There are specific ways of mixing your ingredients when you’re preparing certain foods.

When you are making a batter, you have to make use of certain techniques to ensure that the batter is properly mixed.

A batter consists of flour mixed with a liquid and other ingredients that is often used in baking. It is thinner than dough which is used to make bread.

For cake batter, pancake batter, or simply chicken batter for crispy fried chicken, mixing the batter involves using a whisk to aerate or lighten the batter. This is a technique known as whisking.

For omelettes, the eggs are beaten using either a fork or a whisk.

At times you may be required to gently stir the ingredients, this can also be done using a whisk

The whisk is therefore a very important kitchen tool when it comes to mixing.

Asides from a whisk, there are also certain kitchen tools that could serve as substitutes. An Egg beater is one of such tools.

In this post we are going to compare these two kitchen tools and highlight the difference between a whisk and an egg beater.

What is a whisk?

A whisk is a handheld kitchen tool.

It has a slender handle that continues as a bunch of slender wire loops joined together on its end.

The whisk can be used for stirring, beating or whisking your ingredients when cooking food.

A whisk could be made of metal or plastic.

The whisk is controlled using the direct action of the hand to stir, beat or whip ingredients in a bowl.

There are several types of whisks which are all shaped differently and are have different uses.

The balloon whisks is the most common type of whisk. The wire loop becomes wider before they joined at the end; hence it is shaped like a balloon.

Other types of whisks include the ball whisks, in which the wire loops are shaped like a ball, the French whisks, flat whisk, conical whisks and spiral whisks

What is an egg beater?

The Egg beater is also a handheld kitchen device that performs similar function to a whisk.

Egg beaters are types of mixers just like the electrical mixers.

But the Instead of being controlled by electrical connections, they are manually driven using a crank and shaft.

The crank and shaft mechanism convert the turning motion of the hand into the rotating motion of the beaters.

They can be used to beat eggs or mix certain ingredients during food preparation.

Egg beaters are made of metal. They make use of mechanical connections and require being powered by hand motion

It also makes use of two rotating attachments that resemble balloon whisks which are known as beaters.

These attachments rotate continuously, turning in opposite directions one clockwise and the other anticlockwise, as they are powered to mix batter or to whip cream

The Ingredients in the batter are drawn in and through the beaters as they rotate and they mix together.

Whisks vs. egg beaters

Whisks and egg beaters perform similar functions. However, using an egg beater is easier and quicker as the spinning beaters do most of the work and require less energy from you.

Whisks on the other hand requires more energy for whisking properly, especially when you have a lot of ingredients to mix.

However, when properly used, both a whisk and an egg beater can do a good job when it comes to mixing your ingredients.

Techniques of mixing with a whisk or egg beater

There are several techniques of mixing ingredients when you’re preparing food. The following are important terms in baking and cooking, that refer to various methods of mixing the ingredients.

Beating: This is involves stirring very quickly in order to blend the ingredients and also to add small amount of air into the mixture.

Stirring: This means mixing the ingredients together, it is done at a lower speed compared to beating or whipping, some recipes would require you to stir gently.

Creaming: For cakes and butter, it may require you to cream the butter and sugar mixture to get them fluffy.

Whipping/Whisking: It involves introducing large amount of air into the mixture.

Summary

Whisk and egg beaters are both handheld tools used for mixing batter and to make several foods

You make uses of these kitchen equipments when you are baking.

Baking makes use of a number of ingredients that has to be mixed thoroughly.

Whisks are composed of a slender handle that ended to wires that are joined at it ends, while an egg beaters and composed of rotating beaters.

Egg beaters are powered by a crank and a shaft, to produce rotator motion of its beaters.

For stirring the batter, the whisks are better used especially when it requires gentle stirring, however for beating or creaming, egg beaters generate more force to work better and for larger quantities also.