Beware Drudgery, Beware Machines

But Less Doesn't Always Work

DIRECTNESS COUNTS IN FOOD and cooking; you want tools that don’t get in the way of your senses. I sometimes push to get to the essential. Normally, I whip heavy cream by hand with a whisk, which is fairly quick, especially if the cream hasn’t been ultrapasteurized. Once, to see what would happen, I used a wooden spoon. As a tool, it’s so much simpler than a whisk. Very slowly, the spoon made a reasonable foam. I’ve never tried that with egg whites. I whisk them in a copper bowl, which has no advantage over any other kind of bowl, as long as you add a pinch of cream of tartar to that other bowl, and the copper is more trouble because it has to be kept shiny with salt and vinegar. But a copper bowl is an appealing object, and I feel a kinship with all the long line of cooks who have ever used one. Egg whites, like cream, whisk fairly quickly, and working by hand gives more control with either one. A few extra strokes make a difference.