Strawberries and alginate

[webguide]

Im going to do strawberry pearls with alginate. But, does any one have a suitable recipe for the strawberry solution?

I boiled strawberries and water but the end result was way to thick, it formed a solid gel when I mixed in the alginate in it.

[pounce]

Strawberries have 20-25mg of calcium per 100g.

[webguide]

Strawberries have 20-25mg of calcium per 100g.

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OK, so I need to lower the PH, correct!?

[ermintrude]

Strawberries have 20-25mg of calcium per 100g.

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OK, so I need to lower the PH, correct!?

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No the calcium will cause the alginate to gel and not stay liquid, looks like you've have to use reverse spheriphication - not sure how much calcium gluconate you'll need to add to the strawberry though.

[adey73]

why not use cold oil sphereification and use agar instead.

[TheSwede]

why not use cold oil sphereification....

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Please explain!

[adey73]

It's a Sam Mason technique.

Am sure it's mentioned elsewhere on egullet or on his site.

Put a 3 litre bottle of rapeseed oil in the freezer over night. It will not freeze solid.

the next day remove and put into a deep pan until it reaches zero.

get yourself 375g of fruit juice of choice bring to the boil and add 3.7 grams of Agar Agar (and .4 grams of locust bean gum if you have it, but not essential) and whisk/blend, pour through fine sieve to get rid of gumminess. Let cool slightly.

Pour into plastic ketchup bottle with narrow nozzle and drip into the zero degree oil.

As the juice/agar goblets drop through the cold oil the outside sets the agar.

Then pour oil through a sieve, swish the pearls in cold water and there you have fruit caviar.

Practice a couple of times and you'll soon get all the variables correct.

Edited January 3, 2008 by adey73 (log)

[TheSwede]

Thanks!

[webguide]

Strawberries have 20-25mg of calcium per 100g.

←

OK, so I need to lower the PH, correct!?

←

No the calcium will cause the alginate to gel and not stay liquid, looks like you've have to use reverse spheriphication - not sure how much calcium gluconate you'll need to add to the strawberry though.

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Hummm, so this is a common problem? I have problem with the alginate solution, it is not liquid, it is more like a gel. So this could be because of calcium in my tap water!?

Should the alginate solution be liquid!?

[ermintrude]

The alginate liquid, when I make it, is like a thin liquid gell.

I also have the problem of water with a lot of Calcium in it but I just use distilled or de-ionised water from my local chemist. Don't buy the small bottles (E.g. that they sell for irons) but ask at the pharmacy counter they often have large containers of it available for low price.