No whisk, no mousse

"The invention of the balloon whisk was a culinary god-send and a total mystery. " Sylvia Kapoor 1843 Magazine

Yesterday I was pondering on when and how the whisk was invented. So today I looked into it and I'm still not quite sure I know the answer, although I did learn quite a lot along the way. The first thing is that a whisk is not simply a whisk. The above modern collection of whisks is just an example of what's on offer. There are many, many more. All designed to do slightly different things. And this collection does not include the hand mixer or the big electric mixers, which probably most of us use.

Yesterday I thought that whisks must have existed from a long time ago. And I am sort of right but not completely. The first whisks were made from bunches of twigs tied together.

And you can still buy them. They are mostly described as Scandinavian. And mostly described as being birch, but really I cannot find out why Scandinavian - everyone has trees after all - and why birch. The Scandinavians don't seem to have done anything specifically Scandinavian with them. Whatever the reason it is pretty certain that early whisks were indeed made of twigs, stripped of bark, cleaned and tied together in bunches. And indeed the twigs might even impart some flavour to whatever you are whisking. A sixteenth century book called the Opera di Bartolemeo Scappi has this illustration of a young cook wielding one of these over a frothy bowl of something. It looks like he is spinning it between his hands.

If you were careful about the wood you chose, the wood itself could bring another flavour element into what you were making - apple trees were a favourite - as witness this old Shaker recipe that I found in Wikipedia.

"Cut a handful of peach twigs which are filled with sap at this season of the year. Clip the ends and bruise them and beat the cake batter with them. This will impart a delicate peach flavor to the cake." Amy Bess Williams Miller - The Best of Shaker Cooking

It's not very often that you are asked to make some of the equipment you need as part of a recipe is it?

And moreover it was really, really hard work.

It could take an hour to whip cream with a chocolate mill, and twigs were fragile and hard to keep clean and dry, which they needed to be for egg whites to form a froth. As a result recipes that required whipping and whisking were scarce." Sylvia Kapoor 1843 Magazine

On the other side of the world the Japanese have been hand carving whisks from bamboo for hundreds of years. 500 it was claimed in the article that I found. The implement is called a chasen, and it is used for making matcha - a specific kind of green tea used in tea ceremonies.

"The sole purpose of a chasen is to mix the powdered green tea called matcha with hot water so the particles, which are as tiny as the smoke of a cigarette, are completely suspended in the water. Depending on which tea ceremony school you may follow, the chasen and student can produce a luxurious foamy cap with delicate white streaks running through it, that hides the deep emerald liquor below. As you sip the foam, you instantly unveil the hidden gem waiting for your admiration." Holly Helt - Chiki Tea

Here is a modern craftsman working on one and below are some of the finished articles.

I can't imagine how much they must cost. Exquisite, as it seems to me all Japanese art and craft is - and just a tiny bit precious.

Romantic yes, but not practical.

It was really not until the 19th century and the invention of steel that the modern whisk appeared. But before I come to the modern whisk and some of the science of whisking, let's remember the rotary egg beater.

Do you remember these? We had one at home and this was what we used to whip up egg whites. You turned the handle like crazy and the beaters whizzed around beating the eggs. Much easier than a whisk or a fork. You can still buy them although I have no idea why you would when the modern equivalent of the electric hand beater is what you would probably use these days. I certainly do and, yes, I confess, mine is from Aldi.

It's a pretty recent purchase though. Before this I had a Phillips machine that I had been given as a wedding present I think - or fairly soon after our marriage anyway. I had had it for years, but alas it had finally died. I doubt that my Chinese made Aldi model will last as long, but it's pretty proficient and rather nice looking too. It does the job.

So jump to the 1960s, Julia Child and her television series The French Chef - in the first episode of which - she wielded a balloon whisk and created a demand. An olden day 'Delia effect'. If you watched that Julia Child video yesterday you will have noted the infectious enthusiasm with which she would attack whipping up eggs. So you can sort of understand why she would have had that effect. There were no other cooking programs back then. This was a complete novelty.

Many chefs still swear by the balloon whisk and there does seem to be some science behind their reasoning, although I notice that Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, for one, was all for using an electric mixer. Now I have got one of these and if I have a lot of egg whites I do use it for this purpose, but frankly I don't think it's as good as the hand mixer. The whisk attachment does not get used nearly as much as the pastry one. It doesn't seem to get right down to the bottom of the bowl somehow and some of the egg white remains liquid at the bottom. Maybe that's why chefs recommend the balloon whisk.

The science says:

"When you pull the thin wires of a whisk through liquid, such as egg white or cream, each wire creates a small vacuum behind it as it is pulled through. Air rushes in to fill this vacuum, and is thus incorporated into whatever we are whisking. The more wires a whisk has, the more vacuum streams are filled with air, and the more quickly your egg whites or cream will whip into a stable foam. Knowing that, it’s pretty easy to see that the more wires a whisk has, the better for creating a foam." The Reluctant Gourmet

Wire whisks come in all sorts of shapes and sizes as the picture at the top of the page demonstrates. I only have one myself - an all purpose kind, although, no, now that I think about it I have one of those with a spirally kind of wire somewhere. I didn't know what to use it for but I now think it's for gravy. Me I just use a spoon.

"Whisks can be categorized in two basic ways: by number of wires and by shape. Round whisks with many wires are best for whipping air into liquids. Flat whisks with fewer wires whip in less air and are better for mixing products that require a smooth, dense finish, such as sauces and gravies." The Reluctant Gourmet

And if you are doing it by hand you apparently need to recognise that there are different techniques for different things. Overall the 'scientists' seemed to think that a sideways motion was most efficient by far for everything except whisking egg whites, in which case a beating motion was best. I find I tend to spin the bowl and keep the hand beater steady when doing egg whites. But that's just me.

"Whisk more slowly for a denser texture; whisk rapidly for a lighter texture." The Reluctant Gourmet

"You shouldn’t ever whisk in a circular stirring motion, as it’s completely ineffective." Cooks Illustrated

Well that's a bit definite isn't it?

I do use my wire whisk - mostly for sauces over the heat to get out any lumps, or else for beating eggs for cakes. It's easier to wash up the wire whisk than a big mixer. Although is it? Maybe it just depends on the mood I'm in. Egg whites, and whipped cream though - a machine for me. As I've said before, I'm lazy.

Alas there's more to making a meringue than getting the egg whites to the right consistency. And I always fail on that.