Wednesday 5 June 2019

Safety Tips You Should Follow When Using a Glasswasher

Glasswashers are a piece of important equipment to have in a place that requires frequent cleaning of glassware. Having a glasswasher makes washing a lot of dishes easier and helps save time, energy and money. It is environmentally friendly and cleans plenty of dishes together. Maidaid glasswashers are a good choice, but it is important for you to know how you should operate them properly and prevent any kind of damage or accident. Here are a few essential safety tips you should follow when operating a glasswasher.


  1. When you load glassware inside the equipment, ensure that you have placed it gently in order to avoid chipping or breaking. Position them firmly inside the rack where they do not bump with each other when you start the machine.
  2. Do not overload. Stuffing glassware beyond the equipment’s capacity will lead to a number of issues. You will end up with chipped glasses and poorly cleaned glasses.
  3. After prolonged usage, give time to your glasswasher to cool off. Extended use can cause its parts to overheat and blow out intense steam, which could be dangerous for your skin. Ensure that the machine is cool before you take out your glassware.
  4. Always close the doors of your Maidaid glasswashers before and after use to prevent accidents.
  5. Remember to read the instructions when using rinse aid. Never use more than the recommended amount as mentioned in the label.
  6. Do not ever combine your glasswasher detergent with different cleaning chemicals. Doing this will stop the formulation of irritating fumes that are harmful if inhaled.
  7. Do not try to wash other utensils inside your glasswasher. It has been created to clean only glassware. Avoid putting other cookware inside the rack.
  8. Make sure you have checked if your glasses are glasswasher safe. It uses increased temperatures to sanitise and clean the glasses. Materials like plastic will turn brittle or warp if washed in a glasswasher.

These are some key tips you should always keep in mind when using Maidaid glasswashers. They are useful and you need to follow the necessary measures to keep them running efficiently.

Advantages of an Automatic Coffee Machine

A lot of people tend to believe that there is less to no requirement of buying coffee machines when they can prepare coffee themselves. In doing so, they forget that a coffee machine is not meant to act as a complete replacement. Rather, it is supposed to play an important role in places where there is a need for frequent coffee service. If you are running a coffee shop, it is necessary for you to get a barista coffee machine. Read on to understand the benefits of an automatic coffee machine.

Prepares Fresh Coffee
Earlier, people would make coffee and leave it on the hotplate to filter for hours. This process ruins the taste of the coffee and leaves a pot of sour caffeine. In order to avoid this, you can purchase a coffee machine and enjoy fresh and delicious coffee.


Makes Speciality Coffee
It is not at all easy to prepare a speciality drink. If you do not own a coffee machine, all you will have is brewed coffee. But, an automatic coffee machine offers you a variety of speciality drinks with the touch of a button.

It is Efficient
A barista coffee machine is really fast. With the machines getting faster with upgrades, you can even make a cup of cappuccino within a minute.

Uses Fresh Beans
Upon grinding, coffee beans release the flavour and oils responsible for the taste. But, roasted beans stay fresh much longer. Automatic coffee machines are fitted with grinders which crushes the beans whenever you use it, giving you coffee that tastes fresh.

Ensures Safety
Safety whilst making coffee is a big issue in coffee shops if you are using a manual machine. The manual process involves a lot of hot water, and steam is often shot out of a blazing hot metal rod. No matter how trained you are, accidents might happen when you prepare a large amount of coffee, frequently.

A barista coffee machine brings all the above-mentioned advantages to you. If you are running a coffee business, it is recommended that you get yourself automatic coffee machines.

Benefits of a Double Door Bottle Cooler

Glass door bottle coolers are necessary for the beverage business. A functional glass door cooler does not only provide you with storage capacity but also a good visual of the displayed beverages. Customers prefer buying what is exhibited in front of their eyes but is also secure behind the glass.

There are both single and double door coolers in the market, but a double door bottle cooler is a great choice as it provides a large capacity and also requires a small space. There are several benefits to using a double door cooler and here are some of them:

Convenience
You can store bottles in these bottle coolers the way you like. You can arrange the bottles so that the customers can see the brand name. Customers prefer different brands, and this feature allows them to easily understand what you are providing without the need to open the doors.


Efficiency
Since most glass door coolers are double glazed, it makes the cooler energy efficient. As you do not require to open the doors frequently, it makes sure that the cold air stays inside and maintains the temperature of the double door bottle cooler. The decreased opening of the doors also ensures reduced electricity consumption.

Attractiveness
Double door bottle coolers are preferred for commercial use as it enhances the look of the shop. It does not take too much space and also looks beautiful. These bottle coolers are fitted with LED interior lights which illuminate the inside of the storage and makes the products visible to buyers. Another perk of the LED lights is that it helps you keep the unit clean and organised. They also make the beverages look fresh, whilst giving a nice look to the shop.

Easy Maintenance
Glass door bottle coolers are easy to maintain. The glass doors impel keeping the appliance clean, and you can easily clean it by using a damp piece of cloth.
All these perks make a double door bottle cooler a fantastic choice for your beverage business. It does not only improve the look of the shop but is also easy to use and maintain.

Wednesday 29 May 2019

Choosing a Deep Fat Fryer

Here is something that you may not know if you are considering buying a Blue Seal fryer. All foods float in the top two inches of oil in a deep fat fryer while cooking, so this could mean that you have invested in a fryer which is too deep and which is using more oil, and also fuel, than necessary.

The industry-wide performance of a deep fat fryer – including the Blue Seal fryer – is usually measured in the number of pounds of chips per hour it can fry, which sounds sensible on the face of it. However, this could cause you to make the wrong decision, because almost no food outlets have a steady rate of requirements for chips per hour. In many fish and chip shops, and others as well, there is a huge burst of sales at lunch time, so chips per hour doesn’t allow for the fact that in the lunch hour you have to produce a far greater number of chips than at three in the afternoon.


Another point to consider is the type of chips you are frying, and the type of chips quoted in a manufacturer’s figures. For instance, the size of the chips can vary considerably, and also the frying times will vary according to whether you are frying frozen chips, fresh chips, chilled chips, blanched chips, and so on.

Then there is the question of whether to have a gas fryer or an electric one. You can get either a gas Blue Seal fryer or an electric one. Overall, electric fryers are a little cheaper to buy and suitable for anything up to mid volume requirements. If you are frying large quantities, especially chips, then a gas fryer will be more expensive to buy but will be cheaper to run. Operating costs should always be taken into consideration.

There are other factors to consider as well, such as the cool zone required by many gas fryers, and some electric ones as well. The best option – especially in a busy outlet, is to have two fryers – one for chips, and the other for everything else.

The Birth of the Espresso Coffee Machine

A Bezzera coffee machine is named after the Italian Luigi Bezzera who patented his espresso machine in 1902. In the 19th century, drinking coffee was extremely popular in Europe, but the actual process of brewing a cup was time-consuming and laborious, taking five minutes for a cup of coffee to brew, which could make life difficult for workers on their “coffee break”.

In order to speed up the process, in 1884 Angelo Moriondo patented a “new steam machinery for the economic and instantaneous confection of coffee beverage” which was the prototype of the espresso machine. Espresso is Italian for “fast”. However, Moriondo’s machine  could only produce coffee in bulk, and it was left to inventor and businessman Bezzera to produce the first machine that would force steam and hot water through ground up coffee into an individual cup thus reducing the brewing time from several minutes to 30 seconds or so.


The Bezzera coffee machine had several improvements over Moriondo’s machine which was created for the Turin Grand Exposition as a bulk brewer. In fact, not much is known about Moriondo after that and there are no machines still in existence. It was Bezzera who introduced the multiple brew heads, portafilter, and many other innovations that are still in use today.

However, Bezzera only built a few prototypes because he had neither the money to expand the business, nor any idea about how to market the machine, and in 1903 he sold his patents to Desiderio Pavoni who set about making further improvements, notably the pressure release valve which prevented the barista from being splashed with hot coffee. Bezzera and Pavoni worked together and introduced the Bezzera coffee machine to the world at the 1906 Milan Fair where they made cafee espresso.

Among the growing number of competitors to Pavoni was Pier Teresio Arduino who had a much larger workshop than Pavoni, and it was he who exported the machines to the rest of Europe. However, the machines that we have today were invented by Milanese café owner Achille Gaggia who managed to increase the pressure from only 1.5 bars to 8 – 10 bars and in so doing produced the crema that now floats on the surface.

Some Factors to Consider When Choosing a Bottle Cooler

Bottle coolers are an essential item for every pub and restaurant, and there is a choice of several different makes and sizes. One of the things that will help to decide what size of bottle cooler you have is simply the amount of space that you have in the backbar. If you do not have very much room the choice will probably be limited to a single door bottle cooler.

Of course, you can get a single door bottle cooler in a choice of heights, so if you have the space, a tall one with four, five, or even six shelves will hold the most bottles and allow you to display more types of drink than an under counter one. 


One of the most important things about a bottle cooler is that it has to be able to maintain a constant temperature and cope with the door constantly being opened and closed as bottles are taken out and stock replenished. It has to be tough enough to cope with the wear and tear that comes from the way that it is used, yet it also has to have a maximum amount of glass in order to display the products to best advantage.

Effective lighting is also an important factor for displaying the products and the overall aesthetics. A single door bottle cooler needs to look good behind the bar, and there is actually a noticeable trend today for operators requiring bespoke finishes to match the décor of the bar or restaurant, and in some cases the company branding. Another important factor is to have adjustable shelves so that different brands of drinks can be displayed. Bottle coolers should also have variable thermostats so that the operator can set the temperature to between 4°C and 10°C to suit the environment and customer preferences, and also take account of any specific requirements of the drinks themselves.

Of course, another factor is energy efficiency. You want a bottle cooler that has high insulating glass, and LED lights for maximum efficiency. You can also get bottle coolers with “wire on tube” condensers today which are not only highly efficient, but also virtually maintenance free, since it is almost impossible for them to be blocked with dust like conventional condensers.

Saturday 16 March 2019

Is It A Cooker? Is It A Stove? Is It A Range? Is It An Oven?

Some people call it a stove, some people call it an oven, some people call it a range, and some people call it a cooker. Whatever you call it, it's the appliance you use to do your cooking on, unless you exclusively use a microwave which some people do because they have no interest in cooking per se, but just want to throw something in the microwave to produce food to eat, regardless of whether it is good for them or not.

Leaving the microwave aside for the moment, a 6 burner oven is not just an oven. An oven is just the enclosed lower part of the cooker or stove that heats your food all round, while the burner part is the top on which you cook food in saucepans, frying pans, and so on. What people refer to as a 6 burner oven is in fact a cooker with an oven and six burners on the top as opposed to the more common four burners. Even the word "burner" is something of a grey area, because that tends to indicate a gas burner, which is fine, but an electric cooker has hotplates or rings or ceramic hobs or induction hobs, depending partly on how old it is, and the design and build of the appliance.

 
And you thought buying a new cooker was going to be easy?

In the majority of cases, a 4 burner oven is what you will find in most homes with four hobs and an oven. Some may actually have two ovens which can operate at different temperatures. Many family homes simply don't have the room to accommodate a 6 burner oven in the kitchen, although it has to be said that they have their uses, particularly if you frequently have guests round for dinner parties. Those two extra hobs give you the chance to do some extra vegetables or cook a sauce which could be very difficult with four hobs.

Of course, cookers can be powered with natural gas, propane, or electricity. Some cookers are what are known as dual fuel cookers which have an electric oven which provides a consistent even heat, while the gas burners on top allow extremely high temperature control. Gas doesn't retain heat in the same way that an electric powered hob does, and so can be turned up or down and provide an instant reaction.

As you can see, buying a cooker is not as straightforward as you might think, so you need to do proper research.