Ventures into the unknown
This will be my first installment of Molecular Gastronomy Techniques for the home chef. I'm going to focus on the recipes and my experience with it. I'll try to keep the science talk to a minimum, but give enough for those interested. My first technique will be sferification. I think this technique goes to El Bulli Restaurant/labs, if I'm wrong, someone feel free to correct me, and I'll update this little point.
What is sferification? Sferification is the process of making liquid caviar and pasta-less raviolo. With the use of chemicals, one can take a food liquid (anything from fruit, vegetables, meat juice, or chicken stock), submerge it in another liquid, and a gel will form around the liquid through ion transfer. OK -- if you want the science behind this, send me a mail and I'll send you some resources.I started with caviar because it is one of the easier things to attempt. In the last week and a half I've attempted this five times. My first attempt was using the wrong chemical bath, so that was a mess, my second attempt was a success, three and four were a mess and a pot of gooooooo. My fifth attempt worked great. I've determined it is all about measurements, pH, and timing.
- Measurement is the first critical thing. I need a scientific scale, something that can measure a tenth of a gram.
- pH is the next critical thing. I think I need to buy testing strips. If the pH is too high, it will not work, if it is to low, it will not work. I already have chemicals to alter the pH, but I need a way to test the solution before I proceed.
- Third is timing, this is the easiest. If you let your sferes sit for too long, you get a solid gel. If they don't sit long enough, they break.
There are two processes for sferification. I will focus on the standard process, and explain the reverse process in another post.
First, you need the right chemicals: Sodium Alginate, Sodium Citrate, and Calcium Chloride.
Apple Caviar
8 ounces Apple Juice
1/2 tsp Sodium Alginate
1/8 tsp Sodium Citrate
2 cups of water
1/2 tsp Calcium Chloride
One or two water baths.
Mix a third of the apple juice with the sodium alginate. You need to use an immersion blender for this to work (a stand blender would also work). Heat this mixture to 205 degrees - this helps remove the air bubbles formed from blending. Add the rest of the apple juice and sodium citrate, mix to combine. Chill. This part can be made in advance and held for service.
Mix the water and calcium chloride in a large bowl.
When you are ready to 'cook' the sferes, transfer the apple mixture to your dropping apparatus. Syringes can be purchased at CVS, specialty equipment can be purchased from your chemical vendor, and you can use a squirt bottle. I have a 96 pipette dropper, and a squirt bottle. For speed, the dropper is amazing, but I prefer the slightly larger sferes that the squirt bottle makes.
(This is where the timing comes into play)
When you drop the mixture into the water bath, the reaction is instantaneous. The longer the sfere is in the water, the thicker the shell. As the chemical reaction takes place, the apple is gelling; if it sits too long, you have a solid sfere, instead of a liquid filled sfere. Thirty seconds to 45 seconds is the time the sferes need to cook. If they are in there much longer, they will solidify on you. Remove the sferes with a slotted spoon, strainer, or skimmer and dip in the water bath. I use two baths: one for the first dip, and the other ice water bath to cool the sferes (I used them in a cold dish).
You now have apple caviar.
If you want to make raviolo, fill a round teaspoon with the apple mixture and place the spoon under the water. Rotate the spoon over and flip the apple out of the spoon. It will naturally take on a sphere shape in the fluid as the bonds are formed. Let these rest for sixty to ninety seconds. Then remove and dip in water baths to remove the chemicals from the outside.
DISCLAIMER: These are not completed dishes, they are just examples of technique.
To make this into a finished dish, come up with a creative way to augment a dish, or create a new one. I suspect they
would be good on ice cream. The larger raviolo can be served on a
spoon with accompaniment. The apple raviolo with a measure of cream
anglaise, a dot of caramel, resting on a circle of pie crust would make
an interesting mini dessert.
This is all about altering the texture of things we know and creating new experiences.
What
I learned from this recipe -- by itself, the apple caviar is bland. It
all makes sense when you think about it. It's just apple juice, a tiny
sphere of apple juice. To punch up the flavor, reduce the apple juice
and mull it. Reduced apple cider sounds much better. A concentrated
blast of flavor is your goal.
Mango - Melon Caviar and Raviolo
150 grams of mango
100 grams of musk melon (cantaloupe)
4 grams of Sodium Citrate
Sodium Alginate
500 grams of water
5 grams of Calcium Citrate
The recipe is identical to the one above. Mix, cook, mix, drop into bath, rinse, strain, serve.
The
difference -- this mixture was thicker, more vibrant, and had much more
flavor. The mango shines through, and the melon plays a strong second
fiddle. The raviolo has the texture, color, and viscosity of an egg
yolk. The caviar floats in drinks. Initially, it will sink to the
bottom, but slowly, they all start to float up to the top of the
drink. It's like bubble tea, but they slowly start to infuse the drink
with the flavor. It's very subtle, but my gin started to have a melon
scent and mango flavor. It was quite nice, not the least bit
overpowering.
Coming up next:
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Marvelous! Really marvelous!
I can see these would not lose their fascination. I can also see these are a real fun technique to master!
Beautiful job! Love the mango melon!!
I find food science so fascinating! This is wonderful. I can' wait to see all that you make with your new ingredients. I agree the El bulli texturas line is so expensive...
I saw this technique on gourmet.com I believe when a pastry chef was doing it and I've been trying to figure out how he did it ever since. Thanks for the explanation. That's awesome!
Back in 2004, I attended the World Pastry Forum in Las Vegas. I took the 5-day teaching program and one of my classes was taught by Albert Adria (from El Bulli), who I guess "pioneered" these techniques. One of the things he demonstrated was the mango raviola, which he had just learned to do. Everyone in class was simply in awe by this. He was an amazing instructor. It's so awesome that this is being done in a home kitchen. I still mention what he did with a simple mango to people today.
Truly amazing! I'm not sure I would have the time or patience to attempt, but I'm glad you are going for it. We ran into some similar items when were in Chicago a little over a month ago. Who is DC is practicing this food science?