spherification with high alcohol comprehensivness

[Original Sin]

Does anyone know the way i can make spheres with brandy?? (30%
alcohol)???

Thank you all in advance

[Scott Garrison]

The process that you are looking for is called reverse spherification, you essentially add your calcium (calcium gluconolactate) to the liquid that you want contained within your spheres and you drop this into a sodium alginate bath.  A thin stable film will form around the alcohol.

-Scott

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[Speakeasy Desserts]

 Check out the Speakeasy portfolio for our spheres. I've got tons of experience with these buggers. It's not an exact science just yet, as different spirits have slightly different impacts on spherification. I'm basing my recommendations on my experience with an even mix of 100 proof vodka and juice... roughly 25% alcohol.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Speakeasy-Desserts/287729272274

I recommend mixing your brandy with cherry  juice.  Add about 1% citric acid to this mix. Taste the mix before adding your algin. The tart taste from the citric acid will fade fast in the salt bath.

For brandy, use about 2% algin. Using more a little bit more algin isn't going to ruin your spheres. For the salt bath, a 6-8% calcic solution works well.

In order to make the spheres, you mix relatively tasteless algin into your alcohol. Once mixed, you are then dropping this mix into a salty calcium chloride bath. Spherification occurs as a result of an ionic reaction betwixt the algin and calcic.

Depending on how you feel about bubbles, wait for the solution to settle for about an hour before pipetting into the calcic salt bath. Wait for about 1 minute before straining and rinsing the spheres. You can wait up to 3 minutes before removing the new spheres.

Let me know how it goes!

+Speakeasy

On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 3:05 AM, Original Sin <chara...@hotmail.com> wrote:

[Speakeasy Desserts]

Scott's right about the technique... however...Most spherification/reverse spherification methods are used with liquids with low or no alcohol.

Spheres formed with high concentrations of alcohol via the reverse spherification method Scott mentioned (using calcium gluconolactate) tend to be very soft and they don't seem to hold up too well to high concentrations of alcohol. This is why I advocate for the algin-in-calcic-bath method.

Keep in mind though, the reaction between the algin and calcium is what forms the spheres -- reverse or otherwise.
Feel free to try both methods for yourself and experiment.