let's get this party started

[Shotgunner]

It seems this group has little activity. The topic is terrific.

Maybe we can get it going with some introduction. I'll start.

My name is Scott Solar. My daughter (kidlet) and I love to play with
our food, so we are learning about spherification. We had some
tribulations and needed so help I joined this group! I have some 10
years experience as a chemlab tech, ending 20 years ago. My knowledge
is good but spotty. I know the basics pretty well. Techniques, pH,
cleanliness...

My issue with spherification may be dispersing the alginate in the
grape juice. At room temp and in a blender I don't seem to get a good
"mix" dispersing the alginate into the juice.

Maybe someone will have a tip for this?

We are using:

3.6g/L of Sodium Alginate
6.5g/L CaCl2

Thanks to all for reading and thanks^2 to anyone who offers help!

[Kevin Liu]

Scott,

My name is Kevin and I also like to play with my food! I went to a
TEDx conference in Cambridge, MA about food issues last year and got
really into cooking and science. Then I started listening to the
cooking issues radio show (www.cookingissues.com), which is a great
resource. Recently, I started a blog myself (www.whycook.org) to
record my attempts at science and cooking.

Regarding your question, it takes a *very* long time to properly
disperse sodium alginate, particularly at room temperature. There's
even a chance your blender, if it is a standard home model, simply
can't do it properly. I would suggest heating the mixture and trying
the dispersion that way. You will then want to cool the mixture
overnight in the fridge to let bubbles escape.

Does that help?

Kevin

[Scott Solar]

On Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 5:45 AM, Kevin Liu <kli...@gmail.com> wrote:

Scott,

My name is Kevin and I also like to play with my food!  I went to a
TEDx conference in Cambridge, MA about food issues last year and got
really into cooking and science.  Then I started listening to the
cooking issues radio show (www.cookingissues.com), which is a great
resource.  Recently, I started a blog myself (www.whycook.org) to
record my attempts at science and cooking.

I'll check out your links when I have some leisure time! Thanks.

 

Regarding your question, it takes a *very* long time to properly
disperse sodium alginate, particularly at room temperature.  There's
even a chance your blender, if it is a standard home model, simply
can't do it properly.  I would suggest heating the mixture and trying
the dispersion that way.  You will then want to cool the mixture
overnight in the fridge to let bubbles escape.

Does that help?

Yes. I was not sure alginate was heat stable. Now I know I can use heat to help. I'll put boiling juice in the blender and add the powder to the vortex. Then let it blend for 5 minutes while is blooms.

Anybody got a used vitamix??  8^)

Thank you Kevin. I will report my results here.

 

Kevin

On Oct 14, 8:13 pm, Shotgunner <scott.so...@gmail.com> wrote:
> It seems this group has little activity. The topic is terrific.
>
> Maybe we can get it going with some introduction. I'll start.
>
> My name is Scott Solar. My daughter (kidlet) and I love to play with
> our food, so we are learning about spherification. We had some
> tribulations and needed so help I joined this group! I have some 10
> years experience as a chemlab tech, ending 20 years ago. My knowledge
> is good but spotty. I know the basics pretty well. Techniques, pH,
> cleanliness...
>
> My issue with spherification may be dispersing the alginate in the
> grape juice. At room temp and in a blender I don't seem to get a good
> "mix" dispersing the alginate into the juice.
>
> Maybe someone will have a tip for this?
>
> We are using:
>
> 3.6g/L of Sodium Alginate
> 6.5g/L CaCl2
>
> Thanks to all for reading and thanks^2 to anyone who offers help!

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[Robert Coltrane]

Another thing that might help is to disperse the alginate powder in a small amount of sugar or salt to aid in even dispersing and to reduce clumping. Remember, the finer the powder the quicker that powder will want to hydrate. Leaving the solution to hydrate overnight has always helped me as well.

--
Chef Robert Coltrane
Chef de Cuisine
Catering Events Team
Midwest Culinary Institute
513.405.9349 (c) 513.569.4995 (w)
UC Culinology Graduate