I want to mix 150 grams each of two amino acids together to make 300 grams of combined product. Experiments on inexpensive substances such as flour demonstrate that there is no way to do it with any type of handheld mixing or whisking device. No matter how low I set the speed on a handheld beater or immersion blender, it’s still too fast; I wind up with powder all over the kitchen counter. What is the simplest way to mix the two powders that will ensure that they are homogenously distributed?
How little waste can you tolerate? A simple hand operated sifter would do the trick nicely. but really, just put it in a zip top bag and shake. You’ll get some residue due to static but not much. If you can’t afford or the materials are so expensive, just use a large glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Fill it half way and shake.
It should be completely homogenized unless there is some chemical barrier to that such as one powder having a significantly different moisture content or particle size.
Put them together in a sealed container and shake it?
No details here, but I though pharmacists had devices for doing this once upon a time. The plastic bag or sealed container method sounds good though. You could also insert a mixer attachment through plastic wrap over the top of the container. Something like a ball mill might work also.
This is what I do - with a rigid container - and it works well. The container should have something like 10 times the total volume of the powders.
Are the two powders pretty much the same? Because I’m wondering it the shaking in a jar method might not work if you’re trying to mix two powders with significantly different sized grains or different densities.
Anyone willing to try an experimental mixing of iron filings and flour?
If the amino acids in question can be put into solution without degrading or reacting in any way, that is the best (easy) way to get a uniform mixture. If you’re afraid water will hydrolyze whatever you’re working with, perhaps alcohol (which will evaporate faster than water too). This will give you a level of uniformity that you won’t get by simply mixing/shaking/manipulating the two powders together.
Mortar and pestle?
Sealed, rigid container (as recommended above), plenty of headspace, tumbling and rolling action. If the powders are of a nature that makes them naturally separate from each other, then that’s going to happen whatever you do, so you might be better off mixing at portion level, rather than in bulk.
Imho, you can’t do it with two powders in powder form, unless they are perfectly the same size, weight, density, etc.
But, if you want to experiment, I would use instant coffee, powder cream, and sugar to test whatever method you want. Then you can easily visually tell if it’s evenly distributed, and you won’t have to throw it away.
I forgot to add in my post above (#7, all the way up there) that you’d evaporate the liquid, leaving you with a nice homogeneous mixture in the end.
So how do people make cakes?
How do you know it’s not mixing well?
If you have most of one in the bottom and the other on top, then it’s obviously not mixed.
But if you see “clumps” of one in the other you might think it’s not well mixed, but it probably is. Physicist A.D. Moore, an expert on statis electricity, said that many people came to him with just this problem – incompletely mixed particlers or powders – and asked him if it was due to some electrostatic effect. Aftrer many experiments, he concluded that things were properly mixed. It’s just that “properly mixed” doesn’t necessarily look like perfect uniformity. You expect some measure of “statistical clumping”. He called it the “nonpareil mosaic”, because he saw it in bins of nonpareil treats.
So your powders might really be well-mixed, just not look like it.
Of course, you could do it the way they did in the wonderfully bad film Jekyll and Hyde – Together Again, where they put the powders on a flat surface and mechanically stir them up with a knife. I always figured they got the idea in that movie from a Pharmacist. Or a Drug Dealer.
Put them both in a solvent and stir.
I go along with the rigid contaner and shake for small, home projects. Otherwise, http://www.doubleconeblender.com/ I also remember seeing something that looked more like 2 pipes joined at 90 degrees.
In the industrial world we use twin-Shell or “V” Blenders (here).
This device allows the repeated separation and combining of powders.
Not terribly practical for the kitchen. One note…you can overblend materials. After an optimal time of combining and separating, you find that the materials begin to fraction again. 20 min or so is about the max mixing time…depending on the size of the charge.
Shake it up in a tupperware container.
How about a coffee grinder? Its designed to create a fine powder without getting it all over the kitchen.
"Experiments on inexpensive substances such as flour demonstrate that there is no way to do it with any type of handheld mixing or whisking device."
I believe “No way to do it” is not complaining about how well it mixes, but about it being an uncontrollable process, as explained in the OP’s next sentence:
"No matter how low I set the speed on a handheld beater or immersion blender, it’s still too fast; I wind up with powder all over the kitchen counter."
To paraphrase, “There’s no way to do it with these devices without making a godawful mess.”
<Cleese> What’s wrong with a whisk, boy? </Cleese>
When I mix a number of different powders in different proportions–e.g. as in making cornbread: you begin by mixing cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl–cornmeal might not all go through the sifter, I don’t know. What I do is stick the mixing spoon into the bottom of everything, and lift it while shaking it side to side. Repeating this a few times will mix everything nice and homogeneously.