Ronco PAS17 Automatic Pasta & Sausage Maker
by Ronco Inventions
(Click here)
Product Summary
Manufacturer: Ronco InventionsBrand: Ronco Inventions
Product features:
- Mixes and extrudes pastas, sausage, bagels, cookies, pastry dough
- Comes with 10 pasta dies, Asian noodle/potato pancake die, rugula die
- 12 other dies can be ordered separately
- Instruction/recipe booklet and video also included
- Measures 7 by 11-3/4 by 10-1/2 inches
Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Ronco PAS17 Automatic Pasta & Sausage Maker
Customer Review: I like It
Summary: 4 Stars
I read all the reviews before buying this item and decided to go ahead and give it try with the idea in mind that if it was lousy at making pasta, I would use it for making sausage. So far, I have been successful at both. I have had the pasta maker for a couple of months and use it twice a week to make pasta. I think it's a nice machine. It's a little tricky to get the dough right but it's worth the effort to learn. In the beginning, stick to the same brand of flour and use the same measuring utensils until you know what the correct consistency of the dough is. Once you get the hang of that, don't expect your pasta to be the same length. The pasta that extrudes through the die is always longer in the middle with the side pieces at times being several inches shorter. Of course this doesn't affect the taste but it is rather annoying.
You should only use 2 cups of flour in the machine. Anymore than that and you will have problems with the face plate coming off or cracking and the dough will push up on the lid and cause problems. I called Ronco and the maximum amount of flour to use is 2 cups. I found out by trial and error that the maximum amount of meat to use for making sausage is 2 lbs. It says in the manual to add up to 2 lbs of meat but it doesn't say you can't add anymore. Trust me, you can't! The lid and the face plate will come off!
The directions in the manual on what the dough should look like really aren't that great since they are illustrations and not actual pictures. So make sure you watch the video to get an idea of what the dough should look like. The manual specifies that it's the proper consistency when small pea sized lumps appear. It's more like when small walnut sized lumps appear. They should hold together and be moist but not sticky when pressed. Add the liquid slowly. I drizzle in 3/4 of it, let it mix a minute or so, stop the machine and check the dough before adding any more. If the dough is granular like cornmeal and won't hold together in a clump when pressed, I know it's too dry and add the rest of the liquid. Sometimes I need all of it, sometimes, I don't.
Depending upon what shape die you are using, the machine may make a loud high pitched whining sound as the dough is extruding. I thought something was wrong with it but remembered that I could hear the same sound in the video (it's faint but if you listen carefully you can hear it) so I assume that this may be the loud noise mentioned in the manual. I've only heard it when using the sphagetti die. Make sure you place the die in a bowl of hot water before using it. As an added tip, place a drop or two of oil in the water. This helps when the dough is extruding.
Cleaning the machine is a lot easier than cleaning the other pasta maker that I used to own since all of the parts are removeable and can be placed in the dishwasher. I prefer to hand wash mine, and it takes no time to clean the parts. I let the die and the locking ring sit out for awhile so the dough can dry and then I remove it with the die pick.
The pasta maker does a really good job at extruding meat for sausage. I thought it would be pretty cool to just make one long sausage and then twist it off into links. I suppose this takes experience because I broke the casing after the first sausage. It's easier to just twist them off when they are at the length you want. I ordered the accessory pack that has a variety of dies, casing sizes and sausage horns and have really enjoyed using the machine to make different types of pasta and sausage.
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