Efficient mixing for large amounts of food

The kettle is the best mixer in a professional kitchen

In professional kitchens, mixing large amounts of food in one batch is a challenge. Often, the mixing takes a long time, from ten to even forty minutes, and the mixing process is heavy and labor-intensive. Mixing delicate products while minimizing breakage is particularly challenging. With the help of the DiagoMix method, the mixing can, at best, be completed in half a minute!

Normal mixing in a kettle pushes the mass of food forward without truly mixing it. Attempts have been made to solve this problem by dividing the product into layers in the kettle. Despite this, the mixing result is not satisfactory, because in order to mix the food effectively, you need high mixing speeds and quick changes of direction. This often causes the ingredients to break down.

In some kitchens, separate mixing equipment may also be used. However, these mixers are often expensive to purchase, difficult to clean, and unergonomic. Connecting them to an automatic portioning pump is also difficult, or not possible at all.

– A kettle with a special mixing system is, in fact, the best mixer in a professional kitchen, explains Metos’ Product Manager Paavo Lintunen.

– With the DiagoMix method, the food can be mixed in the kettle quickly and efficiently, resulting in a uniform mass, without breaking even the most delicate ingredients, he continues.

 

The mixing time can be as short as 30 seconds when cold cooking

The method of cold cooking is becoming increasingly common in professional kitchens. This means the cold ingredients of the food are placed directly into the containers according to the recipe. Cold cooking takes place in the cooled production facilities of the kitchen. Food is then cooked in service kitchens.

– The advantages of the DiagoMix method are especially apparent in cold cooking, where the mixtures contain cooked, fragile components. The products are mixed gently and extremely quickly! The mixing time of the cold cooking mixture is only 30–200 seconds per batch, Paavo highlights.

– Cooling can be turned on in the kettle – if the kettle has that feature – so it is already cold. When cold ingredients are put into the kettle and mixed, the ingredients stay cold. The cold chain is not broken, and one can ask whether a cold room is needed at all for cold cooking? he points out.

Finished sous vide products can also be really stiff. With the kettle, you can easily turn cooked, cold and solid products into loose pieces; for example minced meat, meat strips or chicken cubes. After that, you can add the other ingredients of the recipe – one minute, and the mixture is ready.

– This saves working time and many work steps, Paavo states.

 

With the DiagoMix method, you can improve kitchen productivity and food quality

In addition to the fact that the DiagoMix method can be used for mixing when cold cooking, it can also be used when cooking.

– For example, the cooking time of raw chicken strips can be shortened considerably, and the final product is of better quality. The preparation of ground beef meatloaf will be faster, if you mix the materials a few times with the method.

Furthermore, foods that are difficult to cool - such as mashed potatoes - cool significantly faster using the method.

Time-saving is an obvious advantage, but the Diagomix method also saves money. With the method and the DiagoMix equipment, a kettle can cook much larger quantities at once, which is a significant advantage and greatly improves the efficiency of a professional kitchen.

When the time spent mixing is reduced, it is also possible to prepare more portions in one day than before. The method is environmentally friendly, as it consumes less water and electricity and saves expensive energy.

Another big advantage is the improvement of food quality.

– Thanks to the method, the mixing process itself is better. When the mixture is more airy, the mixing time is shorter and the mixing speed does not need to be as high, the products remain more intact. Cooling can also be done faster, so products will be of better quality overall, Paavo adds.

The DiagoMix method is a mixing method that uses tilting when mixing. The method is built into all Metos Proveno kettles.

The DiagoMix attachment is a special accessory designed for the DiagoMix method, which allows the kettle to be used to prepare larger quantities at once.

 

What is the DiagoMix method suitable for?

For cold cooking

• Paste-type mixtures: delicate vegetable pastes, fish pastes
• Salads: vegetable salads, feta cheese salads, pasta salads, potato salads, etc.
• Mixtures containing liquid: casseroles, cold cooked casseroles
• Mixing soup bases
• Mixing raw soups
• Mixing and automatic portioning of clear soups

For "fluffing" the products before the main mixing

• "Fluffing" of clumpy sticky rice, pasta or potato
• Quick "fluffing" of sous vide meat

For cooking

• Cooking delicate products that require gentle and quick cooking: chicken strips, fish, shellfish, mussels, etc.

 

Other products connected with our kettle concept

The Proveno DiagoMix Nonstop method

In the nonstop portioning method, several kettles are connected to the same system. As one kettle is pumped or portioned, another kettle is filled and mixed. A special valve enables the portioning pump to run continuously – only the kettle changes.

Pumping and portioning

• The DOS 1 portioning device handles a particle size of up to 5 mm
• The DOS 2 handles 25 mm-38 mm, it is a versatile and commonly used model
• The DOS 3 is a vertical portioning machine, which makes bags itself from plastic film, pumps and portions about a thousand kilos per hour.
• Cleaning

All of our dispensing devices have an automatic or semi-automatic CIP washing system. CIP stands for Cleaning in place. It consists of four different factors: power, temperature, detergent strength and time. With these, a clinically clean production method is achieved.

Examples of other available products: 

• Automatic puree equipment for e.g. pureed soups
• Sous vide equipment, for example baskets
• Pouring planes and aids that improve ergonomics
• Water pouring aid MPT-450 with trolley, for example in the case of challenging floor drain placements