Whip it up

February 1, 2023 6:01 PM

Why do culinary schools call a whisk a whip, and does anyone else do the same?

A couple of Facebook tag groups I'm in are discussing the same screenshot of a conversation where Person A talks about a whisk, Person B says that that utensil is called a whip and that calling it a whisk is wrong, and then the rest of the conversation goes haywire. In both groups, people are very perplexed about where in the world a whisk is called a whip, and then eventually a few people chimed in saying they heard the term used in culinary school. I also found a video of Julia Child calling it a whip.

Is it just because it's used for whipping cream? I saw this link asserting that there's a difference between whisking and whipping, but not much else seems to back it up, so I'm not sure if they're correct. Why does "whip" seem to be confined to professional kitchen situations and how did "whisk" become the preferred layman term? Is it a regionalism?

posted by creatrixtiara to Writing & Language (11 answers total)

Best answer: Julia Child is a hint.

In French a whisk is called "un fouet" which is also the word for a whip (like a horse whip).
posted by muddgirl at 6:07 PM on February 1, 2023 [7 favorites]

Not a direct answer but Oxford Dictionary says "whisk" is from late middle English with Scandinavian roots.
Wiktionary says "Middle English, from Old Norse visk, from Proto-Germanic *wiskaz, *wiskō (“bundle of hay, wisp”), from Proto-Indo-European *weys-."
posted by metahawk at 7:11 PM on February 1, 2023

In Danish, a whisk is called a piskeris, basically a whipping whisk. I just thought you should know...
posted by mumimor at 9:50 PM on February 1, 2023 [1 favorite]

I would even go so far as to say a whipping stick if danish ris is similar to Swedish. In Swedish it’s “visp” like the “whisp” in metahawks post.
posted by Iteki at 10:02 PM on February 1, 2023

The etymology will only explain things so far. This looks to me like one of those shibboleths that is useful not because it adds clarity, but because it distinguishes the in-group (in this case professional cooks) from the out-group (the rest of us).
See also: lighting engineers referring to a "lamp" (never a bulb), etc.
posted by vincebowdren at 2:45 AM on February 2, 2023 [4 favorites]

I can verify that whisking and whipping are two different things, although you use the same tool to do them. When you whip the stirring end of the tool rises out of the liquid and then comes back down again as fast as possible so as to incorporate as much air as possible. You are basically trying to get the liquid to rise up in sheets, dragged by the wires and come down again with air trapped underneath.

When you whisk you are trying to break up lumps and in this case the motion is both hard and fast and repeatedly batters against the sides of the bowl, as well as traveling through the centre. With whipping you don't want to keep scraping the bowl or going hard or you can force the air bubbles to the surface and will tire out your arm.

I use very different motions for egg or air into batter than I do to mix flour into batter because that's what works.

I never went to culinary school or got any culinary training, so I call the tool a whisk. I used one once instead of a spoon because I had one and a recipe specified I should and I have never gone back since because of the incredible difference in efficiency.
posted by Jane the Brown at 7:15 AM on February 2, 2023 [5 favorites]

In Italian it’s called a frusta, a whip.

Interestingly, the electric one is called a “frullino” which is closer in meaning to whisking than whipping.
posted by lydhre at 7:52 AM on February 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

Anecdata: I went to culinary school in the U.S. and whisks were called whisks.
posted by cooker girl at 9:26 AM on February 2, 2023

I saw this link asserting that there's a difference between whisking and whipping, but not much else seems to back it up, so I'm not sure if they're correct.

I mean, I would never use the term whip when I was making a roux, nor would I use whisk when I wanted to incorporate air into cream. I think there's definitely a difference in the verb meanings, especially if you think about quickly blending a dry ingredient into a wet (sometimes whisk) vs whipping a wet ingredient to incorporate air. Perhaps people are using the noun whip to differentiate a piano whisk or balloon whisk from a roux whisk? I would call them the same thing but I can see why one might make the distinction.
posted by oneirodynia at 2:25 PM on February 2, 2023

if danish ris is similar to Swedish. In Swedish it’s “visp” like the “whisp” in metahawks post.
Swedish and Danish are very similar, but there are some words that are the same (even spelt the same), but have entirely different meaning. Thus rolig means calm in Danish and funny in Swedish. And of course there are words that are just different
Et ris in Danish is a bundle of sticks, a whisk, that you can use for whipping animals or people or food with. You can also have ris for scrubbing stuff, but you don't see those a lot. And you can build fences of ris. Obviously ris have different sizes for different purposes. Ris also means rice. Piske is whip.

Sorry, I felt I needed to tell you this.
posted by mumimor at 2:40 PM on February 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

Wait, 'tis the season for fastelavnsris: Mardi Gras whips. They are made of thin branches of birch wood, and you use them to whip people out of bed. I don't know anyone who does it today, but it was completely normal when I was a kid. The children whipped their parents out of bed early on Mardi Gras, so they could have a special breakfast before school.

I should stop derailing now, shouldn't I. It's been a stressful day.

But the buns for the breakfast were stuffed with cream, so there is maybe a little bit of relevance...
posted by mumimor at 5:23 PM on February 2, 2023 [2 favorites]