subject: How To Use The Rancilio Silvia Espresso Machine [print this page] Having a Rancilio Silva Espresso machine to use can be quite intimidating yes, especially if you have no experience at all in using an espresso machine or if you already have used a machine before which handled much of the specifics for you. The machine to a large degree assumes you understand whatever you are doing. In case you don't, it wouldn't compensate for your mistakes. Here are some tips I've learned from others and from, of course, personal experience.
How to Heat the Machine. In order to come up to temperature, the machine will require a little time. Whenever you turn on the machine, a light will turn on indicating that it's heating and when the light finally goes away completely your assumption is that the machine is up to temperature. It is not quite the situation. The machine with be at a good temperature even if you do nothing else with it in just about twenty minutes. However, if you prefer not to wait, there are a few general approaches to force heating cycles.
Grinding the Espresso. The Rancilio Silvia Espresso is a reasonably leading-edge espresso machine for your home and therefore it is extremely unforgiving to poor grind and tamping. You should improve your game a level for this machine. Certainly you want an appropriate burr grinder -- there are many available varying in levels of settings. The most important thing is to assure you have good enough settings for espresso. One more thought here is if you can grind into the portafilter directly. That attribute will definitely help on the tamping part slightly.
How to Tamp the Espresso. You need a good tamper, tampers that are solid stainless steel and are heavy sized the Silvia perfectly. Several technique may be of help also. Here are some steps that you can do in order to help your tamps. Dose as straight into the portafilter as you can. If there's no way to do that, use your grind collection basket to dose from. Overflow the portafilter just a bit using this method after which do a bent finger sweep to lightly spread the coffee grounds. Get your heavy tamper and allow the weight to to settle into portafilter naturally that does a pre-pack. Take the tamper out and delicately tap the four side quadrants of the portafilter. To get ready for the last tamp, apply a great amount of pressure down. And then, apply firm, even pressure down into the portafilter and relieve. The recommendation is 30 pounds. of pressure down and you'll learn the feeling of that pressure by pushing your tamper onto a bathroom scale until it registers thirty lbs. You should be able to see an extremely smooth and level puck. When done, you are now ready to place the portafilter into the group and begin brewing.
Brewing. Soon after placing the portafilter in the group, lock it into place such that the two spouts line up square to the machine. Hit the brew button and time your shot. What you must seek is to brew.
And lastly, enjoy in an espresso beverage of your choice.
