These Practical Ways to Use a Whipping Siphon Are Not Limited to Whipped Cream
Siphon whipping tools that seem best for trendy restaurant chefs. I appreciate whatever you can do with them, but I will not complement my everyday dinner with smoked salmon espuma . I am wondering how this might help me speed up the process , especially infusion. Here are some clever ways you can use it at home.
To see if a whisk siphon can help me make food and drinks tastier and faster, I grabbed my iSi Gourmet Whip (I have this one for about $ 113 on Amazon) and tried my hand at infusions, foam, and soda.
What is a whipping siphon?
If you’ve never heard of a whipping siphon before, it is essentially a system that allows you to fill a liquid with gas. There are two types of gas used: nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide. What gas you use depends on what you are trying to do. Carbon dioxide is only really good for carbonating drinks (or fruits), and nitrous oxide is used for pretty much everything else. According to modernist cuisine , nitrous oxide goes especially well with fat:
Whipping siphons have been developed for whipping creams with a high fat content. Nitrous oxide is much more soluble in fat than in water, so high fat liquids tend to foam better in the siphon than low fat liquids.
This makes them great whipped cream dispensers, but it has many other uses. In fact, I won’t even talk about whipping cream, you all know how to do it, and that is why most people buy whipping siphons. Let’s explore some of these other, more interesting uses together.
Add flavor to alcohol, oil, and more
Infused liquids are more fun than annoying “regular” fragrant ones. I mean, the vodka is great, but the vodka is full of flavor like … I don’t know, juniper ? – much more interesting. You can use a siphon to quickly whisk almost any liquid, such as water (boring), vinegar, oils, or ethanol. Guess which one I decided to try?
If you guess ethanol, go to the class leader. The main way the whisk siphon helps with infusions is by speeding up the whole process. While homemade tincture usually takes a few days , using a siphon will get you there in half an hour.
To test how well and how quickly the siphon picks up flavor, I wanted to focus on one very recognizable ingredient: vanilla. The most mainstream vanilla-flavored vodka is sugary junk, and I wanted to see if I could create a better product in a short amount of time.
I poured 250 ml of plain vodka into the siphon with 1 vanilla pod cut in half . Then I charged it twice with nitrous oxide (this is the amount you need for a siphon of my size, always check the manual to make sure you are charging the correct amount), shake it six times and let it sit for ten minutes. … After ten minutes I degassed the siphon and poured myself a small aliquot to “test”. The vodka was more smelling of vanilla than vanilla, so everything went back into the siphon for another charge and another ten minutes of hovering. This extra time really helped; it was one of the most vanilla vodkas I have ever tasted and tasted like real vanilla, not the sweet-sweet goo you might have seen in liquor stores.
So that’s it: flavored vodka in less than half an hour. Obviously, different ingredients infuse at different rates, so you may have to play with time, but generally more “wet” ingredients like fresh leafy herbs and fruits infuse fairly quickly and drier, tougher ingredients will take a little longer. but 30 minutes should be enough time for almost any alcohol infusion.
For infused oils and vinegar, the iSi website recommends 15 minutes of rest after shaking for most recipes (like garlic oil and tomato vinegar ), but a shorter time for super-strong ingredients like hot peppers , which should sit around five.
Prepare quick pickles, fruit with booze, and more
Just as a siphon can fill a plain liquid with a flavored solid, you can add flavor to lighter-tasting foods by placing them in a siphon with a more flavored liquid. As someone who eats pickles, I’m always on the lookout for the next “emergency pickle” recipe, so I decided to start with that.
I prepared Alex Guarnaschelli’s Quick and Easy Pickle and poured it along with a chopped clove of garlic, a few sprigs of fresh dill, and a pound of spear-chopped cucumbers. I charged it twice with nitrous oxide and let everyone get to know each other within 15 minutes. The result was a very crisp, slightly brine marinade, but I wanted more marinated qualities, so everything went back to the siphon. After another round of charging and another 15 minutes of chilling (like “hanging out” rather than just freezing) came a spicier pickle with a nice vinegar bite, and I’ve been snacking on them ever since.
You can use this method to quickly marinate just about any vegetable with just about any pickle, but you can make it work doubly by insisting on the fruit with alcohol. Would you like whiskey-infused cherries for your cocktail? Just toss them into a siphon with your favorite bourbon, rye or whatever, charge, shake and rest for half an hour. After degassing, you will have a fantastically drunk fruit, but you will also have a fruit drink.
Fill your own refreshing, carbonated fruit and seltzer water health benefits
I’m only hydrated because of the soda, mostly La Croix. My favorite flavor is pamplemousse (grapefruit), so naturally I wanted to see if I could make my own, tastier version of this life-sustaining drink.
I didn’t actually follow any recipe, I just peeled the zest from the ruby red grapefruit and tossed it into a siphon with a liter of cold water. I charged it twice and left it on for an hour, after which I was greeted with super-aromatic, super-carbonated, super-grapefruit water. If you, like me, are a soda addict, this is huge because it means you can become your own La Croix factory and produce super-exclusive fragrances that no one else has access to. It’s not as cheap as buying a 12-pack of La Croix (which costs just over a dollar a liter, depending on where you shop), but essentially you get a liter of your own soda for the price of two. cartridges (about $ 1.60) so it’s not that bad.
But the fun doesn’t end there. Although it will take a little longer, you can carbonate the actual fruit chunks . Just toss your favorite lollipops into the siphon, charge and let them stand in the refrigerator overnight (at least twelve hours) and wake up to soda, oranges, or pineapple slices. It’s like Pop Rocks, but it’s good for you.
Make impressive, quirky foams
This next trick is great for two types of people: those who like to surprise their guests with unusual cooking techniques, and those who hate eggs. This recipe from ChefSteps uses nothing more than fruit juice and gelatin (and your trusty siphon) and can make a whimsical aromatic foam perfect for adding to cocktails, desserts or even savory dishes. If looks super elegant and a chef, but nothing is easier.
For fruit foam you will need:
- 500 g fruit juice or other liquid
- Ice, for an ice bath, as needed
- Ice bath water as needed
- 3.8 g gelatin
Set an ice bath to cool and set aside. Combine the gelatin and 125 grams of your chosen juice and heat gently until all the gelatin is dissolved. Mix with the rest of the liquid, charge with three nitrous oxide cartridges and shake vigorously. Squeeze out some foam and recharge if you want the foam to get even more foamy. Place the siphon in an ice bath or refrigerator until you are ready to release it to the world.
I had some pineapple juice that needed to be used up (almost exactly 500 grams), so I went the tropical route and made a super simple pineapple-rum “cocktail”. I put the word “cocktail” in quotation marks because the two ingredients hardly seem to be one, but the moment I added rum to this libation of two ingredients, it was all enhanced and suddenly felt very “artful”.
Note: This recipe produces a lot of foam. “How much foam?” – you ask, 500 grams of foam that looks like this:
So keep that in mind.
Although this recipe was designed for cocktails, froths are a fun and playful way to decorate a wide variety of dishes. The cherry foam will be delicious on top of the chocolate ice cream, and the lemon foam can be a fun way to spice up a delicate seafood platter. Brine foam is an intriguing concept to me, I just don’t know what to wear it on.
So even if I never use this thing to make my own burrata or floating root beer cryo, I’m still very happy to have one. Heck, even if I only used it to flavor ethanol and quick marinade, it was worth it.