In Gear: Lighten Up with Cream Whippers
Despite the implication of their name and the regularity with which they appear behind coffee bars, for topping dessert-like beverages with snowy mounds of dairy goodness, cream whippers are good for more than whipping cream. In restaurant kitchens the devices are prized for making and keeping delicate sweet or savory mousses, sauces and foams, which would be difficult to create or to maintain for any length of time with more traditional equipment. At home, I find them particularly handy for creating easy, lighter or lightened interpretations of high-calorie indulgences like dessert toppings, ranch dressing, cheesecake and more.
How Cream Whippers Work
Cream whippers, also known as “cream siphons” or just “siphons,” work fairly simply. A liquid is placed in the siphon canister, which is then sealed tightly with a gasket-lined threaded cap. A metal cartridge or “charger” containing highly compressed nitrous oxide (N2O, aka: laughing gas) is slipped into the charger sleeve, which is then fitted onto a threaded site on the siphon canister cap. As the charger sleeve is screwed into place, a hollow pin in the center of the threaded site punctures the charger, ushering the nitrous oxide into the siphon canister where it dissolves into the enclosed liquid.
When the canister is inverted and the discharge lever squeezed, the gas escapes—forcing the liquid out with it—through a narrow passage, expanding as it leaves the siphon and leaving behind a foamed and frothed liquid.
