Go to the Article: Whipping Siphons Troubleshooting
Is there no way of getting round the sous vide part? Could you reserve in a bain marie instead?
why does my fruit become like a puree? I put mango and charge once release all pressure and 1 more charge put in fridge for 30 mins and when I open its like a mango puree need help pls
I see a lot of info on overfilled whippers but what about underfilled. Let's say I have a 1/2 liter whipper which is 500cc. I know I can get away with just putting in 250cc of liquid but what if I put in 125cc of liquid and then charge it. Will it hurt the whipper? Will the liquid be overcharged (too much n2o for the liquid) or undercharged (decreased pressure because N2o is spread over a larger non-liquid volume)? If undercharged, would I just have to add a second charge? Thanks. Whipping expands to several times the original volume and for some things, several cups is leading to a lot of waste.
I know this is an old question ; but if someone / anyone could answer please ... I have all the same questions!!
The amount of gas that dissolves into the liquid is determined by the partial pressure of that gas in the head space. This is why you often vent one cartridge first—it displaces the air in the siphon and replaces it with nearly pure CO₂ (or N₂O). This way, there's no other gas adding pressure in the canister, so all of the pressure present will be contributing to getting your desired gas to dissolve into the liquid.
Once you displace all the air with the gas you're using, then you need to build a certain pressure to get it to dissolve. To do this, you add more gas (and increase the pressure). If you want this to happen rapidly, then you can add as much pressure as the canister can safely take, give it a few shakes (to increase surface area / break up any surface tension in the liquid preventing solubility of the gas) and enough time for it to dissolve, and you're good to go.
If you have lots of time, then you only need enough pressure in the head space so that you have the amount of dissolved gas into the liquid at equilibrium—but then you need to wait for equilibrium, which can take awhile. This is not appropriate for some recipes because there are other things happening at the same time. For instance, let's say you're making a jalapeño tequila or chocolate vodka infusion. If you only add enough pressure to get the effect you're after at equilibrium, you have to wait for equilibrium, and by then too much heat from the jalapeño, or bitter components from the cacao nibs, have infused into the liquor. So you need to load the pressure high enough to get the effect you want without waiting for equilibrium.
To answer the question directly: A whipping siphon will work best when you leave only the prescribed amount of head space and fill it with the recommended amount of gas. If you leave twice as much head space, then to create the same amount of pressure you'll need to add twice as much gas. (You can still vent with one cartridge though.)
Also, be aware that you have to measure the amount of head space in order to get the pressure right. Cutting the liquid in half does not mean you'll be doubling the head space!
To adjust your recipe for less liquid, fill your siphon with water and tip it out into a measuring cup, then see how much over ½L you have—that's the head space. Now add the amount of water equivalent to what you would rather put in, and tip that into a measuring cup, and deduct that from the total volume of your siphon, and that will give you the new amount of head space.
For instance, let's say you measure ⅓L head space when your ½L siphon has the full ½L of liquid. Now if you add half as much liquid, that will mean you've increased head space to (⅓ + ¼)L, or a little less than 0.6L. To perfectly double the pressure, you'd actually want to increase head space to ⅔L, so if you add two chargers with just 0.6L headspace, you'll be increasing pressure over the desired amount by about 12% (which is probably close enough).
If you want to get this exactly the same, though, don't add ¼L of liquid, add ⅙L instead. This will leave exactly ⅔L head space, which you can fill with double the amount of gas (after venting one cartridge).
Hi @Kenneth Tuerk and @C.Evans , I never had problem with an underfilled siphon, sometimes you probably have to put the second charge, but it depend on what you have inside, and No it doesn't hurt your whipper
