Electric Milk Frother

To PattyCooks readers;

Zulay Kitchens is offering a one time discount of 10% off any orders from today until Oct 2, 2020 by entering the code PMEAD10 at check out. Click here to view their offerings: Zulay Kitchen

Zulay Kitchen (#Collaboration)

This is one of my Kitchen Tool Reviews where Zulay Kitchen sends me a tool for review. Last month I looked at the splatter screen, and this month an electric milk frother.

Frothing Equipment

The normal way we often see milk being frothed, is by a barista using the steam nozzle (or wand) of an espresso machine. What the professional is doing, is using hot steam to both heat and froth the milk. At home we are a bit more limited, unless we want to buy and operate an actual Espresso machine ourselves. (Personally, I do not like coffee THAT much.)

• ”Milk” is being used in a generic sense and can come from any source: cows, goats, yaks, oats, soy, almonds, cashews, etc.
• Also, for my purposes, the milk can have any percentage, or no fat,

Wikipedia writes that a milk frother is a utensil for making milk froth, typically to be added to coffee (cappucino, latte, etc.). What the milk frother is supposed to do is aerate a milk liquid, thereby creating a thick foam.

A home milk frother generally comes in one of three types: a manual, handheld electric, or an automatic.

• Manual: This device looks and functions like a French Press, it is a container with a plunger that you manually move up and down to create the froth.
• Automatic: This is like a blender, a one button device that you fill with milk, push on and it automatically turns off after some set time. Often these devices may also warm the milk with a heating element in its base; but not always.
• Handheld: This device is like an immersion blender, just put the device into the cup of milk and turn on, moving it up and down occasionally The vortex of the whisking, aerates the milk and creates the froth.

My Personal Kitchen Issues

My Manual “Blender” Style Frother

I have a milk frother that I bought when I purchased a Nespresso coffee maker several years back. While it works, it has several issues.

1. It cost me $90 to purchase, and while this was their cheapest one, I still feel it was overpriced.
2. The frother comes in 5 parts, although above I only show 4 in the photo above; I forgot the removable black plastic thingamabob that is on its lid. There is one critical interior part, the whisk, that is very small and can easily get lost. I constantly worry about accidentally throwing it out or losing it down the drain when cleaning.
3. The frother requires electricity, so it is not portable.
4. It is limited in the amount of milk it can froth, since it is a container as well.
5. It barely heats the milk, so I always preheat milk in the microwave before frothing, thus having to dirty another cup.
6. The bottom interior can get scorched if I froth twice, and requires hard scrubbing in the smallish container to clean.

At this point I rarely use it, instead I heat up the milk in the microwave and just pour into my coffee. I have found it is just not worth the effort; even if my spouse loves Cappuccinos.

Zulay’s Milk Frother

Description

This is actually a one piece device that is battery operated (two AA batteries not included) and comes with its own stand. So the box consists of two items, the device and a stand. Other than a plastic handle, the device and stand are stainless steel.

Looking on their site, the small frother costs <$15 to buy.

Motor + Power

The motor seems very powerful, as shown by how quickly it aerates milk and eggs. The device is also very quiet, just a soft bzzzzzz.

The plastic handle is easy to grip and keep clean. The activator button is located on top of the handle, but within easy reach of my thumb. Now I do have arthritic hands, luckily not too bad, and this handle works wonderfully for me and my spouse.

Size + Blades Matter

Note I will be consistently indicating “smallish sizes” in my descriptions of what I tried below. This frother is not a professional Chef’s tool, it is made for a home cook.

Cleaning

I clean the frother by putting some soapy hot water in a cup and run the frother for a few seconds. But also, you can just place it under running hot water and turn it on for a few seconds; just expect splashed water everywhere. (A fun, harmless joke to play though on an unsuspecting family member. Like my son, so do not tell him!)

The handle is plastic and contains the batteries, so do not submerge the handle in water, do not put in a dishwasher. A fine rinse cleans it well. If however, you use this to aerate something greasy, you will need a sponge and soap so that the greasy film is not left on the metal.

Power From Batteries

To install the battery, start by removing the cover (push down on the battery tab and pull the cover out). Properly place the ribbon (used to pop out used batteries) and insert the batteries per instructions on the machine. Replace the cover and start.

• Removing the battery lid is the only aspect to this frother that I can complain about.
• I tried everything, yet I could to get that darn lid off. So while I cannot remove the lid, my spouse can quite easily.
• We are attributing it to the fact that I have weak fingernails and thickish fingers. But it might also be the arthritis. I have no qualms asking for help though, so this is not an insurmountable problem.

I have used this device daily for eggs, milk, cacao, and the like and, so far, the batteries are still working. However, I do recommend that for household machines consider purchasing a rechargeable battery kit.

Warranty

Zulay comes with a lifetime guarantee to not rust or break. They state clearly, to call them up and let them know what happened. They are dedicated to making things right.

How to Froth for Your Drink

1. First Make Your Drink

Frothing is fast, so make your drink first and pour into your drinking cup.

2. Hot or Cold

Then decide if you want hot or cold milk added to your drink. If cold, pour your milk into a frothing glass (i.e., a container in which to froth your milk that is not your drinking cup). You are ready to start frothing.

If hot, heat up the milk to ~160F. I heat milk in the microwave, careful not to boil milk, as that is harder to foam up and can make a mess in the microwave as it expands and spills all over. Whatever I heat the milk in, becomes my frothing glass.

3. Use the Frother

With the milk in a frothing cup, insert the frother, turn on while it is submerged (if not milk will splatter everywhere), operate the device and lift it up and down a bit to get all layers of the liquid moving. You will see the volume grow, so at some point stop to see if this is what you want. This can happen quickly so keep an eye on your froth. It takes ~20 seconds and that is it.

4. Combine

Your coffee or tea is waiting, so using a rubber spatula pour the milk and foam from the frothing cup into your tea or coffee cup. Then clean up and enjoy.

Milk Foam Experiment

In the frother photo above, I did a test with 1/2C cold, no fat cows milk. I used the Zulay frother and my manual frother. For 20 seconds they both whisked away. Then I poured into a glass to compare the foam. Looking at the picture above, you will note that the Zulay frother really whipped up the milk much more than my manual one. What you cannot see however, is that the Zulay frother made a denser foam that is perfect for me, and my spouse‘s favorite drinks.

Frother Has Multiple Uses

Frothers are aeration tools used in the kitchen to combine air into soft ingredients. Aeration can make some ingredients lighter, foamy, or can create volume. Any reader of mine knows I like tools that have multiple uses. Over these past couple of weeks I have used this frother for a number of tasks; and it has been mostly successful in each one.

• Froth:
  • Froth milk (from no fat cows milk to cream).
  • Almond milk (so assume it works on all alt milks).
• Infuse powders:
  • Used to rehydrate powdered milk with water. I did a small batch and it worked.
  • Mix cacao powder with milk: I put the powder in first then the liquid. If not fully immersed in the liquid the frother can send the powder everywhere. I tested with cold milk, but think warm milk would work better.
  • Matcha tea: I have not done this, but have seen it done in videos.
• Infuse syrup:
  • Used the frother to mix cacao syrup with milk. It worked, but the whisk slowed down when inserted into the heavy syrup, I just moved the frother up and down and eventually the two mixed well.
  • I also tried, on whipping cream, to mix in maple syrup rather than sugar and it slowed down a bit, but worked and infused the syrup perfectly.
• Whipping Cream:
  • Created small amounts of whipping cream, I used 2T of the heavy cream for enough whipped cream to serve two cups of drink. (I could have done more, but only needed a small amount.)
• Whipped + Compound Butter (sort of):
  • This will sort of work, provided you go up and down between the butter and air, use really soft butter, and do not use a lot.
  • The engine is not strong enough to really aerate butter properly. But does an O.K. job if in a hurry.
  • The photo I took used ~3-4T soft butter with 1t cinnamon sugar. Great butter mix for making a cinnamon toast in a hurry.
• Baking:
  • I used this to froth the wet (liquid) ingredients for chocolate cup cakes and loaf. The results were easy to see in the consistency of the baked items, they were light and fluffy rather than dense.
• Eggs:
  • Eggs for scrambled or small omelettes.
  • Eggs for small, quiche or frittata (for 1 or 2 people).
• Wine:
  • I have not done this, but some bloggers indicate that if you just want a glass of wine, and do not want to take the time to decanter and swizzel, use this device to quickly aerate wine.

The big lesson: the more viscous the liquid, the higher the whisk power is needed. Which makes sense since this is made for milk. So, for cooking large amounts, or dealing with ingredients that are tough or tacky, an immersion blender is necessary. To smooth out a homemade chicken gravy, to whisk compound herb butter, or to emulsify, I would use the immersion blender.

Summary

Reviews

Other reviews list this tool from Zulay as one of the easiest to start off with for beginners. Put in batteries and go.

• Delish rates this tool as #3 overall.
• BestReviews rates it as #5
• BusinessInsider rates it as the “Best handheld milk frother”
• New York Magazine rates it as “Best easy-to-use milk frother”

Would I Buy Zulay’s Milk Frother?

Yes, even though I cannot remove the battery lid without help from my spouse. In fact, I like it so much, I am going to give my older automatic frother away.

My reasoning for buying this tool is listed below:

• The Zulay frother is inexpensive.
• Love the warranty.
• Very easy to clean.
• Lightweight, great handle, easy on switch, even for those of us with mobility isssues.
• Looks nice on the counter standing next to the coffee maker.
• Amount of milk to froth is only limited by the length of the steel rod and the power of the engine circulating the coil.
• Can be used in cold or hot milk.
• The froth it made was more like a Guinness beer froth, rather than a Miller light froth. (That is a good thing!)
• This can be taken on camping, RVing, and other trips since it is portable and battery operated. (I glamp these days, so this tool is just right for that morning latte.)
• Has multiple uses, so can be considered a space saving device.

Before I close I should also note I found a link on the web to a pdf download of Zulay’s drink recipes you can make with the frother.

—Patty

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