things so that the result tastes like ouzo.

Ouzo is made from pure alcohol, which was previously distilled from marc (grape residue). The whole recipe is then seasoned with at least fennel and aniseed and if it is high quality ouzo, it is most likely distilled again. This is elaborate, but worth every minute.

If you think that these corn mixtures taste like ouzo, you have probably – forgive me the arrogance – never really drunk good ouzo or watched it in peace: No Louche-effect, no opalescence – in English: nothing gets milky if you add water and ice.

And such botched recipes exist like sand on the beach and nobody seems to question them. Write “grain with aniseed taste” but don’t think I’m stupid. It’s like “vegan sausage” – what is that?

Even I, a guy who lets a mixer shake his cocktails, am too conservative for that.

 

Where did the roast aromas go?

My Thermomix TM6 can fry, at least that’s what the marketing material says. That’s true, too, but if you have a reasonably intact spatial sense, you wonder how to fry a big steak in one piece in the mixing bowl. Clear answer: Not at all.

The frying function is more suitable for small pieces of meat like gyros or shredded meat. There it does what it is supposed to – even amazingly well.

If you want to process larger pieces of meat, you can steam-cook them in the Varoma attachment. This works really well and there are some tasty recipes for covering meat directly in it with a homemade herb or cheese crust, not to say “baked over”. There is nothing wrong with that, the result has always tasted good so far.

But now there are also some recipes that contain for example large pork medallions or beef fillet as a component, which are served relatively puristically: Namely as a piece of meat without crust, marinade or coating, but lightly peppered and salted. The recipes then demand steam cooking of these pieces of meat in the Varoma, and the result is a cooked piece of meat with salt and pepper – without roasting aromas, without the taste of roasting, without edges and corners, without a pink core, without a reason for existence (at least not for me).

So this criticism is not directed against the Thermomix as a device, but rather against the recipe authors who want to do all the work with the Thermomix for better or worse. Are you forced to do this?

Dear people who write these recipes for her: Please don’t be naked and write with this kind of recipes that you can make the vegetable side dishes, sauces and everything else with the Thermomix, but seriously, would you seriously prefer this heated piece of meat to a classic fried steak? Not me. I want roast flavors.

I defy recipes like this to be ice-cold. While I’m grilling or frying, I love to have my new boyfriend do unloved stirring, kneading, cooking or cutting work for me, but steaks and larger pieces of meat are prepared in my pan, the Tefal Optigrill * or preferably over my Weber charcoal grill *.

I defy recipe instructions just as I used to, when I think I know better. So it seems that I still act like a responsible person in the kitchen. A kitchen rebel, despite Thermomix, who now has more time for other things.

 

 

 

All the links in this text are Amazon Affiliate Links (marked with *), and by clicking on an affiliate link I will earn a percentage of your subsequent Amazon purchases. However, this circumstance does not influence the background of my product recommendation. This product recommendation is independent, honest and sincere. 

Bei allen genannten Links handelt es sich um Amazon-Affiliate-Links (markiert mit *). Durch einen Klick auf einen Affiliate-Link werde ich prozentual an Euren darauf folgenden Amazon-Einkäufen beteiligt. Dieser Umstand beeinflusst aber nicht die Hintergründe meiner Produktempfehlung. Diese Produktempfehlung erfolgt unabhängig, ehrlich und aufrichtig.