The Mighty Coffee

Before I start I’ll say a few things about milk. Any liquid can be steamed, but achieving nirvana with your milk is dependent on the fat content that it contains. Fat provides the flavour and “mouth feel,” which is why in Italy they usually use whole milk. Whichever type of milk you prefer to use, is the right one for you.

Skim milk produces the desired consistancy the fastest
1% milk produces good results
2% is widely because it is widely accepted to give the best results

Personally, I prefer the taste of whole milk and have practiced frothing so that I can get it right 90% of the time.

Use a thermometer

A thermometer will allow you to get the timing of you steaming spot on. Stop stretching at 40 degrees Celsius, or 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and stop altogether when it gets to 60 degrees Celsius or 140 degrees Fahrenheit.

Milk doesn’t like being streched beyond the 40 C mark, so stopping before this point is emperative. In addition, milk burns beyond 70 degrees, completely destroying the flavour, stopping at 60 C will allow any lag in your thermometer to catch up. You may have noticed that the needle of your thermometer continues to move even after you’ve stopped steaming.  Cutting the steam off at about 10 degrees before your end point will compensate for this phenomena.

Calibrate your thermometer

Over time thermometers can lose their accuracy. Not to worry though, as this can be easily fixed by re-calibrating the thermometer. This is done by loosening the little nut at the back of the dial you can move the needle about on the face of the dial. Put the thermometer in ice water and wait for the needle to stop moving, adjust the dial so that the needle points to 0 degrees Celsius and re-tighten the nut.

Use cold milk, and keep your steaming jug in the fridge

It takes a fixed amount of time to steam a jug of milk to the desired consistency. If it reaches the temperature at which it will burn before it’s textured to perfection then your milk will be sub standard. Fortunately there is a simple solution to this problem, have both your milk and your jug cold. Keep both the milk and the jug in the refrigerator right up until use them.

Purge the steam wand

Steam condenses inside the wand itself as well as the plumbing from your boiler. It takes a few seconds to open the steam valve and allow the water that has condensed in these tubes to be cleared out. Its a simple thing that anyone can do to improve the quality of their milk.

Avoid letting the tip of the steam want come out of the milk

This is especially true after the stretching has taken place. Allowing the wand to break the surface will cause large bubbles which can completely ruin the texture that you’ve worked so hard to create.

Swirl the milk

After you’ve finished stretching your milk, allow it to swirl around, forming ribbons. The more turbulent this is the finer the air bubbles in your milk will be leading to a more silky texture. But still be sure to avoid the tip of the wand from breaking the surface.

Keep the jug still

This may be counter intuitive, but once you’ve found a sweet spot STAY THERE! If you’re onto a good thing stay with it, the same applies to milk steaming.

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