Tips & Tricks: Side to Side Whisking

I like to whip cream using a whisk instead of my Kitchen Aid mixer.

There's something tactile about watching the cream change as I whisk it around. And to my mind it makes less to wash up after. Though that's probably not really true. But it's stuck in my head, so there you go.

I was interested when the July/August Cook's Illustrated has a piece on The Best Way to Use a Whisk.

It turns out that "side-to-side" works best. Much better, in fact, than the standard beating action we've all been taught. There's a lot of scientific talk about "shear force" and suchlike, and you can pick up a copy to get all the scoop.  I made a Pavlova last weekend and whipping up that cream with a back and forth action was definitely easy.

I also must put in a word here for Trader Joe's heavy cream. They've got really great dairy products, including a cottage cheese that is better than any of the regular stores. And their whipping cream is a nice thick and delicious product.

More about that Pavlova to come ...

No More Brown Cut Fruit!

I read about this in Cook's Illustrated a while ago. If you don't want cut fruit to brown, toss the pieces into honey water. It works better than acidulated water (water with lemon juice in it).

They used 2 tablespoons of honey to one cup of water, dunked the fruit for 30 seconds, and it didn't brown for 8 hours.

I have been using a more casual approach since I'm not a cooking magazine.

I just squeeze some honey into a bowlful of water (no measuring) and toss in the apples while I'm cutting. I drained them later and put the extra slices into a plastic bag in the fridge. They were perfectly good for lunch the next day.

I also used this on potatoes I was cutting up for a gratin.

And I never noticed any extra sweetness, probably because there is relatively little honey to water with my method.