I tried to make an olive oil powder with the maltodextrin I bought yesterday at Lifestyles Market. The olive oil powder is supposed to melt in your mouth, that is not really what happened. The result was nothing worth eating and it left me with a small gummy bit of something in my mouth.
There are two reasons it may not have worked - either I made a mistake in the recipe or the maltodextrin is not the right type. The one I used was made from corn and the recipes seem to call from tapioca maltodextrin. I can not find anything online which definitively tells me that the difference matters. The corn based maltodextrin I bought is supposed to be good for many of the uses expected such as thickening a smoothie and such.
I followed the recipe as it was outlined though I needed a lot more maltodextrin. Various other recipes said I would need a much larger portion of maltodextrin than this recipe called for. The result looks like what I saw in the pictures so I really think there has to be a substantive difference between the two maltodextrins.
Showing posts with label Molecular Gastronomy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Molecular Gastronomy. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Playing with my food
I will be posting some pictures and videos of what I have been doing soon, but here is a bit of what I have been experimenting with in the house.
Exploring molecular gastronomy online - there are some interesting videos at youtube by Molecule-R. A lot of it is not very hard to do at all and after having watched numerous videos I am convinced I can do most of it. I thought I would start with what I had in my kitchen - agar agar.
Agar agar - I have used it to make sheets of the following: apple cider vinegar, lemonade, and peach juice. The liquid with agar agar was brought to boiling and then poured on a cookie sheet. The liquid gelled rather quickly, only a few minutes and I could lift the sheets off of the cookie sheet.
The sheets of the liquids are cool and have an interesting texture when you eat them. I have not tried using them in any dish yet. This is mainly because I am experimenting with what it takes to create the sheets. I have had one that was a bit too firm, though this made it very easy to handle. Another one was not firm enough and I had trouble getting it off of the cookie sheet. I will film the process sometime later this week.
I also used it to help set some peach jam, I was short on pectin. This seems to have worked well and therefore I decided to try it on some blackberries and see if I could make a functional small batch of jam. The stuff set but it is too firm to be a jam.
Exploring what supplies I can get at Lifestyles Market - they have a large and interesting selection of ingredients you need to experiment with your food. They have agar agar, maltodextrin, xantham gum, soy lecithin, citric acid, Irish moss, and more. The only thing they do not have is sodium alginate/calcium lactate.
I did not buy much at Lifestyles but I did buy some maltodextrin yesterday and want to try experimenting with it. The stuff can make a liquid into a powder that melts when it comes in contact with moisture. The most common thing people seem to make is olive oil powder which I will try later today.
I also purchased some Himalayan rock salt. It is a bit pricey as a salt, but as a cool item it is cheap. I bought half a dozen salt rocks, and rock is the right word as they are 1 cm by 2-3 cm in size. My youngest son thought they were ice cubes. I need to find a good way to take pictures of them.
Exploring molecular gastronomy online - there are some interesting videos at youtube by Molecule-R. A lot of it is not very hard to do at all and after having watched numerous videos I am convinced I can do most of it. I thought I would start with what I had in my kitchen - agar agar.
Agar agar - I have used it to make sheets of the following: apple cider vinegar, lemonade, and peach juice. The liquid with agar agar was brought to boiling and then poured on a cookie sheet. The liquid gelled rather quickly, only a few minutes and I could lift the sheets off of the cookie sheet.
The sheets of the liquids are cool and have an interesting texture when you eat them. I have not tried using them in any dish yet. This is mainly because I am experimenting with what it takes to create the sheets. I have had one that was a bit too firm, though this made it very easy to handle. Another one was not firm enough and I had trouble getting it off of the cookie sheet. I will film the process sometime later this week.
I also used it to help set some peach jam, I was short on pectin. This seems to have worked well and therefore I decided to try it on some blackberries and see if I could make a functional small batch of jam. The stuff set but it is too firm to be a jam.
Exploring what supplies I can get at Lifestyles Market - they have a large and interesting selection of ingredients you need to experiment with your food. They have agar agar, maltodextrin, xantham gum, soy lecithin, citric acid, Irish moss, and more. The only thing they do not have is sodium alginate/calcium lactate.
I did not buy much at Lifestyles but I did buy some maltodextrin yesterday and want to try experimenting with it. The stuff can make a liquid into a powder that melts when it comes in contact with moisture. The most common thing people seem to make is olive oil powder which I will try later today.
I also purchased some Himalayan rock salt. It is a bit pricey as a salt, but as a cool item it is cheap. I bought half a dozen salt rocks, and rock is the right word as they are 1 cm by 2-3 cm in size. My youngest son thought they were ice cubes. I need to find a good way to take pictures of them.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Molecular Gastronomy - Working with Liquid Nitrogen
We are getting 10 litres of liquid nitrogen in a couple of weeks and experimenting with it for cooking. Ted Allen gives you the basics in this video. Note the warning of needing to put the sorbet the make into the freezer to warm up so that you can eat it.....
In general we want to try different techniques that are coming from the molecular gastronomy. I have also started experimenting with different thickening agents to see how they work.
This is one thing we will try
Another thing to try is ice cream
We welcome you to contact us and come join for an evening of food experimentation.
250-298-7501 or bernard at shama.ca
In general we want to try different techniques that are coming from the molecular gastronomy. I have also started experimenting with different thickening agents to see how they work.
This is one thing we will try
Another thing to try is ice cream
We welcome you to contact us and come join for an evening of food experimentation.
250-298-7501 or bernard at shama.ca
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)