What I Tried: The Emulstir ($14.99 – Get It Here)
Chef’n makes some pretty interesting products and I have had a fun time testing their kitchen gadget innovations. So when the Emulstir arrived at my doorstep I raced into the kitchen to test it out.
What is the Emulstir? The product brand name comes from the word emulsify, which is basically the process of suspending one liquid into another by vigorously stirring or whisking the two fluids together. The Emulstir is shaped like a cruet with a lid on top and a spout for pouring. The cruet has a plastic whisk-like, curly-q apparatus on the inside and handle on the outside that makes the plastic whisk-like, curly-q apparatus go around and around. By pressing on the handle the curly-q rotates and incorporates air into the two liquids, hence emulsification.
So basically, Chef’n has done a little bit of product emulsification by inventing the Elmulstir. They have taken the cruet and the whisk and have combined the two together in an effort to simplify the process of making salad dressings.
What I Made:
My friend Tim came over to help me test this one out and together we concocted a simple salad dressing consisting of extra virgin olive oil, lemon, roasted garlic, kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.
If you don’t have any roasted garlic in the freezer you can use regular garlic, but I must tell you that roasting garlic and storing it in the freezer for frequent use is a practice that you will thank me for later. It is easy to do too. All you need is bulb of garlic (or you can do like I do and buy the big container of peeled garlic in the veggie section of the grocery store). If you are roasting whole bulbs of garlic cut the top off and loosely wrap it in foil. Before closing the foil drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the top. Roast at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes. Take out, let cool, remove the foil and you can literally squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of the bulb. If you are roasting the already peeled cloves create a pouch large enough to loosely hold the cloves, drizzle with a little bit of oil and roast for 30 minutes at 400 degrees.
For the dressing you will need:
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 4-5 roasted garlic cloves, mashed into a paste
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp sugar
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Place all of the ingredients into the Emulstir, cover and holding with one hand press on the handle and the let the plastic whisk-like, curly-q apparatus on the inside do the rest.
We used the dressing for an arugula salad with Parmegianno Regianno cheese. It was yummy.
What it Rated:
Both Tim and I really like the Emulstir. The concept is simple and the end result delivers exactly what the product brand name promises. Of course every product has a few little flaws, but the ones we discovered during the testing phase were not deal breakers.
I personally like the process of grinding my pepper into the bowl that I usually use to make my dressing. The opening at the top of the cruet is a little too small to make this a possibility so I had to grind the pepper first and then scoop my peppery bits into the top.
The little opening at the top needs to be on tight. If it is not a little bit of the dressing can leak out during the emulsification process, which can be a little messy. You need to make sure the handle is pointing away from your body while operating the plastic whisk-like, curly-q apparatus. It is much easier to operate that way.
All in all, this is a very cool product and for the price it is well worth the money and the time you’ll save when making dressings. Oh yeah… I took it to my sister’s house and the niece and nephew liked it too. “This is fun,” Maggie giggled to me as she made the plastic whisk-like, curly-q apparatus on the inside go around and around and around.