Molecular gastronomy DIY will earn you the moniker of food alchemist. It’s not all tricks, but the appropriate understanding and application of scientific knowledge. If you have ever nursed the idea of turning fruit juice into edible pearls, it’s not a castle in the sky.
Food spherification at home is just one of many methods of modifying food on a molecular scale to obtain unprecedented transformations. Interestingly, beyond scientific innovation, molecular gastronomy DIY can be a fun culinary experience.
The spherification process explained is one of the benefits of this piece, though there’s more to molecular gastronomy than making edible liquid spheres. There’ll also be tips on picking a molecular gastronomy kit and safety while practicing culinary science at home. So, come along.
What Is Molecular Gastronomy?
Molecular gastronomy is a great intersection of culinary art and food science. It could be called food science cooking, involving an amalgamation of the culinary art of cooking with chemistry. The primary goal of molecular gastronomy DIY is to effect a desirable transformation of food ingredients at a molecular level. In addition, some of these practices of culinary science at home often yield serendipitous and innovative dishes.
Some of the pivotal aspects of molecular gastronomy that make it a peculiar method of practicing food science at home are highlighted below:
- It adopts the scientific approach in everyday cooking
- It is often explorative, involving iteration of different processing methods
- It has already yielded some innovative cooking techniques like flash freezing, sous vide and spherification
- It takes the palate on an adventure as it develops new sensory experiences from preexisting ingredients
Before the invention of the steam boiler, popular opinion probably considered pressure cooking sophisticated. Perhaps, molecular gastronomy will soon become a household fad.
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Understanding Spherification
Spherification of edible fluids has its origins in the pharmaceutical industry but has found its way into the kitchen. Food spherification is a technique that allows the creation of caviar-like spheres from liquid food materials.
To understand how food spherification is possible, it is necessary to appreciate the sodium alginate-calcium reaction. The sodium-alginate-calcium complex (the gel structure around food spheres) only forms when two substances are mixed. Calcium salt and sodium alginate are the substances in question.
Sodium alginate is an extract of seaweed, and the calcium salt could be either calcium lactate or calcium chloride, as the two salts are edible. The liquid food is mixed with the calcium salt and sodium alginate to achieve food spherification. However, two methods of combining the three items exist, showing us how spherification works step-by-step.
1. Basic Food Spherification
Basic spherification involves first mixing the sodium alginate with the liquid food and then dropping the mixture into a bath containing the calcium salt.
2. Reverse Food Spherification
The order of ingredient mixing is reversed in this method. Liquid food is first mixed with the calcium salt solution. Afterwards, the mixture is introduced into a bath containing sodium alginate.
The major contrast between these two methods of food spherification is largely structural. The reverse spherification method yields food spheres with thinner membranes relative to the basic method. Also, reverse spherification was discovered to stabilize a wider range of liquid foods. There, you have the spherification process explained.
What You’ll Need to Get Started
Food spherification is one of the poster kids of molecular gastronomy DIY. For one, the molecular gastronomy kit is inexpensive, and the ingredients are easy to source. So, here, we shall be walking you through how to spherify any liquid at home and make caviar pearls from juice.
The ingredients and tools required to make some flavor-bursting edible caviar from juice are highlighted in the table below.
| S/N | Ingredients | Tools |
| 1 | Juice | Blender |
| 2 | Sodium alginate | Dropper/syringe |
| 3 | Calcium lactate/chloride | Mixing bowls |
While you could buy tools and ingredients piecemeal from multiple stores, there is a stress-saving alternative. It is much easier to buy your molecular gastronomy kit from a trusted online vendor, and some even have the ingredients in stock, except for the food to be encapsulated.
Creative Uses for Edible Spheres
Still here? You are probably a culinary enthusiast who finds the concept of molecular gastronomy DIY exciting. However, someone might ask themselves what use is food spherification and products like edible caviar from juice. Edible spheres would be a visually appealing side attraction when served in salads, desserts, cocktails or party garnishes. Indeed, it may become a great conversation starter for culinary enthusiasts at your event, prompting questions about how to replicate the edible spheres.
In addition, you can take the food spherification technique a notch higher by blending multiple liquid foods or juices. For example, trying out strawberry spheres on yogurt or dalgona coffee spheres in milk are adventurous ideas.
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Safety and Clean-Up Tips
However, our molecular gastronomy DIY guide would be incomplete without raising a few disclaimers.
- During the mixing processes of food spherification, kindly avoid using metallic tools as they may react with the calcium salt.
- When buying ingredients online, always ascertain that they are food-grade before completing the order. If buying from a physical store, read the label carefully for this information.
- Store unused solutions for future batches of edible spheres.
Nailing the sodium alginate calcium reaction and making edible spheres at home is not rocket science. The right tools and ingredients can make food experiments fun, geeky and tasty.
Remember, a little science can go a long way in making your food unforgettable.
