Okay, so I’ve searched a bunch of websites (Delish, Good Eats, Food Network, Betty Crocker, etc.), plus Google and Bing and a few other logical sources. Everybody points me to stuff about making raspberry jams and kirsch and syrup and so on with techniques and advice for keeping raspberry seeds out of a finished product. That’s not what I need; doing those things crushes the pip (so the seed can come out).:mad:
What I want to do is separate the individual pips from a seed-cluster commonly identified as a raspberry. [I suspect a similar technique would be usable for blackberries, marrionberries, and other cluster-berries, but not blueberries or strawberries.] Does anyone know of an easy way to do that, other than try to attack it ring-by-ring level-by-level with a knife? I think too much handling like that will end up squeezing out too much of the juice and that would be counterproductive. The goal is to end up with a tiny basket full of individual pips that can be sprinkled lightly across the top of a cheesecake or similar product. The idea is primarily decorative, but should add a very tiny hint of berry flavor to the mouthful.
Any experienced cooks/chefs got reasonable ideas?
Boil 'em? Freeze 'em? [Stewing them in a pot won’t accomplish the desired result.]
Boy, that’s a hard one. I’d love to hear it if someone comes up with an idea.
That said, I’d go an alternate route and get good at making raspberry caviar instead. Same idea, but, barring some great idea, I gotta think that mastering this technique would be easier than sitting around deconstructing raspberries by hand.
I’ve seen this done using liquid nitrogen. Freeze those raspberries in LN and then tap 'em with a hammer. The clusters come apart.
Of course, now your raspberries are frozen. (I saw this technique used to make raspberry ice cream, which remained white while having raspberry “pellets” in every bite.) If you thaw your raspberry pellets, I don’t know if it messes with the texture. Probably.
Well, the original inspiration was from learning to remove tomato skins by dunking them in boiling water and quickly transferring them to ice water. The skins separate from the ‘meat’ within and then you can ‘unwrap’ the skins. That certainly beats spending hours with a knife. It’s just that I have a bad feeling that boiling or iced water will make the raspberry pips burst somehow and thus lose the juice. I want them separated but intact.
I like the pix and the results they got on that linked site. The effect I’m looking for, though, is like freckles and those look like the might seem more like zits. :o
I’ll have to see how they look in terms of relative size. On the other hand, if the freckles aren’t savory enough, the ‘caviar’ might be a stronger alternative.
That’s exactly the kind of result I’m looking for. I was also thinking of partially freezing raspberries and trying to semi-crush or roll them out to break them apart. I think I’d have more control over the chilling process if I used liquid nitrogen rather than sticking the berries in a freezer and guessing how long I should wait to pull them out again.
But where does one get kitchen-ready liquid nitrogen? I think the closest I have is a fire-extinguisher in the garage :eek: or one of those compressed air canisters for cleaning out my computer. [Ooh! I could put the pips in the little straw and shoot them across the room!]
Yeah, probably. However, the main serving will be cold and creamy anyway, so they might not thaw enough to make a noticeable difference. I’ll try it.
Thanks, everyone!
If it works I might try a county fair entry.
[If it fails, nobody will know.]
The Desert Chefs were a strange elite, shrouded in secrecy like the inside of the tents where they practiced their hidden craft in darkness. Swooping from the mountains they could prepare a 24 course meal for a whole tribe in a matter of hours, and serve them whilst singing haunting melodies to the Sheiks of Araby who willingly paid surprisingly moderate fees in gold. Enough to ransom a village halfwit.
And then they were gone. Straight into the velvet night as the soft winds susurrated along the palms and soughed over the cooling sands like the murmur of distant waters.
I keep raspberries in the freezer and generally end up with a lot of individual pips, like crumbs, in the bottom of the bag. I think if they were frozen solid they would be easier to crumble than if they were semi-frozen.
The technical term you’re looking for is raspberry druplets. Chefsteps has a tutorial on how to separate drupelets using LN2 and Cooking Issues has an excellent LN2 primer that’s worth reading.
I still can’t afford even the containers for LN2 culinary experiments, but someone in the comments on the Cooking Issues article mentioned an ice cream shoppe that seems to use LN2 as their gimmick. There’s a shoppe like that near my home, so I’ll see if they can just help me freeze a pint of raspberries (though I probably only need 1/4 of the resulting drupelets for my idea) for the cost of a couple servings of their product.
Thanks again, everyone, for helping me tackle this idea!
I think the closest I have is a fire-extinguisher in the garage :eek: or one of those compressed air canisters for cleaning out my computer. [Ooh! I could put the pips in the little straw and shoot them across the room!]
