Thermomix Tips and Tricks: Stop Liquids from Boiling Over
There are times when your Thermomix bowl is pretty full and you’ll notice liquids like hot soup or rice water bubbling onto the lid and splashing about. There’s a really easy way to correct this: turn the speed UP.
“Turn the speed up?” I hear you say. Yes, up. It may be counter-intuitive, but it works. The reason why it works is equally simple. The fabulous design of the Thermomix bowl and blade creates a vortex (a kind of whirlpool) in the centre of your ingredients, to efficiently mix and stir them in three dimensions. The higher the speed, the higher the vortex reaches up the sides of the bowl. When your ingredients reach high up the sides of the bowl, they create a void in the centre and therefore cannot splash up through the hole in the centre of the lid. Simple.
In the photo example here, Madame Thermomix is steaming rice in the internal steamer basket on Varoma setting/Speed 2 1/2. In photo 1, the water is splashing up through the hole and splashing onto the top of the lid. In photo 2, Madame Thermomix has turned the speed up to Speed 5 and the liquid no longer splashes out onto the lid. (Trust me!)
Try it yourself and see. Leave me comments and share your results!
You’re very welcome! Sometimes you just need to be brave and turn the speed UP 😉
Happy Thermomix cooking!
Thank for this tip , it worked perfectly.
Awesome ? Has made my day. Thanks heaps for this tip
You very welcome, Jade! Turning the speed UP is a bit of a leap of faith but it really does work. I’m making another batch of Green Tomato Chutney right now and I’ve turned my bowl full of boiling bounty up to 4 myself, so I’ve got a beautiful vortex and no boiling over 🙂
Thanks so much for the tip! I’ve been flooding my worktop while cooking rice and it’s been really frustrating because the rice cooks so well in the TM it’s just been the boiling over problem I’ve had! Anyway, next time I’ll increase the speed 🙂 thanks for sharing
Thanks, Bronwen! You’re right, turning the speed UP is counter-intuitive but hey, it works 😉
Happy Thermomix cooking!
Very interesting! It sounds strange at first but the way you’ve explained it makes sense. Good tip! 🙂
Hi Carmen, congratulations on actually reading your Thermomix TM31 Instruction Manual 😉
This is what the manual says: “Steam cooking process begins when you turn the speed selector to low speed settings to speed 2.” To me, this simply indicates that you will start swirling the steam around at these speeds. The instruction I indicated to turn the speed up to stop liquids from boiling over comes from UK Thermomix and this is how UK demonstrators (of which I was one for four years and when I wrote this post) advise dealing with this situation. I see no indication in the instruction manual that you should not go above speed 2 on Varoma setting. The recipe for steaming rice in the internal steamer basket on Varoma setting in “Fast and Easy Cooking” by Janie Turner/UK Thermomix also gives this instruction and says to steam on Varoma/20 minutes/Speed 2 1/2.
In the end, you are free to interpret instructions as you see fit and most importantly you should be comfortable using your Thermomix so that you use it safely. I have merely shared the way Varoma and speeds are safely used in the UK and I urge you to do what feels right for you.
Many thanks for reading Why Is There Air and especially for leaving a comment. It’s so much more rewarding when we all share!
As far as I’m aware as per instruction manual, if you are using varoma temp without the varoma in place you shouldn’t go past speed 2???