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Nov 12, 2024

The Best Whisk | Reviews by Wirecutter

By Marguerite Preston Marguerite Preston is an editor covering kitchen gear. She has spent countless hours in the test kitchen and edited hundreds of guides since 2017. After more than 10 hours of

By Marguerite Preston

Marguerite Preston is an editor covering kitchen gear. She has spent countless hours in the test kitchen and edited hundreds of guides since 2017.

After more than 10 hours of combing through whisks of all shapes and sizes, and whipping or stirring our way through bowl after bowl of cream, custard, béchamel, and egg whites, we think the GIR Ultimate Whisk is the best whisk for most people. It’s a great all-purpose whisk, equally efficient at whipping cream or stirring a pot of sauce. It’s flexible but sturdy, and its cushy, silicone handle was the most comfortable we tried.

This lightweight, versatile whisk makes quick work of any whipping task, and the silicone-coated handle is easy to grip even through long bouts of vigorous stirring.

The straight steel handle isn’t very comfortable, but this whisk is just as adept at a wide variety of tasks, and it costs half as much as our top pick.

This lightweight, versatile whisk makes quick work of any whipping task, and the silicone-coated handle is easy to grip even through long bouts of vigorous stirring.

The springy, plentiful wires of the GIR Ultimate Whisk give it plenty of whipping power, and the grippy silicone handle fits more comfortably in your hand than any straight, metal handle.

The whisk is narrow enough to scrape the corners of a pot when you’re making a sauce but still wide enough to quickly aerate a bowl of cream. It’s also dishwasher safe and well constructed overall.

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The straight steel handle isn’t very comfortable, but this whisk is just as adept at a wide variety of tasks, and it costs half as much as our top pick.

The 12-inch Winco whisk is just as springy and efficient at whipping as our top pick. Its biggest downside is the smooth stainless steel handle, which is less comfortable than GIR’s silicone handle and can be slippery. It’s also heavier than our top pick, which can get tiresome when you’re whisking vigorously. But those are flaws you might be willing to overlook for a cheaper whisk.

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Before becoming an editor, I worked as a pastry cook in New York City, and I spent many hours with a whisk in hand, stirring custards and beating eggs. And in addition to overseeing Wirecutter’s kitchen coverage as a senior editor, I’ve done testing for our guides to cake pans, ice cream makers, pie plates, and more, whisking up various ingredients in the process.

For this guide:

Like all Wirecutter journalists, I review and test products with complete editorial independence. I’m never made aware of any business implications of my editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.

The difference between a bad whisk and a good one is the difference between a lumpy gravy and a silky smooth one, or between breaking a sweat and (almost) effortlessly whipping some cream by hand for a dinner-party dessert.

Whisks come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, but a sturdy, medium-size whisk in the classic teardrop shape—generally known as a balloon whisk—is by far the most versatile. It can fit in most pots, pans, and bowls, and can blend and whip all kinds of ingredients with ease.

If you own only tiny or flat whisks, or some novelty shape, or if your whisk is too floppy to handle thick batters, too stiff to aerate cream, or just generally frustrating to use, consider switching to one high-quality balloon whisk. . You might be surprised how much more efficient it can be.

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Although you can buy many different whisks for many different tasks, we think most people really need just one good multipurpose tool that can whip cream, whisk salad dressing, or stir a lump-free sauce with equal efficiency.

Here are the qualities we looked for in an ideal all-purpose whisk:

Shape: We mainly focused on medium balloon whisks. We didn’t test flat whisks (for use only in sauté pans) or dough whisks (just for stirring thick bread doughs). We also ruled out the many novelty shapes—tornadoes and cyclones, coils and springs, whisks with balls inside them and balls on the tips—that reinvent the wheel without actually improving on it.

We did consider French whisks, which look similar to balloon whisks but are narrower and meant to reach the corners of a saucepan. We also found some balloon whisks that were particularly fat and bulbous.

But the most versatile balloon whisks fall somewhere in between, neither too fat to reach the corners of a pot nor too skinny to properly aerate egg whites or cream.

Size: We tested only whisks measuring from 10 to 12 inches long (most were 12 inches), since smaller whisks won’t reach into deep pots or whip ingredients as quickly and larger whisks can be awkward to use.

Strength and flexibility: A good whisk should have some bounce. Springy wires reverberate as you whisk, amplifying the speed and power of each stroke.

Wires that are thick and stiff don’t give you any of that extra force, making whisking more laborious. But thin, floppy wires can be frustrating to use, too: They get bogged down in thicker mixtures, bending when they should be stirring.

Number of wires: As you stir or whip with a whisk, each individual wire blends the ingredients and pulls in air. So the more wires your whisk has, the faster and more efficiently it will aerate and emulsify. We ruled out any whisks with fewer than 10 wires.

Handle comfort: A comfortable handle that’s not too heavy, too bulky, or too slippery is especially important for laborious tasks like whipping cream. Ideally, the handle should make it easy for you to hold the whisk in various positions.

In our testing, we found contoured rubber or silicone handles to be the most comfortable for all grips. But whisks with plain, cylindrical metal handles are far more common, and are comfortable enough as long as they’re around 1 inch in diameter (skinnier is hard to grip firmly in a fist; thicker is uncomfortable in a pencil grip).

Though whisks with wooden handles can also be more comfortable and less slippery than metal, we didn’t test them because wood can crack if you leave it in the sink or run it through the dishwasher.

Durability: A good whisk should last many years. We looked for ones with visible epoxy surrounding the wires where they enter the handle: Though it might be mistaken for sloppy construction, that glue is essential for keeping the handle tightly sealed against water and gunk.

A whisk’s wires will inevitably bend a little over time, but they should be resilient enough not to splay out like the bristles on an old toothbrush the first time you shove your whisk in a drawer. Some whisks come with a little ring around the tip of the wires to hold them in place, which is a nice bit of extra insurance but not essential.

Sturdy steel wires: We tried out three whisks with silicone-coated steel wires––often called nonstick whisks because they’re safe to use on nonstick cookware.

But they have fewer wires than any good stainless whisk (five or six on average), and worse, those wires are very floppy, because the steel core is much thinner than the wire of any stainless whisk. This made them terribly inefficient, even at tasks they’re designed for: When we used them to make bechamel in a nonstick pan, for example, our sauce turned out lumpy.

Better to stick with sturdy bare-steel wires and make your sauces in a stainless steel pan.

Comfort and efficiency were the qualities we wanted most in a whisk, and we could test for both at the same time with a couple of simple tasks: whipping egg whites and whipping cream. We whisked three egg whites with each whisk, timing how long it took to whip them into soft peaks.

Then we repeated the process with a cup of heavy cream (in between each whisking task, we rested a few minutes to make sure arm fatigue didn’t throw off the timing).

The timer gave us a rough idea of how efficient each whisk was, but we also paid a lot of attention to the feel of the tool. Did it spring off the sides of the bowl or clunk against them? Was the handle uncomfortable to hold in a pencil grip or a fist?

Then we used each whisk to cook a basic pastry cream in our favorite saucepan, noting whether it was strong enough to stir through thick custard or narrow enough to reach into the tight corners of the pot.

As mentioned above, we also attempted (rather unsuccessfully) to make béchamel in a nonstick pan with each silicone whisk.

Finally, to check for durability, we ran the whisks through the dishwasher several times. And after accidentally melting the handle of the OXO Good Grips 11-Inch Silicone Balloon Whisk, we heat-tested every non-steel handle by resting it on the edge of a hot pan.

This lightweight, versatile whisk makes quick work of any whipping task, and the silicone-coated handle is easy to grip even through long bouts of vigorous stirring.

For just about any task, from whipping cream to whisking vinaigrette to stirring pancake batter, the GIR Ultimate Whisk is an all-around great tool. It’s comfortable, efficient, and cute to boot.

Twelve wires make it a powerhouse. The majority of whisks we tested had only 10 wires, and the extra two on this model really made a difference in efficiency. The GIR Whisk whipped cream the fastest of any whisk we tried: I was able to get soft whipped cream in a minute flat, and I managed firm peaks in another 15 seconds of vigorous whisking. (Your mileage may vary. Another kitchen-team member took closer to three minutes to get the same results.)

The design of the wires also helps with efficiency. They’re strong and springy, not easily bent out of shape but not overly stiff––they reverberate off the sides of a bowl, adding force to your whisking.

And they’re well-spaced, ranging in length from 5.25 to 7 inches. This allows them to cover more area as they’re pulled through a mixture, pulling in more air or cutting through more lumps at a time than a whisk with wires all closer to the same length.

The silicone-coated handle is both comfortable and stylish. Its textured exterior and slightly tapered shape make it pleasant to hold and gave us a secure grip even when we held the handle loosely (which is useful for whipping, when you can gain extra speed and momentum if you let the whisk bounce off the sides of the bowl).

It’s a nice bonus that the handle comes in lots of fun color options, too.

It’s built to last through a wide range of tasks. Epoxy around the base of the wires should keep the handle well-sealed and protected from gunk and water. And while it’s a minor aesthetic difference, it’s nice that the epoxy is minimal, and less visible than the thick layer of it at the base of our budget pick, the Winco whisk.

The silicone on the handle is heat-resistant up to 425 degrees Fahrenheit, which is enough that you could rest the handle on the edge of a hot pot while whisking a sauce and it wouldn’t melt (this was an issue with the rubbery coating on the handle of the OXO whisk we tested).This whisk is also dishwasher safe.

We like the mini version too. GIR also sells a mini 8-inch whisk that’s not as versatile, but great for little tasks like whisking dressing or eggs. It’s also perfect for kids.

It’s actually hard to come up with any design flaws for this simple, well-designed tool. But I do wish GIR offered a concrete warranty on their products. Here’s what the company says in its FAQ:

“We don’t offer a warranty, but we take pride in the products we create and sell and want you to be happy. If any issues arise, please reach out to us at [email protected] and we’ll do our best to make it right.”

Realistically, that’s probably enough for a $15 item, but we haven’t had a reason or opportunity to test out the customer service yet, so we can’t say how helpful the vague policy is.

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The straight steel handle isn’t very comfortable, but this whisk is just as adept at a wide variety of tasks, and it costs half as much as our top pick.

The Winco 12-Inch Stainless Steel Piano Wire Whip is a well-built, versatile, and super-affordable whisk, though it’s not as comfortable to hold as our top pick.

It’s great quality for the price. Though it’s about half the price of the GIR Ultimate Whisk, the Winco model is just as strong and springy.

Like our top pick, the Winco whisk has 12 bouncy wires, whereas most of the models we tested had 10. It whipped cream almost as fast as our top pick, but I was slowed down a little by the weight of the whisk, which is nearly 2 ounces heavier than the GIR model.

It’s durable. Visible epoxy around the base of the wires means the handle of the Winco stays tightly sealed against dishwater or gunk. In our tests, after several runs through the dishwasher, the whisk showed no signs of rust.

Unlike our top pick, the Winco also has a ring holding the wires together at the tip of the whisk. It’s easy to remove if you want to, but we recommend keeping the ring on: It will help keep the wires from bending out of shape.

But it can feel clunky to use. The Winco whisk’s cylindrical metal handle isn’t as comfortable as the GIR model’s grippy, slightly bulbous silicone one. And again, the weight of the handle made it tiresome for whipping.

But it wasn’t the heaviest whisk we tested (that was the Kuhn Rikon whisk, which was about an ounce heavier), and the length and width of the handle allowed it to fit well in a range of hand sizes when I passed it around the test kitchen.

Because it’s an inch longer than the GIR Whisk, it was a little clumsier to maneuver around a shallow pan. But it was slightly better for deeper pots, and at about the same width as the GIR model, it did just as good a job of scraping the corners.

For most tasks, it will serve you just fine, and if you don’t do a ton of whisking, you may hardly notice the lack of cushy material.

Stainless steel whisks

The Vollrath 12-Inch Piano Whip, has a hard, contoured nylon handle with a rough, grippy surface that we found very comfortable. It’s durable (designed for commercial kitchens) and did almost as well as our picks at whipping and stirring custard. But it’s mainly sold through restaurant-supply stores, where shipping charges push the price to more than $20.

For the most part we avoided French whisks, because their narrower shape is less efficient at whipping air into ingredients. But we made an exception for the Best Manufacturers 12-Inch Standard French Wire Whisk because Cook’s Illustrated (subscription required) named it as a favorite all-purpose whisk. However, we found it took a full minute longer to whip up egg whites than the fastest whisks we tested.

The Best Manufacturers 12-Inch Balloon Whip had the thickest, stiffest wires of any whisk we tested, which made it much less efficient at whipping air into cream or egg whites. The end was also too fat to fit easily into the corners of a small saucepan.

At nearly $20, the Kuhn Rikon 12-Inch Balloon Wire Whisk was the most expensive whisk we tested. It didn’t perform significantly better than any other whisk we tested, and the handle was uncomfortably heavy.

Nonstick whisks

The OXO Good Grips 11-Inch Silicone Balloon Whisk had the most wires (eight) of any silicone whisk we tried, and they didn’t feel quite as floppy as those on other nonstick whisks. But the rubber handle melted on the edge of a hot pan, which we thought was a dealbreaker for a whisk you’d use only when cooking in a nonstick pan (for everything else, it’s nearly useless).

The Kuhn Rikon 10-inch Silicone Rainbow Whisk has very few wires, which in our tests were floppy and pretty ineffective at whisking the lumps out of a béchamel.

The Cuisipro 10-Inch Silicone Egg Whisk had the fewest wires (only five) of any whisk we tested. Being floppy and so widely spaced, the wires would catch on the sides of the pan and then spring back suddenly, flinging sauce everywhere.

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Marguerite Preston

Marguerite Preston is a senior editor covering kitchen gear and appliances at Wirecutter, and has written guides to baking equipment, meal kit delivery services, and more. She previously worked as an editor for Eater New York and as a freelance food writer. Before that, she learned her way around professional kitchens as a pastry cook in New York.

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