I’ve gone 47 years without knowing that.
With the exception of protein powder, add it on top of the liquid and mix it.
Never used it so not sure, maybe try a couple experiments. At least with protein when you try to make a paste it becomes a thick hard goop that is difficult to stir, and when you diluted it doesn’t go into solution any faster than if it was dry. And the reason I say put it on top of the liquid is because when it’s in the bottom it still goods up, sticks to the cup and doesn’t mix. But if it’s on top it stays suspended allowing it to mix when you stir
I’ve always done protein powder first, then add liquid and doing it the other way around sounds like blasphemy.
Never get any clumps either!
Dry powder on top of a liquid is pure insanity, next you’ll tell me you add milk to a bowl of cereal before the cereal
But from there, there is actually much debate about which order of combining is best. Some say that adding dry into wet leads to clumps of dry ingredients floating in the batter, while others say that actually the opposite, adding wet to dry, leads to, well, clumps.
It would appear that the jury is still out, and everyone despises clumps. But one thing is definitely true: It’s much harder to successfully add dry ingredients into wet ingredients neatly. That order tends to lead to a giant puff of flour wafting toward the ceiling, and settling all over the counters, while a steady, viscous stream of wet ingredients will instead narrowly ribbon its way down into the bowl containing dry ingredients, and nowhere else.
You can do the protein powder first. Just make sure that when you pour in the water, it stays on top of the protein and doesn’t seep through to the bottom. Then flip the bottle over, shake it (without flipping) until all the powder unsticks from the bottom, then proceed to shake normally.
Alternatively, fill the bottle with about an inch of water, add the powder, then fill the rest of the way with water and shake normally.
The problem with water first is that you can’t stick the scoop into the bottle and protein powder flies off everywhere.
The best method (including Soylent) is adding 2.5-4cm (1"1.5") of water to the shaker bottle, adding the powder, tapping the bottle on the counter a couple times, then topping off with water. Once filled, replace the top, give it a good shake, let it sit for a minute or two, and then give it a final shake to get the last bit off the side.
This method prevents the powder from sticking to the inside edge around the base or to the top and reduces the shaking needed. If you’re really hungry, with Soylent, you can actually use up to 105g (3.5 scoops) of powder in the standard sized shaker bottle and it will still mix properly if you finish adding water after replacing the top to a little below the flip-cap opening.
Same technique as making and integrating a cornstarch slurry to thicken a soup.
If you add hot water to corn starch, you’re gonna have a bad time. And clumps.
(Use cold water to make the paste, then add that to the heated liquid you want to thicken via corn starch, FYI.)
Now the real fun is doing 5 gallons of soup, breaking out the industrial immersion blender and xanthum gum.
Blender > clumps.
I do this with cold milk or creamer when making hot chocolate. Make a nice paste by continuously mixing it while waiting for the water to boil is plenty good enough and makes it much tastier!
This is the best way to mix wasabi and soya sauce too
But it tastes so much worse than adding a ball of wasabi to the piece and dipping the soy sauce separately if at all. How can you possibly get enough wasabi to really bring out the flavor of the fish without absolutely drowning your sushi in soy sauce? Not every piece should get the same proportion of soy sauce and wasabi either.
That’s literally what “instantized” means, though. 😅
