A Medieval Multitasker: The Whisk
The erudite French molecular gastronomist Hervé This thinks that the kitchen whisk is medieval technology, particularly when it comes to its ability to aerate, and he has been experimenting with various instruments—bicycle pumps among them—to find something better suited to the task.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known written use of the term whisk—to refer to a utensil used to break up, blend, or aerate food stuff—came in 1666, and was used in describing a method for transforming egg from its naturally viscous, cohesive form to a more manageable, liquid one.
But similar uses of the word whisk, with reference to quick, sweeping motions, can be traced back even further. Being that this was a tool entrenched in the work of the kitchen—the purview of largely illiterate servants and slaves—it seems likely that whisks of a sort were in use in the kitchen well before their existence was ever recorded on paper. Such whisks appear to have been little more than bundles of gathered reeds or twigs. And though modern whisks are generally made of metal, plastic, or silicone, the essential form and function of these instruments remains largely unchanged from original prototypes.
