Have you ever had a cappuccino that looked like a work of art and felt smooth in your mouth? I hope you have, because that is what a cappuccino is all about. And if you had it you would probably agree with me that it is hard to go back to drinking bubbly, fluffy marenge cappuccino again.
So what makes a "real" cappuccino so much more delicious? Of course, the skill of the barista. Getting your milk steaming technique right is not so easy, but with some good advice and some traning you will be impressing your cappuccino loving friends in no time :)
Lets start our little tutorial...
Let get started
Ok, what do we need? Here are some suggestions,
Espresso machine
All espresso machines sold today have some kind of steam pipe to steam milk. Some manufacturers have decided to help their customers by putting "turbo" nozzels on their steam pipes. If you have such a thing on your machine and have the possibility to remove it do so, it will not help you to get where we are going.
Milk pitcher
A stainless steel pitcher with a spout is preferable. To feel the temperature of milk before it is to late you need a pitcher that instantly changes its temperature with the milk. Stainless steel has this ability. The spuot will help you make latte art.
Milk
The milk that is typically used for latte drinks has around 3% fat. The less fat, the harder the foam and what you want is smooth foam (so forget non fat cappuccinos).
About milk foam
The main thing to keep in mind when steaming milk is to stop when the temprature is right, 55 - 65 degrees celsius depending on taste. Steaming to long will make the milk start to coagulate and change its taste (and the cappuccino will be to hot to drink). To hot milk will also make the foam to hard.
How different can foam be? Here are some classic examples:
Bubbly
If you are distracted or not concentrating enough the steam pipe can easily end up above the surface of the milk instead of just under it. This makes the milk splash and large bubbles will be the result. Sure you get a lot of foam in the pitcher, but the taste experience is poor :(
Hard
Hard foam looks stiff and will not mix with the coffee when you pour it. It instead lands on your coffee like fluffy whipped cream. If it is steamed even more it will become layered with 90% runny milk and a thick lid of hard foam on top. When you pour it the milk will often run out from the bottom of the pitcher and you will have to use a spoon to get the foam into the cup :(
Smooth
If you have done it right the milk will look smooth and creamy when you pour it. A bit like pouring yogurt. It will mix perfectly with your espresso shot making the crema
colour the surface of the foam giving the cappuccino its typical brown edge :)
Resteaming old milk will often also produce hard foam. The trick is to have the right amount of foam of the right quality in the pitcher when the temperature is right. To get good at steaming you have to learn how fast your machine heats a desired quantity of milk. A good advice is to start by steaming no less than for two cappuccinos.
The steaming
After the machine has reached the right temprature, turn on the steam so that the water that always sits in the pipe comes out then turn it of again.
Lower the nozzle under the milk surface and turn on the steam. If you turn on the steam when the nozzle is above the surface large bubbles will be the result, bubbles you will have to work hard to get rid of.
Slowly bring the nozzle up to the surface. Stop just as it breaks the surface. Air is now being drawn into the milk and you will hear the typical hissing sound. If you are not careful and the nozzle ends up above the surface the pressurized air is blown onto the milk instead of into the milk resulting in big bubbles.
You will without doubt have small and medium bubbles on the surface of the milk at this stage. Now we will try to make them go away. Where the air is blown into the milk there is a vortex. All the bubbles on the surface are drawn into this swirl and disapear. Still it is very important to keep the nozzle in the right position to not create new bubbles.
You now have a texture of micro bubbles. Put your free hand on the pitcher to feal the heat. As the foam rises you lower the steam pipe carefully to keep it in contact with the milk. If you are satisfied with the amount of foam but the milk is still not warm enough you lower the nozzle into the milk. You then move the pipe close to the wall of the pitcher. The milk now starts to swirl around. This way the heat steam exposes the milk evenly. Just when the temperature feals to hot for your hand, turn of the steam while the nozzle is still under the surface.
Swirling and pouring
Very often you still have bubbles in your foam. A good way to get rid of these is to firmly knock the pitcher against the work bench. Do not repeat this to many times as it will make the foam to dense.
A good way to find out the "thicknes" of the milk is to rotate the pitcher so that the milk starts to swirl around. You will have to learn how the milk should look by making a couple of cappuccinos but here are some advice.
You can also tilt the pitcher to see how thick the milk looks i the spout. Look at the examples below.
The milk should not be to thick as it will not blend well with the milk.
The milk should look more like if you where pouring yogurth (might sound like a strange comparison but it actually kind of does).
Pour the milk slowly. If it looks to runny wait a couple of seconds. By waiting the the air that has been blown into the milk will rise to the surface making the milk layered with foam on the top. Kind of like what happens to a Guinnes after it has been poured. To get the right creamy character you now need to swirl the milk again to mix it up. This will make it possible to make one good cappuccino but probably not two.
Well thats that basically. Now its up to you to put some time into it and perfect your skills. I will have to write a new article on latte art, this one is to long already :)
Amazon only delivers espresso machines to US residents. If you are not from the US there are still owner comments that are worth reading if you are planning to buy one :)
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Very often you still have bubbles in your foam. A good way to get rid of these is to firmly knock the pitcher against the work bench. Do not repeat this to many times as it will make the foam to dense.
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