Molecular Gastronomy: June 2008 Archives
To continue with my Molecular Gastronomy posts, this one will address the texture of a commonly used item: cheese. Parmigiano-Reggiano to be precise. I found a great, and simple, recipe from the 1998 - 2002 El Bulli Cookbook. It involves cheese, a grater, egg whites, silpat mats, and a rolling pin. Most people are familiar with the traditional parmesan crisp. Baked cheese, sometimes it has a lacy appearance. This recipe is just as easy to make, but you get a more refined, delicate, crisp.When buying cheese for this - look for the imported Parmesan. In the US, we have very lax rules for cheese naming. In europe, Parmigiano-Reggiano is regulated under the name Parmesan. American copies of the cheese have to be sold as pamesello italiano, or some other name. Pamesello italiano is what Kraft sells as Parmesan. American Parmesan has a larger sodium content, is mechanically pressed, and lacks the complex flavors that are achieved by the long time in the brine solution.
Parmigiano CrispsParmigiano-Reggiano cheese
egg whites
preheat oven to 340 degrees (convection)
tools needed - 2 silpat mats, microplane grater, rolling pin, and parchment paper.
Shave the cheese with a microplane, add the egg whites and mix with a spatula until the mixture resembles pasty dough. Transfer this to a silpat and spread evenly across the middle. Place the second silpat over the paste and evenly spread around with a rolling pin. You want a very thin, even layer of cheese across the entire silpat.
Place this into a preheated oven and bake for five minutes
Remove from oven and carefully remove the top silpat. I used an offset spatula to loosen and unstick any cheese that didn't want to release. Place a sheet of parchment over the cheese and flip over. Remove the remaining silpat and reduce the oven to 320 degrees (convection). Place back in the oven and cook for another 4 minutes. If you do not have convection, you may have to cook this for longer. You want the entire crisp to brown. If there are white spots, they will sag after you cut them.
When it is evenly browned, remove the crisp from the oven and cut immediately. You want them to be long and skinny. If you wait for the cheese to cool down, it will shatter when you try to cut it. Once cut, allow the crisps to cool to room temperature on a flat surface. I ended up using a chef's knife for slicing; the pizza wheel didn't do the trick. Serve in a dish or cup that will show off their height. They stay crisp for a long time. We ran out before they got soggy.
The little guy helped me make them; he ate so many of the crisps. I had to move them so he didn't finish them off.
Next time I make these, I might add some smoked Spanish paprika into the mix. Depending on when you add it, and how thoroughly you incorporate it, you could end up with streaks of dark red in the crisps.
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.
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