Our espresso maker came with this little attachment that is supposed to make idiot-proof foamed milk. It is a little rubber thing that has a snorkel tube that lets it suck air into the milk. It has worked OK.

Lately I have been digging caffè Americanos. The other day I thought if I substituted the hot water with hot milk (not foamed milk) it would still have the same strength I like, just a little bit richer.

I thought if I took off the idiot-proof foaming attachment I would be able to heat up the milk without adding air bubbles for foam. It worked perfectly.

This morning I was going to do it again and I wanted to make the milk hotter than it was yesterday. I didn't bother getting out a thermometer yesterday and I forgot how hot you can take milk before it scalds, so I just erred on the side of caution and didn't get it too hot. I looked on the Internet for the milk temperature answer and found a page telling you how to properly steam milk. It dawned on me that I do not have to use the idiot-proof attachment to make frothed milk. I read the instructions again and then went downstairs to try it out.

I can make a better quality foam, and more of it, with just the plain steam wand and not the attachment. I just filled my coffee cup half full with milk because I only intended to heat it up, not froth it, but I wanted to try out my newly discovered secret. In no time at all my mug was filled with a perfectly frothed cup of milk with bubbles so small I couldn't see them. With the attachment I got a lot of big bubbles which you don't want.

I am going to get out my stainless steel frothing pitcher later today and see if I can triple the volume of milk, which is what you should be able to do. With the attachment my milk usually got too hot before it reached full volume.

The technique for the plain wand is actually easier than what I had to do using the attachment. You submerge the wand into the milk and turn the steam on full blast. You lower the pitcher until the tip of the wand comes just touches the surface of milk, and then keep it there. If you pull it out too much it blasts the surface of the milk and it creates big bubbles. You also tilt the pitcher so the direction of the steam will create a vortex and keep the milk spinning in the pitcher. That's it! The attachment directions said you had to keep moving the pitcher around to keep the milk swirling. I think that is because the attachment muted the force of the steam and you couldn't use it to add motion to the milk.