click photo to enlarge
My culinary skills are of the lowest order. The fact is I have no interest in cooking. However, I must say, lest anyone thinks that I don't do my fair share in the kitchen, that my dishwashing skills and my application of them are second to none! I can be found after most meals, arms plunged up to the elbows in suds, bringing the shine back to the china and the gleam back to the stainless steel. I do involve myself in the preparation of meals, but only in a small and menial way. Setting the table, getting things out ready for the cook (my wife), and the odd bit of food preparation do come my way. As does the occasional dose of tedium. Preparing fruit and vegetables for freezing is one such task. But the worst, by far, is whisking the egg whites when a meringue is being made.I know that in many households an electric whisk is used for this purpose. In ours, a manual spring whisk is pressed into service, and after it has been used I always end up with an aching forearm. Why don't I automate the procedure? Well, we've applied cost-benefit analysis to the matter and decided that an aching arm is a small cost compared with the benefit of not having to buy, store, get out and put away yet another electric gadget. And, importantly, the manual whisk produces less washing up.
It was when I'd come to the end of the washing up after an evening meal that I noticed the spring whisk lurking in the drawer. The kitchen lights were making the coiled metal throw sharp shadows, and I made a mental note to try and get a photograph out of its interesting shape. When it came to it I got two, both of the bulbous spring, one shot from each direction. They are the latest images in my "kitchen sink" collection.
For anyone with a kitchen sporting the latest in gee-whizz electrical whisking technology, and who has no idea what a spring whisk is, here's what the complete article looks like.
photograph & text (c) T. Boughen
(Photo 1 & 2)
Camera: Lumix LX3
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 5.1mm (24mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f2
Shutter Speed: 1/40
ISO: 80
Exposure Compensation: 0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On
