Hi, I was wondering if anyone has used one of these for custard recipes.
I was only really making fruit flavours before, but now after trying some premium custard flavours, I wanted to try making some of these, but they need to steep for ages.
I saw a youtube video where the guy was claiming that he doesn't need to steep juices if he uses his magnetic stirrer. I was looking at making one myself, without the hot plate.
So I was wondering if anyone has any experience using them, especially with custard flavours and if its worth the effort building one or not.
I have 2 myself and use them for mixing all of my juices. One is heated, one is not. Both are made by Corning.
I really enjoy building gadgets and tools and have more than my fair share of experience with building things over the years.
I looked at it a few different ways...I could build one myself....but would it work as well as a unit I bought. From watching the DIY videos, for using them with lower viscosity fluids, they seem to work ok...but I mix pretty much Max VG and wanted something I knew would work.
I ended up buying 2 units on Ebay, used but in very good (like new condition). The heated unit was a little under $100 and the second unit was under $50. Both work amazingly well for mixing and I haven't had any problems with them.
As for your custard recipes, is it going to help mix them better and faster, yes....it's it going to help them AGE (what most people call steeping), no....only time will do that....I hear all kinds of great claims that if you put your juice here, or do this to your juice it will "steep" so much faster......I think most of it is that the person mentally makes them believe it tastes better, but that's just my opinion though.
From my findings, When I mix a large batch of juice, I then put it into 30ml bottles. It seems the smaller the volume, the faster it may age. Again, this could be my own mind playing tricks on me but my reasoning is that smaller volume, the flavors "penetrate" and meld easier.
My magnetic stirrer has problems if I pour VG first as it'll sit at the bottom. I have to pre-mix large batches with a drill and then I can turn the stirrer on. Doh!
What kind of stirrer are you using? I mix max VG in mine most of the time and never run into that problem.
It's an older Corning PC-351. With 100% VG at the bottom of the beaker the stir rod will lose magnetic sync (is that the right word for this?) and start wobbling all over the place.
I have to pre-mix my juice and/or heat it up to 45c~ a bit so it's like water, then all's well.
I purchased the PC-351 locally for $100 and I somewhat regret it as I can't justify purchasing a fancy new one. However, perhaps it's worth opening up to see what's up. Supposedly it's very easy.
I just got my stirrer in time for a mix over the weekend. I split my batch in half and stirred half, and just let the other half sit. This was a strawberry / creamy / custardy mix. Stirred at 50 deg C and 1200 rpm for 4 hours. Taste testing afterwards indicated the stir helped mellow out the flavors and get rid of the initial harshness in comparison to the non-stirred half.
4 HOURS of stirring holy shit haha. Do that by hand!