| A kitchen utensil that is used to whip lighter food ingredients that are being prepared for baking or serving. Birch whisks are made with many stiff, thin branches that are gathered and secured to form long whispy extensions that can be used for combining lighter food ingredients when making sauces and gravies such as béchamel sauces or lighter meat gravies. It is not a common type of whisk, but more often used by those who have found them beneficial for a specific purpose. The whisp can typically be used in areas of pans that common steel whisks have difficulty reaching for whisking as well as serving as a non-damaging alternative for whisking surfaces of non-stick pans.
Similar whisks known as Swedish straw whisks or Swedish visps are also available that are made of stiff straw bristles or birch branches like the traditional birch whisk. Always made to whip lighter ingredients, the birch whisks cannot be effectively used to whisk ingredients such as eggs, flour or heavy creams. To clean the birch whisk, simply whisk or rotate it within a mixture of warm water and dish soap to remove and cleanse the bristles and branches of the whisk. Rinse it with hot water to remove any soap substance and allow it to air dry. It will then be ready for the next task. |
