Molinillo

I love kitchen gadgets. But what I love more are kitchen gadgets that have some cultural connection, something that has been used in certain ethnic cuisine or food.

These are Molinillos. Just by themselves, they are amazing craft work. It appears that they were carved out of a single piece of wood, and the wood rings were carved right in place (there's nothing to indicate that they were slipped in after the main shaft were carved). They are amazing work of art by themselves. As you can see, I have two of these. I've used one of them, but they look way too nice to use. So right now, I have them as a kitchen decor. I use a regular whisk instead to froth my chocolate drinks.

But what they are really used for is to froth chocolate drinks in a traditional Mexican household. Frothing a chocolate drink not only cools it down so that you can drink it, but also add air/oxygen to the drink and gives it more aromatic flavor when it is drank. The presence of this froth is a sign of a good chocolate drink.

This video shows how it is done.



Zz.