Courtesy of:
http://www.foodite.com/foodite/molecular_gastronomy.html
Read this and ask yourself: "Does this make me hungry?"
Ingredients
Agar Agar: An extract of algae, it is a gelling additive that has no aftertaste. (Works really well if you put it in a petri dish and grow bacteria on it.)
Calcium Chloride: Used in conjunction with Sodium Alginate, it can turn drops of a liquid solution into caviar-like orbs with soft-skin
Carrageenan: A gelling agent similar to Agar Agar
Dextrose: A variant of sugar that can be used to shorten the time needed for doughs to rise
Egg White Powder: Simply egg whites with the moisture removed, can be used in the same preparations as regular egg whites to achieve more concentrated flavors and textures because there is no additional water
Gellan: A gelling agent similar to Agar Agar
Glucose: A variant of sugar, it delays sugar re-crystallization and prevents moisture loss
Isomalt: A variant of sugar, used for sugar pulling and casting, it is resistant to humidity and stays flexible longer than regular sugar
Lecithin: Made from soy, it is a natural emulsifier that is commonly used to stabilize foams and create "airs" (Creating "airs" would we? Certainly putting them on...)
Sodium Alginate: An extract of seaweed, it is a cold gelling agent that is activated in the presence of calcium (i.e. a solution of calcium chloride)
Sodium Citrate: White odorless crystals that prevent fat globules from sticking together
Transglutaminase: Commonly known as Activa or meat glue, it is used to chemically bond two or more proteins together (Meat Glue? Is this how one would form a Ham?)
Trimoline: Invert sugar, a syrup obtained from beet and cane syrups, it is uncrystallizable
Xanthan Gum: Produced from maize and soymeal, it is used to stabilize suspensions and emulsions, a common subsitute for eggs and gluten.
Techniques
Carbonation: The injection of carbon dioxide into a food product such as citrus wedges so that the juice squeezed out of it is carbonated (Fizzy Lemon)
Emulsification: The action of combining two insoluble products with each other, a common technique used to make mayonnaise (As a technique, I don't think this belongs, mayonaisse is pretty mainstream)
Oil Spherification: The use of an agar solution in cold oil to create liquid spheres of various sizes
Spherification: The use of an alginate solution in a calcified bath to create liquid spheres of various sizes (What happened to Tapioca? Is this like bubble tea?)
Vacuum Distillation: The use of a vacuum to separate alcohol from an alcoholic solution (Some call this Moonshine)
3 comments:
That reads like a list of the mystery ingredients in ice cream.
You missed out on my favourate food additives, calcuim and potasium silicates as listed on the packaging, but as rock geeks know better its rock flour, with the most dull mineral ever feldspar.
In a lot of the crappy salt you can buy, they actually put sugar in it!
I only buy sea salt.
Interesting to know.
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