Best process for Spherification of cherry puree with brandy?

[Sean Larson]

I have a dessert recipe that I'm working on that will involve cherry brandy caviar, would the spherification process be hindered by the inclusion of the alcohol?

Sean Larson
(206) 941-9364

Aut viam inveniam aut faciam

[Martin Lersch]

> I have a dessert recipe that I'm working on that will involve cherry brandy
> caviar, would the spherification process be hindered by the inclusion of the
> alcohol?

A sodium alginate solution which is set with calcium ions tolerates up
to about 50% alcohol. But make sure that you disperse and hydrate your
sodium alginate properly in water before you mix in the alcoholic
solution.

Note also that there are several other ways of doing spherifications:

1) Ion induced gelling:
sodium alginate + calcium ions
iota carrageenan + calcium ions
kappa carrageenan + potassium ions
low acyl gellan + calcium ions (might also work with magnesium)
low methoxyl pectin + calcium ions

2) Instant gelling in cold oil:
drip agar solution into cold oil => spheres with solid center
drip gelatin solution into cold oil => spheres with solid center
(this will work with other hydrocolloids as well)

Best regards,

Martin

--
Martin Lersch, Ph.D.

Website dedicated to molecular gastronomy
http://blog.khymos.org
http://khymos.org

[Danielle Keller]

It is my experience from the lab (i.e. not kitchen :-) ) that sodium
alginate precipitates in the presence of ethanol at concentrations as
low as 10 % (vol/vol) ethanol. It is, however, more pronounced above
40-50%. Note that this is before addition of calcium ions. The
precipitate is a gel-like substance, which can be spun into a tiny
pellet by centrifugation, and is thus not stable like an
alginate-calcium gel. The precipitation may, however, interfere with a
succeding calcium-induced gelling step.

Just a comment :-)

Danielle