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Frogleg
 
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Default Pasta Maker - Electric or Manual?

On Fri, 5 Dec 2003 23:31:06 -0500, "contrapositive"
> wrote:

>Hi. Thinking of purchasing a pasta maker for my wife for Christmas. I'm not
>finding as much information as I thought I could. I'm wondering, primarily,
>which is more practical: electric or manual. What are the advantages of
>each? Also, are there any features or attachments I should look for? Avoid?
>Any particular brands to look for or avoid?


Another vote for the manual. They're pretty much all the same 'Atlas
Marcato' style. Absent a disaster, cleaning just involves dusting off.
They come with a dual cutter for narrow or wide pasta, and other
cutters are available. As someone else has posted, you can buy an
electric motor to do the cranking. Manual operation doesn't exactly
*require* 3 hands, but the extra one is helpful. I've never used an
extrusion machine, but have heard plenty of horror stories. Consider
getting a drying rack of some sort as a frill. I've been drying mine
on a broomstick on 2 chair backs, but just got a sort of 'spacesaver'
thing like a mini-clothes drying pole which will be a lot easier than
dodging the chairs. :-)