Apparently the very best auto-heater-frother is Breville’s (it can even go in the dishwasher). But rather than spend $130 on that, or $60-something on the Aeroccino, I just use a microwave + one of the $15 hand-held spinner things. Maybe someday, though…
You can get one of the spinner things for $2.79 at Ikea: PRODUKT Black Milk Frother - Popular & Handy - IKEA
I’d need to time it to be sure, but my espresso maker steams milk (8-ish oz) in roughly 30 seconds, quite possibly less (it happens so fast I need to be quite careful moving between initial expansion and continued heating/smoothing stages). It’s all in the amount of power you have behind it. As a small point, I’m not a fan of “stiff peaks” on milk in general - you want to expand your milk to make it larger in volume and have small bubbles (the closer to invisible, the better!) The milk should integrate in with the coffee, instead of sitting on top of it.
Serious eats has a nice guide here.
I think the big thing that I prefer about the little frother gadget compared to the steamer is that it’s just infinitely easier to use and clean up.
I mean, sure you can steam milk in 30 seconds, once everything is ready to go, and you need to set up the machine (presumably easier if you are using these machines anyway to make espresso), actually steam the milk, and you need to clean it all up afterwards. I freaking hate the dried milk froth that could collect on the steam wand.
The nice thing about the gadget is that from cold milk in the carton, you have hit milk 80 seconds later. There is no prep, and cleanup is simply rinsing it in the sink. And you don’t need to actually do anything, just push a button.
I get what you are saying about not needing, or wanting it to be super stiff. If you do just drop it on top, it will indeed just sit there kind of pointlessly. However, I’ve found that you can make some amazing cappuccino with the stiff fruity it makes, if you mix it into the coffee some, as it integrates in but also keeps it’s fruity, and for a long time, making a super light and fluffy drink which is quite nice. As you describe, the result of the froth is extremely fine, with no real visible bubbles, the milk just becomes fluffy.
Overall though, the real thing is that I just can’t be bothered to steam milk. I just won’t do it, and as a result won’t make a cappuccino normally. But this thing makes it so easy that I actually will.
My cleanup of my steam wand is to 1) Take a rag 2) Squirt some steam on it for 3 seconds 3) wipe the wand once. Adds about 10 seconds onto the whole process (unless you never do it, then it takes a few minutes.) That said, I know I’m 110% over the top about having coffee in my home the way I like it, so I tend to go to great lengths to do so, and don’t reasonably expect anyone else to. If you’ve had good espresso drinks in the northwest (Seattle, Portland), my stuff isn’t as good, but is in the ballpark.
Your handle is espresso Jim. You are operating on a different level than I am, I believe.
Never search out coffee forums on the internet. Like all things internet, you’ll find the crazies :). “Question: Should I get a mid-range $2000 coffee maker, or should I just get a $3000 good one?” Answer: “well if you’re considering spending $3000, I’d recommend going just a bit further and getting the $4,000 one”. Lol.
Internet Thing Aficionados have a real problem with Budget Creep. I read a post on /r/BuildAPC just yesterday that went something like
“Hey guys, I want to build a computer than can do [stuff] and I have a working budget of about $900-1000. Some of my picks have put me a little above that to $1,100, but I think they’re good ones. Here they are: [PCPartPickerLink, with total pricetag of $1,250].”
Top comment was suggesting he bump the graphics card up a notch, IIRC ;)
Did anyone else get a SteakAger? My first one was delivered in pieces…it looked like a bomb had gone off inside of it. I pieced it back together as best I could and stuck a prime 4 rib ribeye roast in it. It’s now been aging for 18 days and looks great. I am going pull it at 21 days and cut it down to 4 steaks. Next up is a prime brisket. Going to age it 21 days then grind it up for burgers.
What does it do? Some kind of refrigerator with an air circulator or something? And when you say it looked like a bomb went off, do you mean it was broken or something?
Was it intentionally in pieces? I.e. some assembly required?
Hey hey - I’ve owned the $2K machine, and it’s total shit! (not…serious.) That said, I think Tom actually owns a nice entry level “real deal” model, the Rancilio Silvia, which looks like it costs around $600. That’s when you hit the “serious” point with espresso, and I feel like other machines just make it easier to be more consistent, but you’re in the right ballpark and you’re drinking what is actually technically espresso (1.5 oz of liquid extracted over 25 seconds at 9bar of pressure.)
Like people discussing graphics in their games, you weigh the opinion of the Atari Lynx owner differently than the Geforce Titan X owner.
It looks like it requires power to run - how do you get a power cord into the fridge? Definitely an interesting device!
My SteakAger was in pieces because the packaging was terrible. They just dropped into a cardboard box, there was no styrofoam or protection at all. A lot of other people had the same problem I did, based on the comments from their KS page.
As for what it is, its a box that sits inside of a fridge. It has a couple of fans, one to circulate air within the box and one to exhaust moist air. It also has a UV lamp to kill bacteria. It requires power and you snake the power cord out of the fridge door.
My wide wanted to try a recipe out of the local newspaper for a lighter take on spaghetti an meatballs. The “meatballs” were made from chick peas, and some of the pasta was replaced with zucchini “noodles”. It didn’t turn out terrible, and the zucchini noodles made the meal so that it didn’t feel like it was sitting in my stomach afterwards weighing me down. The noodles were hand cut with a knife - a total pain in the butt. They also came out different sizes to it made it tough to cook evenly. Zucchini can go to mush very quickly. So…
Does anybody have a recommendation for a vegetable spiralizer? I’m lazy about cleaning so if it can be tossed in the dishwasher, that’s great.
Maybe consider just using spaghetti squash next time? Pretty much perfect for that exact purpose. . .
. . . I suggest, since I don’t have active experience with any spiralizers ;)
Spaghetti squash almost lost me a girlfriend. Never again. Evil stuff.
I’m a huge fan of spaghetti squash. But not necessarily as a pasta replacement.
As for a vegetable spiralizer, I have one like this (or this exact one, I can’t remember). http://www.amazon.com/Spiralizer-Vegetable-Shredder-Spaghetti-Vegetables/dp/B00KOWGZJE/
They say you can put it in the dishwasher, but I never do because I feel like it cleans up pretty easily by hand. That said, I never actually cook my zucchini “noodles”. I usually find them tender enough as is, but YMMV.
Yeah, spaghetti squash is a pretty nice alternative to regular spaghetti if you’re already used to such substitutions. It’s way healthier than pasta. It’s very easy to make.
What if you just got a mandoline that could julienne stuff? It would be a bit more versatile with square noodles being the only drawback.