Fun with an iSi siphon

[Baggy]

If you want a starter guide to some of the things to do with your whipper, you might take a look at The Cooks Book edited by Jill Norman. The starring attraction is a chapter by Ferran Adria on foams – it must be the least expensive access to some elBulli favourites!

I often use the whipper in combination with a Thermomix. Works really well as I can put, say, the ingredients for a hot mayonnaise foam in the Thermomix. When I’m ready to serve, I blitz at 70C for 2 minutes, filter the sauce into the whipper, charge shake and spray. All this takes less than 5 minutes and I don’t have to bother about making a bain marie to keep the contents of the whipper warm.

[chefsimon]

If you want a starter guide to some of the things to do with your whipper, you might take a look at The Cooks Book edited by Jill Norman.  The starring attraction is a chapter by Ferran Adria on foams – it must be the least expensive access to some elBulli favourites!

I often use the whipper in combination with a Thermomix.  Works really well as I can put, say, the ingredients for a hot mayonnaise foam in the Thermomix.  When I’m ready to serve, I blitz at 70C for 2 minutes, filter the sauce into the whipper, charge shake and spray.  All this takes less than 5 minutes and I don’t have to bother about making a bain marie to keep the contents of the whipper warm.

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I ve not tried that before baggy i ll look into it, so i d imagine you do that when the first check comes on then keep warm?

where you cooking?

[Baggy]

Chefsimon – sorry to disappoint but I’m only a keen home cook.

I have been trying out some of the el Bulli recipes when friends come round – with the bite sized dishes and no commis I have to prep like mad. I tend to fill the Thermomix at the last stages of prep, maybe an hour before I want to make the sauce, and it takes a lot of anxiety out of the last minute things.

If you get the opportunity to look at The Cooks Book, I can say that the gin fizz (basically a sour made of gin/lemon granita and topped with a hot gin/lemon/egg white foam) is spectacularly good. I have been using it as one of the appetisers (usually do 2 amuse, 2 appetisers, 2 entrees, 2 desserts as a standard). But hot foamed mayonnaise with asparagus and asparagus sorbet is another absolute favourite for taste and surprise (another el Bulli dish).

[ravelda]

Thanks all for all your ideas. I was away most of the weekend, but did have a good old play with the ISI over the weekend. I am going to give my boudin noir foam a go this weekend, I really thank that it will be a fantastic combo with scallops and a cauliflower ravioli, some of my favourite ingredients.

As for where I work chefsimon, it is a long and rather complicated story, but although not my main trade (I am a banker!) I have done a number of stages at some of our top restaurants here in the UK and work every weekend (for free) in a restaurant called le vacherin in London (www.levacherin.co.uk)

[chefsimon]

Chefsimon – sorry to disappoint but I’m only a keen home cook. 

I have been trying out some of the el Bulli recipes when friends come round – with the bite sized dishes and no commis I have to prep like mad.  I tend to fill the Thermomix at the last stages of prep, maybe an hour before I want to make the sauce, and it takes a lot of anxiety out of the last minute things.

If you get the opportunity to look at The Cooks Book, I can say that the gin fizz (basically a sour made of gin/lemon granita and topped with a hot gin/lemon/egg white foam) is spectacularly good.  I have been using it as one of the appetisers (usually do 2 amuse, 2 appetisers, 2 entrees, 2 desserts as a standard).  But hot foamed mayonnaise with asparagus and asparagus sorbet is another absolute favourite for taste and surprise (another el Bulli dish).

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If thats what your offerring at home baggy mayb you should by a restaurant!!!!!

i like the sound of your dinner parties!!

[chefsimon]

Thanks all for all your ideas.  I was away most of the weekend, but did have a good old play with the ISI over the weekend.  I am going to give my boudin noir foam a go this weekend, I really thank that it will be a fantastic combo with scallops and a cauliflower ravioli, some of my favourite ingredients.

As for where I work chefsimon, it is a long and rather complicated story, but although not my main trade (I am a banker!) I have done a number of stages at some of our top restaurants here in the UK and work every weekend (for free) in a restaurant called le vacherin in London (www.levacherin.co.uk)

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I have defianatly heard of it, all good things to but never been there, its just up the road from me in surrey so i should make a visit in the future, where else have you been doing stages,I once had a politician guy of some sort use to work weekends for me in bray, then he became a chef, now hes a policeman!!!

[Baggy]

Tom that’s a great link, thanks.

I’ve tried the patatas (good but tends to be a little on the gelatinous side of nice), mayonnaise (hot – fantastic with asparagus) and gin fizz – the gin fizz is now an absolute favourite, albeit I use the recipe from the Cook’s Book which uses a gin/lemon sorbet under a hot gin/lemon foam.

I also use the cream whipper for making batter as in Heston Blumenthal’s book, In Search of Perfection.

Strangely, I have never used it for whipping cream.

[Ktepi]

One thing you can do (that isn't mentioned in the instructions or on their site) is make "fizzy" fruit. I think I saw it on the  ideasinfood blog.

Put small fruit (like grapes) or cut up larger pieces so they fit through the opening of the charger. Screw on the top, charge the canister (I use CO2 from the soda syphon - same size as the nitrous cartridges for whipping cream) and leave in the fridge for an hour or so. Release the pressure, unscrew the top, and remove the fruit. It will have a weird fizzy carbonated taste. Kind of fun. 

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Pomegranate is perfect for this. You can nearly fill the 500ml canister, use one CO2 cartridge, leave it for a few hours, and it's very very fizzy.

[mkayahara]

One of my favorite savory foams is with roasted red peppers. I make big batches of garlicky "Roasted Red Bell Peppers with Sherry Vinegar" from Jose Andres' book "Tapas - A Taste of Spain in America" which I keep in the fridge for use on sandwiches, pizzas, etc.  I make a puree of the peppers along with some of the garlic and olive oil in which they are cooked and combine it with hot cream which I pour into my Thermo Whip. This stuff tastes good on anything - maybe even corn flakes! 

Bill/SFNM

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I tried to make a foam similar to this, using roasted red peppers and whipping cream (35% fat) on the weekend, and found that I could only dispense about half of what was in the canister. (Though I liked the flavour of what I could dispense!) Could anyone give me a rough guide to a good proportion of peppers to cream? And should I be using all whipping cream for this type of application, or a combination of whipping cream and something lighter? Thanks in advance!

[rubyred]

I know this is OT, but the search engine being what it is (that wasn't a bit of moaning - I swear!) I figured I'd ask here:

I'm looking to buy my first whip, and from the research I've done, it would seem like the cost of a 1 pint unit is only marginally cheaper than the 1 quart unit. Is there any reason you all can see for me to go with the smaller one? (example: Will the cost of the cartridges to operate the small version offset the operational costs of the whole shebang?)

Come to think of it, things I've come across don't mention the size of the unit. They say things like 'charge with 2 cartridges'. Are these guidelines referring to the 1 quart size? I'm thinking probably...

[mkayahara]

Yes, you do need twice as many cartridges to operate the quart size as you do for the pint size. Some recipes require you to charge with 2 cartridges in the pint size and 4 in the quart size, but this is usually stated in the recipe. (If the recipe doesn't explicitly state the size it was designed for, you can usually infer from the size of the batch and scale accordingly.)

The other question you need to ask yourself is what your intended application is. I'm a home user with a pint-size ThermoWhip, and I've never managed to exhaust the entire supply of any foam in one evening. I can't imagine how long a quart-size batch of any foam base would last me. If you're serving several dozen covers in a night, the quart size makes sense, but if not, you're going to end up eating or serving a lot of the same foam over a relatively short period of time. It might make sense in a restaurant setting, but can get tiresome at home.

Speaking of which, would you like some of the tangerine foam I've got kicking around in my fridge from New Year's Eve?

[rubyred]

Yes, you do need twice as many cartridges to operate the quart size as you do for the pint size. Some recipes require you to charge with 2 cartridges in the pint size and 4 in the quart size, but this is usually stated in the recipe. (If the recipe doesn't explicitly state the size it was designed for, you can usually infer from the size of the batch and scale accordingly.)

The other question you need to ask yourself is what your intended application is. I'm a home user with a pint-size ThermoWhip, and I've never managed to exhaust the entire supply of any foam in one evening. I can't imagine how long a quart-size batch of any foam base would last me. If you're serving several dozen covers in a night, the quart size makes sense, but if not, you're going to end up eating or serving a lot of the same foam over a relatively short period of time. It might make sense in a restaurant setting, but can get tiresome at home.

Speaking of which, would you like some of the tangerine foam I've got kicking around in my fridge from New Year's Eve? 

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Tangerine foam for me?!?! Yes, please and thank you! And, point taken! What a way to be a perfect gentleman and make me see sense at once!

I am a personal chef and I do all kinds of events, tho most are small-ish dinner parties. From your account it seems clear that for my usage (even if we're talking about a moderately-sized cocktail parties) a pint sized unit will more than satisfy my needs.

eGullet rocks! The marginally more expensive cost was leaning me toward the quart size, but this place is the perfect reality check.

Thanks, Matthew, just slide that foam in an envelope and send it over to Canada. I'm sure it'll arrive in a gorgeous state!

[Kayakado]

I originally purchased a quart size Liss whipper off the internet and was then able to get the pint and half pint size bottles plus an extra head, cleaning brush, and tulip tip directly from Liss America. I experiment with the half pint and not waste too many canisters of gas. I can say - great service from Liss! The units are all stainless steel (no plastic head or tips here) and at a fraction of the price of an ISI. I get the cartridges as a local restaurant supply.

[rubyred]

Thanks for the info on the Liss. I'm going to look into that one too.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Since some of the links referenced at the beginning of this thread are now dead--

There is an English translation of the basic outline for making espumas from the Adrià pamphlet here--

http://www.espumas.at/preparations/the-espuma-method/en/

Click on "Preparations" on the left side for other useful suggestions, and click on "Recipes" for, well, recipes.

[ScottyBoy]

Finally got the hook up on an ISI so I can do new dishes for my dinners.

150g foie gras (I used the trimmings from a torchon)

1/3C duck demi-glace

1/3C cream

I heated up the demi and poured into a blender, added the foie a little at a time and mixed in the cream at the end, seasoned with salt and charged.

Fioe gras mousse, toy box tomatoes, riesling gelee, walnuts and root beer syrup.

Edited September 9, 2010 by ScottyBoy (log)

[Kent Wang]

Finally picked up a 500 ml ISI, and am looking for things to do with it as a home cook (not that the discussion should be limited to home cooking applications). Beyond the five mixtures suggested in the booklet that came with it, what have you tried that works out well? Any other general advice, applications or ideas will be appreciated.

Over in the infusions thread, we're discussing using nitrogen cavitation with the ISI whipper to do (near) instant infusions.

Richard, I know you're really into tea. Matt Kayahara said he did a tea infusion this way. I'm keen to hear your thoughts on that.

[IndyRob]

I want to try this, but lack the equipment you have. I think I saw it first on the Spain No Reservations episode. Aerated spongecake batter nuked in a plastic cup and torn up to resemble fluffy coral for a dessert plate.

It's better demonstrated if you can find the No Reservations clip.

[ScottyBoy]

Hot damn! 4 charges required for that cake. But yeah I also saw it done on Iron Chef America by...what's his name, Richard Blaze?

Edited September 9, 2010 by ScottyBoy (log)

[Richard Kilgore]

Finally picked up a 500 ml ISI, and am looking for things to do with it as a home cook (not that the discussion should be limited to home cooking applications). Beyond the five mixtures suggested in the booklet that came with it, what have you tried that works out well? Any other general advice, applications or ideas will be appreciated.

Over in the infusions thread, we're discussing using nitrogen cavitation with the ISI whipper to do (near) instant infusions.

Richard, I know you're really into tea. Matt Kayahara said he did a tea infusion this way. I'm keen to hear your thoughts on that.

Thanks, Kent. I'll check it out.

[Phaz]

I got one of these since I saw a few items in MC that use one.

Last night I made a basic chocolate mousse and Thomas Keller's Watercress mousseline. For both of them it was incredibly hard to get it to come out properly. Even with the lightest touch on the trigger it came out with a ton of pressure that made it near impossible to shape into anything other than a blob with a whole in the middle where the pressure dug into it. I was holding it upside down, using a light touch and charged with one canister. Does anyone have any ideas what I might be doing wrong? It's almost like it was forcing out as much air as it was foam (even while inverted).

[avaserfi]

I've always been curious about these things because they seem pretty cool. From my understanding you fill the canister with liquid, then charge with N2O, shake and it will release a foam on command. When charging it takes one full iSi N2O cartridge even with smaller sizes, correct? This seems pretty wasteful. Is there another way to charge them (or can you use less then one full cartridge to load a canister)?

Also, I was wondering about sizing. For someone making dishes for two people, sometimes four, is something like this worth the money and will the smallest size (half a pint?) be too much or too little?

Thanks

[JBailey]

You probably have seen them in coffee houses used for whipped cream. Often it is recommended that you use two cartridges, sometimes one is sufficient. iSi does have a book I purchased which is both helpful and interesting called 'The Trick with the Whip' - it is short and done in a ring binder fashion.

[jrshaul]

I just bought one of these at a garage sale (four dollars!), but have had limited success. I've tried a few recipes, and I can't get a really deep chocolate flavor out of any of them - I'm looking less for chocolate milk and more for a fluffy ganache. I also suspect they'd benefit a great deal from a stabilizer (perhaps a little gelatin?)

Also, can anyone suggest an online retailer that's cheap and trustworthy? I'm told that some of the "ISI" cylinders sold online are knock-offs intended for stoners that can smell a bit whiffy.

Edited July 11, 2011 by jrshaul (log)

[pervis]

So I wanted to keep a meringue in a isi to have thru service to torch on top of a dessert. Is there a way to keep a basic meringue in an isi, or a marshmallow-y fluff in an isi. I really looked around but couldnt find a thing.

thanks in advance for the help.