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Serious question, I saw a kitchen in Portland using a steam wand for way more than just milk
I was checking out a spot called The Larder last week, and the chef was using the steam wand from their espresso machine to quickly wilt greens for a salad garnish. It was super fast and kept the color perfect. Has anyone else found a weirdly good use for a piece of equipment that's meant for something else?
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webb.blake2mo ago
That's a cool trick, but technically it's not a new use for the steam wand. A lot of professional kitchens have a dedicated piece of equipment called a steam gun or a chef's torch that does the same thing, it just looks like the one from a coffee machine. The Larder probably just doesn't have a separate one, so they're using what they've got. It works because it's the same quick burst of wet heat.
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dakota1602mo agoMost Upvoted
Okay but @webb.blake that's exactly why it is a new use. Most cafes have that wand just sitting there only for milk. Using it to finish a dish instead of buying a whole other tool is clever and saves space. It's like using a wine bottle as a rolling pin because you don't have one. The innovation is seeing a common thing in a totally different way. Why buy a special steam gun if the coffee machine already does the job?
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grayperez3d ago
Come on @dakota160, you're really reaching with that wine bottle comparison. Using a steam wand for greens isn't the same as using a bottle for dough. A wine bottle works because it's basically a cylinder, same shape as a rolling pin. But a steam wand is a tool made for FORCE and HEAT, not for wrapping around greens. You're asking a machine to do TWO totally different things - steam milk properly AND wilt greens without burning them. Most baristas barely keep their wands clean enough for milk, let alone food that touches someone's mouth raw. And if you're using it for both back and forth all day, you're either compromising the drink quality or the greens. It's a clever hack for a home cook, sure, but for a real kitchen it's just cutting corners.
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