I just completed a round of research on this category of devices and decided to give the "Kody 21" [K21] a try. They're known as "田螺云厨" on the "TaoBao" platform, or "Kitchen Idea" outside of it. There's also a few other names like "Tokit", "乐小美", "tineco". Waiting for shipment, let's see what happens.
My main use case is for (A) weekly meal preps and (B) quick veg-meat stir-fry, steaming in a small apartment context.
Given that I can access the "TaoBao" universe, I couldn't justify the cost-functionality-ecosystem ratio of a Thermomix TM6.
I observe the following notable pointers in the current generation of this category of device on the "TaoBao" platform
- They can all reach 180C or 160C. For Asian stir fry dishes, this is great. the manual mode for the TM6 allows only 120C.
- Almost all can do a cook up with timers of 12-24 hours. For some reason, TM6 seems to only allow you 99 mins.
- Most units spins up to 10-12k RPM, TM6 spins up to 10k rpm. about the same.
- Price ranges from 391 USD to 1926 USD.
- On the higher end, you can get a 3L main bowl. Awesome for my use case. TM6 is at 2.2L
At the lower end, i.e. the K21:
- 2L main bowl which is enough.
- you don't get a built in scale but ... I am not sure if it's that much of an inconvenience.
- the blade only rotates one direction, hence the need for the tools. Some recipes would necessitate a "tool change". You can't exactly replicate the "throw in and cook" process of TM6.
- K21 tool change is awkward. the tool and the tool core are essentially one.
- Interestingly, there is a K29 from the same company with quick tool change ability (without taking out the core. the seller confirmed both are cross compatible) I'd just have to fork an additional ~70USD for the set of tools that I am interested in, which doesn't feel that bad.
- gets up to 10k RPM but not that relevant for my use case.
- You don't get the awesome ecosystem (paid subscrip) of TM6. Thermomix is way ahead on this. At the risk of my own gastronomic enjoyment, to supplement this, I'm looking forward to using gpt based LLM services to discover and translate recipes from TM6 to the K21
- its mostly metal accessories: pots for steaming, simmer basket. I don't really fancy the idea of anything plastic in a high heat application like cooking.
- Given where I bought it from, the UI is chinese only. Seller claims that its got more recipes on the international variant. we'll see.
- At this price, I could get 2 x K21 and still be half the price of a TM6. If it eventually becomes a workhorse, having 2 x K21 will be better for parallezing my cooking / doing bigger batches of meal preps, than having a single expensive TM6.
Looking at the new TM7
- the corrugated wall of the main bowl design seems to have increased overall surface area, and possibly better heat transfer?
- the lock mechanism of TM6 could crush fingers. I am glad they got rid of it.
My main use case is for (A) weekly meal preps and (B) quick veg-meat stir-fry, steaming in a small apartment context.
Given that I can access the "TaoBao" universe, I couldn't justify the cost-functionality-ecosystem ratio of a Thermomix TM6.
I observe the following notable pointers in the current generation of this category of device on the "TaoBao" platform
- They can all reach 180C or 160C. For Asian stir fry dishes, this is great. the manual mode for the TM6 allows only 120C.
- Almost all can do a cook up with timers of 12-24 hours. For some reason, TM6 seems to only allow you 99 mins. - Most units spins up to 10-12k RPM, TM6 spins up to 10k rpm. about the same.
- Price ranges from 391 USD to 1926 USD.
- On the higher end, you can get a 3L main bowl. Awesome for my use case. TM6 is at 2.2L
At the lower end, i.e. the K21:
- 2L main bowl which is enough.
- you don't get a built in scale but ... I am not sure if it's that much of an inconvenience. - the blade only rotates one direction, hence the need for the tools. Some recipes would necessitate a "tool change". You can't exactly replicate the "throw in and cook" process of TM6.
- K21 tool change is awkward. the tool and the tool core are essentially one.
- Interestingly, there is a K29 from the same company with quick tool change ability (without taking out the core. the seller confirmed both are cross compatible) I'd just have to fork an additional ~70USD for the set of tools that I am interested in, which doesn't feel that bad.
- gets up to 10k RPM but not that relevant for my use case.
- You don't get the awesome ecosystem (paid subscrip) of TM6. Thermomix is way ahead on this. At the risk of my own gastronomic enjoyment, to supplement this, I'm looking forward to using gpt based LLM services to discover and translate recipes from TM6 to the K21
- its mostly metal accessories: pots for steaming, simmer basket. I don't really fancy the idea of anything plastic in a high heat application like cooking.
- Given where I bought it from, the UI is chinese only. Seller claims that its got more recipes on the international variant. we'll see.
- At this price, I could get 2 x K21 and still be half the price of a TM6. If it eventually becomes a workhorse, having 2 x K21 will be better for parallezing my cooking / doing bigger batches of meal preps, than having a single expensive TM6.
Looking at the new TM7
- the corrugated wall of the main bowl design seems to have increased overall surface area, and possibly better heat transfer?
- the lock mechanism of TM6 could crush fingers. I am glad they got rid of it.
- steam basket is still non metal.
Edit1: formatting