How do I clean the Rapid Caviar Maker?

How do I open this thing?

The Struggle

We get a lot of questions every week, mostly about usage ratios or mad scientist ideas that I try to find a solution for by using one of our ingredients. But shuffled in are always the questions about spherification, a technique that is about as finicky as my 2 year old child at the dinner table. This week I’m here to talk about a piece of equipment that has baffled the minds of people since the dawn of spherification. The Rapid Caviar Maker, a 96 pipette dropper that allows you to make an abundance of spheres in just moments. A tool that is nearly essential for anyone looking to make more than 20 spheres at a time. Let’s get one huge thing out of the way, never, never, never overfill the pipettes and flood the upper chamber of the Rapid Caviar Maker. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, you have made all the spheres your heart desires! They were perfect and your meal was amazing. You say to yourself  “let’s pop this bad boy open and give it a rinse”. After a few minutes of searching, you come to the conclusion that it doesn’t open and ask the question.

“How do I clean my Rapid Caviar maker?”

If there is a will there is a tray…

There is no need to fear young one, I am here to guide you to a clean rapid caviar maker!

Here is what you will need

• The tray that came with the Rapid Caviar Maker
• Warm soapy water
• Dry paper towels for blotting dry

Fill the tray with the warm soapy water and place the Rapid Caviar Maker into the tray. Fill the pipettes with the warm soapy water. DO NOT overfill the pipettes and flood the upper chamber of the Rapid Caviar Maker. If you do this it is a recipe for disaster, just be sure to fill the pipettes. Used the syringe supplied with the Rapid Caviar Maker to draw the soapy water in and then pump it back out into the tray. Blot the pipettes dry on paper towels. Repeat this step with fresh warm soapy water until all the pipettes are clear. If you would like, fill the tray with sanitizer solution for one final rinse. Then leave to air dry.

Tips and tricks?

• Use the Rapid Caviar Maker for direct spherification for best results. Reverse spherification is possible but the liquid must be thickened properly and can be very difficult. I have not been successful in all of my attempts to use the Rapid Caviar Maker for reverse spherification.
• Do not attempt to fill the Rapid Caviar Maker by filling the syringe first. I know it seems crazy after reading this blog, but I have gotten this question a few times before. Some people think you have to fill the syringe with the sphere liquid, then pump it through the tubing that attaches the two, fill the chamber until it overflows and fills the pipettes. Needless to say this is a bad idea. Use the tray to fill the pipettes, trust me it will make 100’s of spheres.
• Do not panic if you get a little rinse water in the chamber as you a cleaning it. This rinse water will evaporate in due time. Place it in the driest place in your kitchen and allow it to air dry.
• Often an air bubble will form in the pipette and pop as you fill it with the flavorful liquid. When this happens it will generally stick to the top of the Rapid Caviar Maker. This may raise your blood pressure momentarily, but if you clean it as normal and allow it to air dry it shouldn’t cause any issues.
• If there is a catastrophic failure and you have somehow filled the entire chamber with a viscous flavorful liquid. Fill the syringe with warm soapy water and flush the entire Rapid Caviar Maker until there is no remnants of the flavorful liquid. Now you are left with and Rapid Caviar Maker that is filled with soapy water. Rinse one more time with sanitizer solution. Do your best to shake as much water out of the Rapid Caviar Maker at this point. I suggest propping up the Rapid Caviar Maker so that water can drip out of the hole that the tubing attaches too. It may take a few days to remove all the liquid from the Rapid Caviar Maker but it will be usable.

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