VitaMix 3600

Originally Posted by Spinner

Ok, you may not believe me but I'm going to tell you anyway. This machine is AMAZING.

It has surgical stainless steel blades. They are flat, not sharp on the edges. That means they don't cut thru the food like a blender. It EXPLODES food when the blades hit it.

The 2 controls are all you need. One of them should be a toggle switch that is marked up for forward and down for reverse. Now, here's the part you will have trouble believing. You can have it running forward and then hit the switch to instantly reverse it. It has so much power that it will jerk the whole machine just a bit sideways when you reverse it. It does not hurt the machine. It's made to be used that way. You see there are no gears in it to be damaged. It runs on some kind of electrical impulse. You can turn it on forward and leave it to run. When you use reverse it is spring loaded to turn off when you let go of the switch. Sometimes when I use forward/reverse a lot very fast, the machine will overheat and the reset button will pop out. As soon as it cools down a bit, you can push the reset button in and go again. I've done this to mine several times and it still works great. No damage as far as I can tell.

The other knob should have 3 settings: low med & high. You really need a book as it's full of recipes that tell you which setting to use on different foods.

Here's a couple recipes for you to try.

Raw Vegetable Hot Soup

4 c. hot water
1 carrot
1 stalk celery with leaves
2 or 3 green onions with tops and roots too, if you wish
5 bouillon cubes
3 Tbsp. tomato paste

Pour hot water into container. Clamp the dome led on. Turn to high speed, lift lever up to on position. While machine is running add carrot, celery, onions, bouillon cubes and tomaot paste through the dome, sample through the spigot. Season to taste.


Vanilla Ice Cream

1 1/2 c. half & half or cream
2/3 c. sugar
1 Tbsp vanilla extract (or 5-7 heaping teaspoons imitation brandy flavoring)
4 c. frozen half & half cubes (for fewer calories, substitute non-dairy creamer frozen into cubes.)

Place ingredients in Vita Mix container, clamp the dome in place, turn to high speed, turn on. If necessar use the tamper to work ingredients into the blades. Within 30 seconds open up the spigot and test the stiffness of the ice cream. If it isn't to the soft serve stage, quickly add one more cup of frozen cubes. Wait 5 seconds and dispense throught spigot with vita mix on low speed.


Pizza Crust

1 c. lukewarm water
1 pkg active dry yeast
2 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour

Grease a large bowl and pizza pan.

Put water, yeast, sugar, oil, salt, and flour in vita mix. Clamp dome in place. use high setting. To mix, wet and dry ingredients push lever up to on position for 1 second, down to reverse for 1 second, then up again for 1 second. Stop machine and remove lid.

To knead dough, two steps are requuired.

Step 1: dip a rubber spatula in flour or water and use it to jab the dough a few tiems to compress it inot the blades.

Step 2: TAP-RELEASE the impact lever 5-7 times. Repeat this two step kneading cycle 8 or more times. The dough will form a ball on top of the blades.

Place dough in prepared bowl, turning once to coat the entire surface; cover and let rest 15 min.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface, punch down and shape into a ball. Place on prepared pan; pat and stretch the dough in the pan, pinching up a collar around the edge to hold the filling. Prick dough in about 6 places. If desired, brush pizza lightly with olive oil to prevent crust from becoming soggy.

Preheat overn to 400F. Let dough rest another 15 min. tehn bake in preheated over 15 min.

Spread with your choice of filling and bake an additional 15-20 minutes until lightly browned.


Quick Coffee CAke

1 egg
1 c. milk
1/3 c. soft butter
1 c. sugar (white or brown)
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp baking powder
2 c. all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 8 x 8 inch pan.

Place egg, milk, butter, and sugar in vita mix. put lid on. use medium speed. turn on and run 10 seconds.

Stop machine and add salt, baking powder and flour. replace dome and tap-release lever until ingredients are well mixed. (you'll need to stop and run a spatula around the container to incorporate all ingredients, then replace the dome led and continue to tap-release.)

Spread in prepared pan and cover with crunchy topping (see below). Bake 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Crunchy Topping

2 Tbsp butter
1/4 c. brown sugar
2 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c. nuts

place all ingredients in vita mix. clamp dome in place. tap-release lever 5 times. Stir up ingredients with a spatula; replace dome and repeat the tap-release 5 more times. stir ingredients again, etc. Crumble over unbaked coffee cake above.


These are some I flipped thru the book and copied real quick. I hope they will give you an idea of what all your vita mix can do.

I almost forgot one of the most important things! When you finish making something in the vita mix, run some hot water in it and a drop or two of dish soap. put the lid on and run it on high for a min, reversing the blades 2 or 3 times. It will clean itself! Now how cool is that?!?

Originally Posted by WanderingOak

BTW, mine doesn't have a reverse switch either. Anybody know why?

Originally Posted by Belfrybat

I found the gaskets lasted about 2-3 years at my rate of use before getting brittle.

Originally Posted by TnAndy

We use ours to can tomatoes as well. Whole tomato with skin goes in, wonderful puree comes out.

Off subject, but this year we tried Amish paste tomatoes (OP, heirloom), and they beat Roma all to pieces for thick sauce right out of the Vitamix. We usually run the Roma puree thru a strainer to get out the seeds, but with the Amish Paste, seed virtually disappeared. HIGHLY recommend this variety if you like thick sauce.

Originally Posted by Jennn19

I just dusted off an old Vitamix Super 3600 that had been in storage for years. It works great, but I'm wondering if there's a trick to keeping the spigot clean/unblocked when grinding seeds and/or making nut butter?

I ground some chia seed with it, but they clogged the spigot something awful. It took a lot of soaking, blending and running water through to get it cleaned up. Similarly, when I tried making a cashew-nut based cream, whole nuts stayed lodged in the spigot and I couldn't get the creamy consistency I was hoping for.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated!!