Vintage hand mixers: home and professional kitchenware

Today the gap between professional and home cooking is narrowing. Not only do people like to experiment with complex preparations at home, but also they like to try out vintage professional equipment in their kitchens. Vintage mixers, vacuum machines and siphons to name a few.

Did you know that there was no real difference in the past? You can find some manual mixers in our museum as well. They date back to the first half of the 20th century; beautiful and used to mix and beat small amounts of ingredients and soft dough. Have you ever seen any of these tools? Which one did you find in your drawer?

The first manual mixers were invented in the 1850s. Initially, hand crank mixers were considered the best of their kind and extremely versatile. Their design has continued to change ever since and eventually they became available in different shapes for different functions.

First egg beaters, that appeared in 1859, look a lot like today egg mixers. The first egg beater with a screw clamp was invented by James F. Monroe of Fitchburg, MA and Edward Pear Monroe in New York.

The 1856 patented model was first used in hotels and restaurants. It became very popular in professional kitchens and laboratories together with its improved versions. Nevertheless, families began to use manual mixers as well. It was the perfection solution to speed up the “laborious and tiring operation” of whipping egg whites.