Molecular Gastronomy

[Cara van man]

Anyone tried 'spherification' or making food that looks like something else?

I bought myself a kit last week and have tried some of the alginate bath stuff like fruit caviar and I made a fried egg out of yoghurt and mango!

Quite good fun and messes with peoples head at the dinner table

[Pferdestarke]

I have the kit from Ferran Adria of El Bulli fame. I made fake salmon roe the other week and presented it to my squeemish girlfriend. It was tomato juice.

I also tried spherical green olives but I was too eager and failed miserably.

Which kit did you get?

[BigJonMcQuimm]

I watched th guy on Saturday kitchen make the "poached egg"

Had not realised how easy it was to acquire the kit....

Just ordered the El Bulli kit :-)

Cannot wait...

[Cara van man]

Pferdestarke said:

I have the kit from Ferran Adria of El Bulli fame. I made fake salmon roe the other week and presented it to my squeemish girlfriend. It was tomato juice.

I also tried spherical green olives but I was too eager and failed miserably.

Which kit did you get?

That sounds like the kit I got.

measuring spoons, tubing for fake spaghetti, recipes book & the 8 or so different chemicals.

I made some orange and raspberry caviar that went nicely in a glass of tonic water.

My fake eggs turned out quite well and fooled the wife and kids.

I think it's the sort of thing that gets better with practice.

I even found a recipe for candied bacon that went well with the eggs!

[Cactussed]

Any link to such a kit and perhaps some pics / ideas?

[Cara van man]

here you go. This is the kit I got.

http://www.creamsupplies.co.uk/molecular-ingredien...

Some ideas...

http://www.solexpartners.com/media/texturas/textur...

Edited by Cara van man on Monday 2nd November 16:28

[sleep envy]

Cara van man said:

I even found a recipe for candied bacon that went well with the eggs!

glad you liked it

[Cara van man]

It was streaky bacon in demerera sugar, baked.

Made a mess of the baking sheet but tasted

I'll post photos next time.

I'm off to practice my orange flavoured "baked beans"!

[trix-a-belle]

think i might be putting one of those kits on my christmas list....

[Mr Beaumont]

Cara van man said:

here you go. This is the kit I got.

http://www.creamsupplies.co.uk/molecular-ingredien...

Some ideas...

http://www.solexpartners.com/media/texturas/textur...

Edited by Cara van man on Monday 2nd November 16:28

Damn they are sold out!

[Cara van man]

must have been a rush after I started this thread!!!

[Mr Beaumont]

Cara van man said:

must have been a rush after I started this thread!!!

Luckily though I sell the Algin, Calcic etc at work, so was able to get some today!

[Cara van man]

Mr Beaumont said:

Cara van man said:

must have been a rush after I started this thread!!!

Luckily though I sell the Algin, Calcic etc at work, so was able to get some today!

oh really?

What £/Kg?

[drfrank]

Very interesting !!!

I'm not what you would call a masterchef but I am better than average, how difficult is this stuff to do ?

Are the centres of the spheres liquid ?

[Cara van man]

drfrank said:

Very interesting !!!

I'm not what you would call a masterchef but I am better than average, how difficult is this stuff to do ?

Are the centres of the spheres liquid ?

Yes. You drop the liquid into the alginate bath and the calcium reacts. You leave it in the bath for 30 seconds/minute then whip it out and rinse it in a water bath. This stops the spherification process and you are left with balls of liquid with a jelly like skin on the outside.

[Cara van man]

p.s. the jelly/skin has no flavour.

[drfrank]

Can you just buy the ingredients on line ?

It strikes me that you are paying an awful lot for the 'equipment' when the actual reagents are very cheap.

What sort of flavours/combos can you use ?

If you liquidise any veg/fruit can you simply apply the same technique ?

[Cara van man]

yes and yes. Although if I'd bought the powders seperately it would have cost a lot more as they come in bigger tins.

Alcohol works well.

Most fruits are fine as far as I can tell, but generally need filtering if you want a nice finish.



I'm ,thinking of trying some 'creme de menthe spaghetti' to go on top of a choccy mousse, and some balls of jelly tea with milk in the middle.

Edited by Cara van man on Wednesday 4th November 20:42

[sleep envy]

can you make flavourless jelly balls with it?

[Cara van Man]

sleep envy said:

can you make flavourless jelly balls with it?

out of water you mean?

My guess is you just add some of the gluco (calcium powder) to the water and then drop blobs into the aginate bath