Omid . . . My question now is when you are using the KA mixer, are you employing the paddle or the dough hook? I know my KA, when using 1st speed, has 40 RPM. If you use it with the spiral dough hook, however, this translates to 94 RPM.
Grazie,
Salvatore
Dear Salvatore, when I use my KitchenAid stand mixer (Pro 620) for the purpose of making pizza dough, I always use the "spiral dough hook" on the slowest speed only, i.e., the "stir" speed.
If you meant to compare the RPM of the KitchenAid Mixer with the RPM of Santos Fork Mixer, each has its own unique dynamics that make comparison between the two not easy. In other words, the 84 RPM of Santos' fork is of a
different class than the, as you put it, "94 RPM" of KitchenAid's spiral hook.
It appears that the KitchenAid mixers have two simultaneous RPMs at each speed:
1. The
clockwise,
horizontal-axis RPM of the "shaft" (AKA "beater shaft") to which the hook is attached, and
2. The
counter-clockwise,
horizontal-axis RPM of the "shaft holder" (AKA "planetary") which orbits the rotating shaft around the circumference of the mixer bowl which is stationary.
(And, of course, there is the RPM of the "motor" itself, which is the impetus underlying the "shaft" RPM and the "shaft holder" RPM.
I am not sure to what extent, if at all, the clockwise rotation of the "shaft" and the counter-clockwise rotation of the "shaft holder" cancel out or counter-effect one another. I know for sure that the speed of the "shaft holder" of my KitchenAid is 40 RPM at the "stir" speed. I do not know the "shaft" RPM. (Last week, I telephoned a KitchenAid representative who unfortunately could not find out the RPMs of my mixer!) In contrast, Santos has only one RPM:
1. The motor speed of 1800 RPM (at 60 Hz), which translates to
vertical-axis, not horizontal, counter-clockwise fork RPM of 84. (The motion of dough rotates the non-motorized mixer bowl clockwise.)
Generally speaking, some Santos owners, including myself, believe that 5 minutes of kneading with Santos (which has only one speed) is probably tantamount to 20 minutes of kneading with KitchenAid at the slowest speed. As you can see, the excessive fork speed of the Santos mixer is quite overwhelming!
Fork mixers, in general and in contrast to planetary mixers, more effectively contribute to "physical rising", not biological rising, of dough during kneading, which implies that the dough is oxygenated in a better manner (without heating up) for the purpose of making Neapolitan dough.
Unfortunately, the
fast speed, not the physical design, of the Santos mixer's fork over-oxygenates and heats up (not as much as many other mixers such as the Kitchen Aid) the dough, in addition to over-buttressing the gluten network throughout the dough mass—which results in a crust that is not tender enough for Neapolitan pizza. Having a Santos fork mixer is akin to owning a Stradivarius violin that has its tuning pegs permanently glued to the peg holes inside the headstock! There is no point playing the violin if it can not be tuned, does not matter how divine it sounds. Good day!
