We have a yearly potluck/feast coming up and this year’s theme is ‘Elements’. I chose Water as our element and I wanted to recreate the experience I had with Molecular Cuisine where they encapsulated olive (oil?) in Sodium Alginate.
Doing some online research it sounds like the more stable process is Reverse Spherification, and I wondered if any one of you have some tips on process, or ingredients.
I think I’ll be re-creating the classic Olive experience as it was truly a wonder, but as there are a few kids I was thinking of doing a sweet sphere. Perhaps a nutella/banana liquification.
As I said, I’m looking for suggestions on process, ingredients, and flavors.
I haven’t done reverse spherification, but I’ve done basic, like this recipe. A couple hints:
It’s trickier than the recipes make it out to be. I’d definitely do it by myself with the exact same ingredients/techniques at least once before doing it with an audience.
Certain ingredients work better with certain techniques. I’ve had problems with acidic stuff, for example. So once again, try it out before you do it in front of people.
Getting perfect little drops out of syringe - at least MY syringe, something made for pastry-making - is fookin’ hard. I covet one of these.
Reverse, in my experience, works best with something dairy-rich and acidic. I’ve had best success with yoghurt, not so great with creme caramel.
Reverse spheres are much larger than ordinary spherification “caviar” (my favourite there being Cointreau and Frangelico caviar to put on top of mini-chocolate tarts) and you’re not going to get perfect spheres - your best bet is to serve them individually on tasting spoons with the worst bits tucked away, where gravity and surface tension do a good job of smoothing over the top. To get the best shapes, you need a hemispherical measuring spoon and you need to dip it under the surface before doing a sort-of-twist to dump the contents in the alginate solution. Syringes just don’t work for reverse like they do for spherification.
And I wouldn’t say reverse was “more stable” - longer-lasting, yes, but those alginate packages are awful fragile, whereas caviar, while it does continue setting after creation, is a lot less likely to break and ooze all your hard work out. I’d go with boozy/non-alcoholic variants of normal spherification caviar, coloured blue with food colouring, for your theme.
In my research the issue of acidity is suggested against. The statement seems to be that PH lower than of 5 (more acidic) cause issues. Also Calcium Lactate Gluconate seems to be recommended to promote the sphere (in naturally lower calcium liquids) as other forms of calcium (mainly Calcium Chloride) leave a bitter aftertaste.
I’m more concerned about timing, as I’m no chef. I understand that regular spherification continues to ‘set up’ until you have a hard tasteless pebble on your hands. I’m hoping to do the hard work beforehand and present the magic with little fuss at the event.
You can do that with regular spherification - everything can be prepared beforehand and stuck in the fridge. When people come over, pull 'em out, fill up the syringe, and go to town.
I should have been more precise - something with a little lactic acid, not something cloyingly rich and sweet. But no, not too low a pH (in fact, I have testing strips for that very reason), you’re right.