I still am attempting to make perfect cappuccino froth. I try every day at work. It's difficult. We have Jura x90 machine, which only comes with an automatic frother. I refuse to automatically froth the milk, I think there's almost no way it can create the "microfoam" described here before. We, however, have a manual frother attachment, with a Pannarello wand. I didn't know that. I spend a few weeks trying to get good froth and failed miserably. The CTO of my company, a very smart guy (as CTO's tend to be), pointed out that this wand had holes on the sides as well as a large one on the bottom, and that this was designed to mix the milk and air in the wand (instead of in the cup). As I thought about it, he was right. It will probably make a lot of froth, but it won't make "perfect" froth, and by that I mean the microfoam you can see in the best cappuccinos.
So I pondered what to do, and realized I could take off the outer sleeve and it would turn into what is more or less an ordinary frother. This has been tried by several people, as I soon found out. Many people have complained about this accessory, some saying you can remove the sleeve to get good results, and other saying the inner part is useless.
I tried using the inner part and did not get good results. These days I usually start with a metal frothing pitcher half full of cold 2% milk. But I never could get a "whirlpool" effect, as is mentioned in the articles on how to create microfoam. My cappuccino's, I must say, blew. This morning I got a decent foam going by using about 1/3 or 1/4 of a pitcher, and letting the steam run a bit before stopping and starting again (the theory being that I need more pressure). I never got a whirlpool, but I sort of whirlpooled it myself.
But, that's not enough for me. I need to do it right. And even today's success is not close to the perfection I'm after. So I'm still investigating. Supposedly, people say, you need a larger quantity of milk to work with, but this seemed to work OK. But I still have hope. Some people have gotten great results in home machines, but I have yet to duplicate that and it's unclear whether they can even duplicate it. My quest continues.
Posted by ahyatt at May 19, 2003 05:36 PM