Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This KITCHENAID SPIRALIZER ATTACHMENT WITH PEELER is the sort of cooking gadget that my father used to give my mother. She would try it once, declare it more trouble than it was worth, and store it away. But like my father, I love gadgets, and I love this thing. In using it the first time, it helped that I already had a hand-cranked corer/slicer/peeler (see, e.g., VICTORIO Apple and Potato Peeler). This stand mixer attachment works exactly the same, except you don't have to clamp it to a table, and it does a much better job. Whether it's apples, potatoes, root vegetables, or zucchini, it pares only the thinnest outer layer. And it has five different blades to accommodate different kinds of fruits and vegetables for spiral-slicing. (You can use it to spiral slice, to pare, or to spiral slice and pare in a single operation.) Like any complicated kitchen gadget, it takes some practice. The Quick Start instructions could definitely be better. They don't mention the mixer speed (start at Stir, and gradually increase to 3 or 4), or suggest putting the produce to be sliced on the fruit/vegetable skewer BEFORE you put the skewer onto the attachment (a tip found on the KitchenAid web site). Nor do they mention that you should slice off just one end, and put the other end on the skewer, because there will be some waste at the skewer end. A problem that I had, as a beginner, was not placing the produce correctly on the skewer. If you push the apple or vegetable too far onto the skewer prongs, the slicer will stop before it completely finishes slicing the item. If you don't push the apple or vegetable far enough onto the prongs to secure it, the rotating skewer will bore a hole so that the item will stop turning before it's completely pared and sliced. When you get it right, the core can be hard to remove from the skewer after the slicing is done. Still, I like using this thing, and will definitely be getting it out to pare potatoes and to pare, core, and slice apples. When I add in the mixer setup time and the cleanup time (though it's easy to clean), it probably doesn't save me any time (in the quantities I need to prepare). But it's easier and more fun to slice produce with this than to slice produce by hand. I use this spiralizer attachment with a KitchenAid KSM150PSBL Artisan Series 5-Quart Mixer. Something I also like, is that the attachment is packed in a solid storage box, a box that is fitted with Styrofoam shaped to exactly hold the parts. The "presentation box" looks elegant, and also makes it hard to lose the skewer, peeler, or blades.