Milk Frothing (Basic Level)

Basic whipping rules and temperature control

We continue to explore aspects of latte art. The next topic is whipping milk. In this article, I will tell you about the nuances that help you beat better, control milk and about the things that you should pay attention to when whipping, which can help you in this.

I'll start with the basics. Before whipping, we always skip the steam from the steamer. Condensation accumulates inside the tube, so you should always skip it before and after whipping. This is a mandatory rule. Excess water should not be added to milk, it will not do anything good there. 

The second point, do not forget that not all steam engines have a built-in Cooltouch function - a silicone tube inside a metal one, which allows you to touch the metal without getting burned. Therefore, after dumping the condensate, touch the tube only by the silicone handle on the steam engine, otherwise you will get burned.

Location of the steam engine inside the pitcher

‍Next: each steam train has a certain angle to which it can climb. 

How do we position the steam engine inside the pitcher? There are a few basic rules that will help you get used to whipping. If you are a pro, of course, you can ignore them.

The easiest way to learn is to whisk through the spout. The trick is to put the steamer directly into the pitcher's nose. The main thing is not to try to hold the steamer in the air, press it against the pitcher. So it will be fixed and the chance that the whipping will go awry is reduced to almost zero. This will make it easier to control the entire process.

Also, for convenience and to create another foothold, I always support the pitcher with an extra hand. I hold on to the pitcher with my index finger and thumb, and put my little finger and ring finger to the tray of the coffee machine. Thus, the pitcher is even more stable and the whipping is excellent. 

If you do not know how to beat, here is one basic rule for you. Lift the steamer all the way up, position the pitcher on the steamer so that it is horizontal, as if it is standing on a table. 

And then move the pitcher either slightly to the left or slightly to the right, so that the steam engine looks sideways, into the pitcher's wall. That should be enough by now. Through which side to beat there is no difference. Do it the way you are comfortable, as you have adjusted. 

There is another small life hack. Do not lift the steam engine up, but tilt it slightly down and turn it to the side. Then you will be able to fix the pitcher as comfortably and steadily as possible in one hand, while pressing your little finger against the tray, and the other hand will be free for other things, for example, to turn off the espresso.

In fact, there is no magic at all during whipping. The main thing is to correctly set the depth and the pitcher himself in relation to the steam engine. If you did everything right, then almost nothing happens during whipping. 

Whipping up

‍So. First. We have a milk rag. It can be stored on a pallet or somewhere nearby, so that it does not get wet from the steam engine. It is needed to wipe the steamer after whipping. 

We let off steam and wait for only steam to come out, without water drops. We raise the steam engine, install the pitcher. When do I need to insert a pitcher? I advise you to install it so that the nozzle nozzles are almost on the surface of the milk. As soon as you turn on the steam engine, the hiss should start, but without a huge number of bubbles on the surface. If the nozzle is installed correctly, it will be so.

The nozzle should be located between the center and one of the walls, left or right. We pass through the pitcher's nose and, first, the steam engine is located between the wall and the center. Approximately 0.5-1 cm distance of the nozzle from the wall. 

There is a caveat here: the more pitcher you hold, the harder you need to press against the wall. This will help to make the funnel in the milk better. If you do not have enough funnel - install the nozzle closer to the wall. If you feel that the milk is about to pour over the edges of the pitcher-we get to the center. 

The most important thing, again, is that the steamer stays in the pitcher's nose, touches it. Equally important, the pitcher should be positioned almost horizontally, as if standing on something. Don't try to tilt it too far forward or backward. Slopes are normal, but it's best to avoid them specifically. They do not give anything good when whipping.

The only time it can be used is if the steamer doesn't rise as much as you need, it's very low and horizontal. Then it takes place to slightly lift the pitcher's nose up to get the nozzle between the middle and the wall. The slopes that are allowed are a slope in the direction of the steam train. That is, if the steamer is looking to the right , we will tilt the pitcher slightly to the right, for convenience, and vice versa. 

This moment helps the funnel to spin properly, especially if the steam is weak. As soon as the milk is whipped, the steamer immediately needs to be wiped from the milk, because it will immediately dry to the hot steamer. After that, we lower the steam again to remove the remaining milk from the nozzle and inside the holes. It is better to wipe first and then let off the steam, otherwise the steam will heat the metal even more and the milk will stick to the steam engine more strongly. It is important to quickly wipe the steam engine, in this moment every second counts. 

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Whipping point

‍The most common explanation to what temperature you need to beat: as it became hot palms, and stop. On the one hand, this is true, but there are exceptions. Each of us has a different temperature recognition threshold. Someone can put their hand on a hot pitcher and they will be hot, and the other will be at the same temperature as normal. 

By the way, the temperature that we feel with our mouth and hands is different. Do an experiment: heat the milk and put your hand to the pitcher. At first, it may not be so hot, but if you hold your hand longer, you will gradually feel that it becomes unpleasant. You think that you will feel the same temperature in your mouth. But no. Our hands, especially when we touch the iron pitcher, are much hotter than they will feel when drinking. In the mouth, the temperature of milk will be slightly higher than warm. Since our palms have so many nerve endings, more than in any other part of the body, they will be correspondingly hotter. The difference between the oral cavity and the palm will be approximately 10 degrees. 65 degrees for the palm will be comparable to 55 degrees in the mouth. Therefore, if you have a thermometer, it is better to use it. The main disadvantage of thermometers is that they are late with readings. For 3-5 seconds, but they are late. Therefore, it is better not to beat together with a thermometer. First whisk, then set the thermometer and wait until it shows the correct temperature. We looked at it and made adjustments in the right direction. 

Creating a funnel

‍Earlier, I mentioned the term funnel. What is it? Both a simple and complex concept. 

As an example, imagine a blender. Everyone has seen a blender churn at least once in their life. Its main movement is circular, but due to the clover-like shape of the glass, a top-down movement appears, absorbing. It is very important that a good blender mixes from top to bottom, otherwise the texture will not be uniform. With the steam engine, you need to create exactly the same conditions. Circular motion and shuffle from top to bottom.

How do I know if everything is going right? During whipping, the milk will start to sizzle. This sound occurs when air is released into the milk. Here everything is very subtle, it is impossible to say exactly how long this sound should last. Personally, I always focus on the sound, how much air is launched into the milk. But in addition to the hiss time, there is also power. Depending on the power, directly depends on the time. The intensity of the hiss and its quality are important things. If the sound is more sonorous, then the milk gets the proper amount of small bubbles, which are needed. If he is deaf, then we are doing something wrong. From this, the bubbles will be large and not of high quality. 

In the beginning, we always act in two phases: First, hissing, and then-mixing. During mixing, the foam that appeared during the sizzle, we mix with the milk at the bottom, so that the texture of the whipped milk becomes uniform. Unfortunately, over time, the milk in any case will exfoliate and all the foam will be on the surface. But the better we beat the milk, the longer the foam will peel off from the milk. 

You need to move from hissing to mixing smoothly. Many baristas make the mistake of “drowning” the nozzle immediately after the hiss, stopping the hiss.

It is important to find the boundary state between hissing and stirring. If you lower the nozzle too deep at once, the milk will simply swirl inside the pitcher without mixing with the foam. Your task is to visually see how the foam gradually sinks to the bottom, mixes with milk and swirls into a whirlpool.

It happens that even during good mixing, a couple of bubbles remain on the surface of the foam. Such bubbles do not carry any problem. Just tap them a couple of times on the table. The problem is caused by those bubbles that appeared if you continued to sizzle during the mixing phase. For clarity: in total, you beat the milk for ten seconds and, if you “sizzle " after this time, the milk will turn out with a large number of bubbles. This milk is no longer suitable for latte art. During mixing, there should be silence. If you suddenly get a kick out of it, or throw a lot of air into the milk at the wrong moment , it's easier to start over. Tapping out such milk is likely to be problematic. 

By the way, tapping is absolutely normal. Neither at the championships, nor anywhere else, no one punishes for this. The only question is the number of these taps. If you've had enough for a couple of times - you're doing great, you have excellent milk. If you have to constantly tap the pitcher on the table, then something must have gone wrong:) 

Important: After whipping, stir the milk constantly. First, this way you can visually analyze whether it turned out well to beat it and see the amount of foam. Secondly, during mixing, the milk will be several times slower to peel off.

How much milk should I pour?

‍Let's discuss the myth that you need to pour milk through the pitcher's nose. I will say this: this is a purely individual thing. Pitchers are all different. Somewhere the spout starts lower, somewhere higher, so this approach will not always be correct. As I said, in most cases, it is better to focus on half the volume of the pitcher. If the pitcher is 350 ml-170-180 ml of milk will be enough.

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How to submerge a steam train?

‍How do I know how deep to submerge a steam train? Best of all, about half a centimeter from the beginning of the nozzle. Checking the correct depth is quite simple. They set up a pitcher, chose the depth, and turned on the steam engine. If there is no hiss when switching on, it is very deep. If you turn it on and the sound is very muffled and, moreover, all the milk splashes fly at you, then the nozzle is not set deep enough. By the way, the depth depends on the power of the steam engine. So, if you don't have the right to make a mistake, you can deepen the nozzle a little more than necessary and start lowering the pitcher down in the first second, looking for the position you need. I repeat, I always focus on the sound of hissing and recommend it to you. It is very important to listen to milk and focus on it. This is the most important hint.

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Coffee machine settings.

‍In this section, we'll figure out how to set up a coffee machine - specifically steam-to make it more comfortable to work?

There are cars with a steam engine capacity of 0.8 atmospheres and this pressure is quite enough. Others have the same atmosphere, and still others may not be enough. The ideal indicator is from 1.1 to 1.2 atmospheres. This is the optimal, recommended value. Basically, all coffee machines are automatically set to this pressure. If it shows less, it doesn't mean that it will be bad, so try it. It may also be that, for example, the pressure gauge shows an incorrect value.

The question is often in the nozzle, in its holes. There are small holes, there are more. There are standard nozzles, with a nozzle size of 1.5 mm. And there are new ones - 1.2 mm. The smaller the holes, the longer and better the whipping process takes. So, in addition to the power of the steam engine, the size of the holes also affects.

There are coffee machines that do not show the pressure of the steam engine and are guided by temperature. Most often it is La Marzocco. Basically, this is a temperature of 121-122 degrees. 119 or 120 is not enough, more than 123 degrees is already a lot. This is the water temperature specifically in the boiler and the power of the steam engine depends on it. 

If you only whisk in a small pitcher, just a small cappuccino, then you can reduce the pressure so that you can open the valve all the way and it is not difficult to cope with the whipping. If, on the contrary, you whisk, frankly, buckets, you can do more. In general, this depends on the flow of guests and can be regulated. The main rule: the lower the power, the easier it is to beat a small volume and the harder it is to beat a large one. 

In pitchers, in this regard, there is no deep difference. The rules for whipping that we outlined above are suitable for both large pitchers and small ones. The only thing we remember is that if the pitcher is large, we keep the nozzle closer to the wall so that the funnel turns out better. 

Let's return to the idea that whipping a large volume takes a little longer. Most often, it happens that a small volume is overheated, and a large one, on the contrary, is not heated. What is the reason for this?

Imagine holding a pitcher by the handle with one hand and touching the wall with the other, monitoring the temperature. When it gets hot, remove your hand and turn off the steam engine. But after all, a certain amount of time passed before turning off the steam engine and after it became hot. And all the time the milk was heating up. This time and the amount of milk depends on how much the milk will overheat or not warm up. Remember: the more milk you have in the pitcher, the slower the heating will occur until the whipping stops completely.