Contents
Introduction
With all the kitchen tools and gadgets available these days, it can be refreshing to get back to the basics and do things by hand. If you love baking, preparing cake mixes among mixing other ingredients, you can make your work easier if have a right manual hand mixer. This is an important item that you should have in your kitchen that makes whisking or whipping without difficulty.
Mixing ingredients by hand involves a little more work, but gives you a sense of satisfaction that you just won’t get with an electric mixer.
Electric mixers are all the rage in the baking world these days, and with good reason. They make mixing your ingredients an afterthought.
The added convenience of an electric mixer, however, comes at excessive prices.
If you’re looking for something that provides some of the benefits of electric mixers, but doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg, a manual hand mixer might be a good option for you.
By manual, I mean non-electric. With a manual hand mixer, you’re able to quickly produce a consistent mixture, but it takes a little more work than an electric mixer.
In this post, we’re going to discuss some of the benefits and drawbacks of manual hand mixers.
By the end of this post, if a manual hand mixer still doesn’t make sense for your situation, find out what it takes to mix batter by hand, without a mixer.
Let’s look at pros and cons of manual hand mixers.
Pros of a manual hand mixer
Manual hand mixers might take a little work on your part, but that doesn’t mean they don’t provide value.
When compared to whisking by hand or mixing with a spatula and bowl, manual hand mixers make your preparation work much easier.
Have fun
With a manual hand mixer, you’re able to mix with two beaters, and two beaters are better than one.
With two beaters, you’re able to quickly mix your ingredients or beat your eggs in less time than utilizing a single whisk.
Being so near one another, the two beaters are able to rapidly blend your mixture by pushing and pulling the mixture through both beaters. Doing so results in a more consistent mixture in less time and with less exertion.
Beaters
A unique feature of this specific hand mixer is its elevated beaters. With most hand mixers, you have to keep the beaters off of the bottom of the bowl as you mix.
The beaters on mixers, however, have extensions that can sit right on the bottom of the bowl while you mix. What this means is that you can rest the beaters on the bottom of the bowl while you mix without worrying about the beaters scraping the bowl.
Quality materials
Usually, the beater blades of manual hand mixer are made of stainless steel.
Stainless steel is ideal for several reasons.
First, it’s durable. Not only is stainless steel tough, but it also will not chip and is resistant to staining. Stainless steel is also scratch and dent resistant.
Another benefit of stainless steel is that it doesn’t penetrate into your ingredients. Because it doesn’t leach into your food ingredients, like some other materials used in kitchen equipment, you can be confident that the flavor of your mixture will be intact.
Stainless steel also looks beautiful. It’s shiny appearance is easy to maintain by gently wiping off the surface after being used.
The stainless steel beater blades aren’t the only nice thing about hand mixers. It also has comfortable, non-slip grips.
The soft and contoured grips on the turning knob and handles keep your hands feeling great when using this mixer for extended periods of time.
Easy to clean
The base of this manual hand mixer detaches from the top and is dishwasher safe. The stainless steel beaters can also be easily removed for quick and easy cleaning.
The rotary gears are securely enclosed, which keeps them protected for easy clean-up.
Small storage
One of the benefits that often gets overlooked with a manual hand mixer is its small storage. If you’ve ever used a stand mixer, you know how much counter space they take up.
Even electric, hand mixers take up a good amount of space on your counter or in your cabinets.
With manual hand mixers, these tools have a little size, you’ll barely notice it on your counter. It’s also small enough to easily fit in your kitchen shelves or drawers.
Price
The last benefit that I will mention, which is probably the most important to most people, is the price.
Whereas your typical electric, stand mixer can cost anywhere between $200 and $500, a manual, hand mixer will generally be about a tenth of the price.
This makes manual hand mixers very affordable for most, and is one of the reasons why they’re still so popular.
Cons of a manual hand mixer
Although manual hand mixers provide many benefits, these kitchen tools do have some cons as well.
Only light mixtures
While electric mixers can handle just about any mixture, manual hand mixers are better suited for light mixtures.
While this hand mixer is primarily used for beating eggs, it can be used for frosting, cake mixes, pancake batter, and more.
However, for thicker mixtures, like bread dough or pizza, you’ll want to choose an electric model.
Needs a little effort
While a hand mixer does make it quicker and easier to mix something than using a whisk or spatula, it still needs some effort on your part.
With electric stand mixers, you can simply push a button and walk away. With a manual hand mixer, you’ll need to churn to get the mixture done.
That’s not to say it’s difficult though. Quite the opposite, in fact. As long as the mixture is light, as suggested, it only needs a little bit of effort to run a hand mixer.
Let’s look at 5 top best manual hand mixers
Oxo Good Grips Quick Manual Rotary Hand Held Mixer
OXO Manual Rotary Hand Held Mixer
Old-fashioned egg beaters have long been relied on for perfectly aerated egg whites and fluffy whipped cream. Now the OXO Good Grips Quick Manual Rotary Hand Held Mixercombines the same dependable results with innovation and ease.
- Smoothly rotating gears are enclosed for protection and easy clean-up
- It has soft, comfortable, non-slip grips on turning knob and contoured plastic handle
- Beaters are elevated and continue to work while device rests on bottom of bowl
- Sturdy stainless steel beater blades can be removed for cleaning or for tasting
- It has a base detached from top and it is dishwasher safe
Customer recommendations on Amazon
“Easy to clean. Easy to hold. Ergonomic. This whisk is an absolute pleasure to use! It is really easy to clean too! One of its best features is that there is never a feeling that your hand/hands are going to slip – beautifully constructed and whisks really fast and well! Yes, it is a little more expensive but you really do get what you pay for here!
I cannot recommend highly enough! It would be an excellent whisk for anyone slightly older or suffering and form of disability too due to its ergonomic features.”
Norpro Egg Beater Classic Hand Crank Style 18/10 Stainless Steel Mixer
Norpro Egg Beater
For the home cook to the professional chef, Norpro’s cookware tools and accessories are perfect for everyday use.
- It is sturdy hand mixer easily mixes up ingredients for smaller baking jobs, without the use of electricity.
- This Norpro manual hand mixer a has fast rotary action to easily beat eggs, blend batters, whip cream or egg whites, cake mixes, pancake batter and for any baking task.
- Hand crank beaters are not fitted to a particular mixing bowl, so you can use in any type of bowl.
- Norpro includes two heavy-duty stainless steel beaters.
- Body and gears are polished aluminum.
- Plastic handle allows for an easy grip.
- It is quick and easy cleanup.
Customer recommendations on Amazon
“I took this for travel baking, it worked great, my grandchildren loved being able to mix with it, They are 8 & 9. It works nice with their small hands. Also with my small hands. Just like we had MANY years ago. Great non-electric appliance!”
Prepworks by Progressive Egg Beater
Prepworks by Progressive Egg Beater
Progressive International boasts over 40 years of thoughtfully innovating kitchen products essential to the everyday cook. What began as a small family of housewares products has grown into a collection of unique gadgets and tools dedicated to food preparation and storage.
- Strong efficient blades are ideal for eggs, batter and whipping cream
- It turns of the handle begins the beating action
- It is made of ABS and stainless steel
- This item is dishwasher safe
- It measures 12 Inch high by 3.25 wide
Customer recommendations on Amazon
” I was a little nervous about buying one of these because of the price and reviews from other products made from other companies. Receiving one star by many costumers is pathetic! But this product is really heavy duty, very sturdy, and works well!”
Danesco 12-Inch Rotary Egg Beater
Danesco 12-Inch Rotary Egg Beater
There are several items that you can use to mix ingredients in your kitchen but if you want to achieve even mixing, then you need to have a manual hand mixer in your kitchen. To choose the right one it can be a tough job but the Danesco 1304071SS works very well.
- It manually mixes and beats eggs, sauces and dressings
- Blends foods quickly and easily with less clean-up than the electric beaters
- This hand mixer has stainless steel blades with chrome handle
- This item is dishwasher safe
Customer recommendations on Amazon
“This replaced a 60 years old one that finally got too beat up to beat! So it had big shoes to fill and has done so admirably, I use this often as a lot of the soups t make for my elderly parents have to be pureed so to speak, so it beats more than eggs I use it for mixing batter , mashed potatoes etc, great product”
Fnoko Stainless Steel Semi-automatic Egg Whisk
Fnoko Semi-automatic Egg Whisk
- This item is durable. The egg whisk is made of food grade stainless steel for durability and you don’t need to worry about bending or breaking often.
- Energy saving and environmental protection. This product has a semi-automatic design, quick and easy to use, mechanical mixing, fast mixing and for any mixing task, saving you time.
- It is easy to use. The kitchen blender only needs to press down handles vertically and stir quickly to prevent excessive fatigue.
- The details are easy to clean: just wash with soapy water and rinse off.
- The item has a wide range of applications: suitable for mixing, whipping and foaming of coffee drinks, or more like milkshakes, whipped cream, cake mixes, pancake batter, salad dressings, gravy, sauces, mayonnaise, meringues and even meat.
Customer recommendations on Amazon
“My daughter-in-law introduced me to this little gem while we were visiting over Christmas. I purchased the set to mix eggs, make whipped cream, and mix drinks like hot cocoa and cafe mochas. To say that this little mixer works well is truly an understatement. I wonder how I ever did without them! They replace our electric hand mixer for almost everything. Easy to clean, too.”
Final Words
I hope this article is useful to you, my dear reader. My items review will help you to choose the best manual hand mixer for your needs.
While any manual hand mixer will have some cons when compared to an electric mixer, the benefits that they provide when compared to using a whisk or spatula make it easy to justify the price.
If you’re in the market for something that provides some of the core benefits of an electric mixer, but you can’t justify the price of one, a manual hand mixer is a great way to go.
I accept that my readers are first concern and I intend to offer you the most dependable and reliable information about the product to help you to order the ideal item for you worth, inclination and style and for any home cooking task.
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