Pizza Today - January 2016 - 28

sunburn and the only solution is to
then strip off all of the old seasoning
and start all over again with
re-seasoning the pan(s), giving you
a mix of darker, more aged seasoned
pans and light golden colored, recently
seasoned pans with different baking
properties. The dark anodized finish
pans are all but immune to hot soapy
water so there is little chance of
damage to the finish if the pans are
allowed to soak for an extended period
of time.
What do you think of the spiral
mixers for use in a pizzeria?

2 8 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / J A N UA R Y 2 0 1 6

A: Actually, I couldn't think of a

better mixer for use in a pizzeria for
mixing dough. The operative words
being "for mixing dough." While spiral
design mixers are great mixers, having
a rather large capacity with a small
foot print means they can mix doughs
down to as small as 25 percent of bowl
capacity. They seem to do their work
effortlessly and with minimal maintenance.
What is there not to like about a
spiral mixer, then? Well, for starters
they don't have an attachment head,
so the mixer cannot double as a cheese

shredder, meat grinder or vegetable
slicer. They do just one thing: mix
dough. If you like to use your planetary
mixer to blend your sauce, the spiral
mixer will need to sit that one out, too,
since they don't come with a flat beater.
Also, on many of the smaller spiral
mixers, the bowl is permanently
attached to the mixer. It has to be
cleaned in place, scrubbed out, bailed
out, sanitized, bailed out, and wiped
dry at the end of each day. This is not a
deal breaker, but something you need
to be aware of.
So, it all boils down to what do you
want to use your dough mixer for?
Like I said, it is hard to beat a spiral
mixer, but it does have its limitations.
Now, if I were going to upgrade my
existing planetary design mixer I
would be highly tempted to keep my
planetary mixer for all the tasks except
for dough mixing, and then get a spiral
design mixer just for dough mixing.
I might go so far as to say that that
would be the best of both worlds as far
as mixers in a pizzeria are concerned.
On the other hand, if I were working
with a prepared sauce, and preshredded/diced/sliced cheese, I might
be highly tempted to look very closely
at a spiral design mixer.
That's the good news. Now for the
bad: unless you are going to spring
for a new mixer, spiral design mixers
might be a bit more difficult to find
on the used/rebuilt equipment market.
Planetary mixers, on the other hand,
are so wide spread and have been used
in so many different applications that
they are down-right plentiful on the
used equipment market.
You can't go wrong with either type
of mixer, but you do need to know
their advantages and limitations to
determine how each will fit into your
kitchen operation. n
TOM LEHMANN is a former director at
the American Institute of Baking in
Manhattan, Kansas and Pizza Today's
resident dough expert.
http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today - January 2016

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