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Dextrose vs. Atomized Glucose: The Same?


ejw50

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Here is a description of the difference. Looks like dried glucose syrup is a combination of dextrin, maltose and glucose, whereas dextrose is simply dextrose monohydrate.
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I think you can take a chance and use the powder regardless of whether it's glucose or dextrose. My feeling is that the increase of 25% of sweetening power or decrease of 3% of solid content of approximately 4% of your recipe won't really harm things. I am all about the science of it all, but at the end of the day, the "ideal" sweetening power and solid content are a range, so there's a good chance it will fall in it if it's dextrose instead of glucose powder. I think as long as the rest of the recipe is well balanced and the base is made properly, you shouldn't have a problem. Just my 2c.

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I think you can take a chance and use the powder regardless of whether it's glucose or dextrose. My feeling is that the increase of 25% of sweetening power or decrease of 3% of solid content of approximately 4% of your recipe won't really harm things. I am all about the science of it all, but at the end of the day, the "ideal" sweetening power and solid content are a range, so there's a good chance it will fall in it if it's dextrose instead of glucose powder. I think as long as the rest of the recipe is well balanced and the base is made properly, you shouldn't have a problem. Just my 2c.

You're right - at the end of the day you just have to give it a go and see what it tastes like :smile:

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Post 24 of that thread gives the answer from Chef Greweling himself, which corroborates what his student Tiny said.

I agree with gap. I don't think you can know for sure unless you always buy from the same supplier (and assuming that supplier doesn't repackage things from their upstream supplier).

L'epicerie actually asked their suppliers about their composition. It appears 'dextrose' by definition will be pretty much the same, but 'atomized glucose' may depend on who you buy it from. Chef Greweling said that as well. My mention of L'Epicerie is an acknowledgment of data source (def. not an endorsement).

One of their supplier was the following

Dextrose:

Carbohydrate Composition (Dry Basis):

Regulatory Data:

Dextrose, %

99.7

United States

Other Saccharides,%

0.3

Corn Syrup Solids:

Dextrose, %

7.0

Maltose, %

7.0

Regulatory Data:

Trisaccharides, %

8.0

United States

Higher Saccharides, %

78.0

For another of L'Epicerie's suppliers, the information was the following

Dextrose: (a) Dextrose monohydrate is purified and crystallized D-glucose containing one molecule of water of crystallization with each molecule of D-glucose. (b) The food shall meet the following specifications: (1) The total solids content is not less than 90.0 percent mass/mass (m/m), and the reducing sugar content (dextrose equivalent), expressed as D-glucose, is not less than 99.5 percent m/m calculated on a dry basis.

Corn Syrup Solids:(a) Dried glucose sirup is glucose sirup from which the water has been partially removed and conforms to the specifications of Sec. 168.120, except that: (1) The total solids content is not less than 90.0 percent m/m when the reducing sugar content (dextrose equivalent), expressed as D- glucose, is not less than 88.0 percent m/m, calculated on a dry basis; or (2) The total solids content is not less than 93.0 percent m/m when the reducing sugar content, (dextrose equivalent) expressed as D- glucose, is less than 88.0 percent m/m, calculated on a dry basis.

Edited by ejw50 (log)
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  • 8 months later...

Continuing on the subject of glucose: I inherited a few pounds of atomized glucose from the previous pastry chef at my new job and am not sure where it is best used. Ice creams? Chocolates? In combination with regular sugar or alone? I do have the Migoya book and Greweling so I'll look at those some more.

Also, if a recipe calls for glucose, do you think they mean the syrup or atomized? In Ducasse's Grand Livre, he calls for glucose as part of the syrup for Italian meringue. In other recipes, atomized is specified, but this book seems oddly written (or translated) at times so I kind of don't trust it.

Thanks!

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Continuing on the subject of glucose:  I inherited a few pounds of atomized glucose from the previous pastry chef at my new job and am not sure where it is best used.  Ice creams? Chocolates?  In combination with regular sugar or alone?  I do have the Migoya book and Greweling so I'll look at those some more. 

Also, if a recipe calls for glucose, do you think they mean the syrup or atomized?  In Ducasse's Grand Livre, he calls for glucose as part of the syrup for Italian meringue.  In other recipes, atomized is specified, but this book seems oddly written (or translated) at times so I kind of don't trust it.

Thanks!

Generally, "glucose" alone refers to glucose syrup.

The only thing I personally use Glucose Powder for is ice cream and sorbet.

You should never let the total sugars % of your ice cream base drop below 50% granulated sugar, as a general rule. In other words don't replace the sugar in an ice cream recipe entirely with glucose, or you may push the % of solids way to high and end up with a gummy product.

Also, bear in mind that glucose is only 30% as sweet as granulated sugar, and has a lower freezing point.

You definitely should not use any dry mass in your chocolate work. In candy syrups like italian meringue base, glucose syrup it is commonplace, but once again the powder can't be used that way (unless it can be re-hydrated or something?).

Edited by Sethro (log)
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  • 3 years later...

I recently bought Migoya's Frozen Desserts book and am trying to get my hands on atomized glucose. This thread has established that "atomized glucose" refers to glucose syrup which has been atomized/powdered, and is not the same as dextrose powder.

I am having difficulty in sourcing atomized glucose in Australia. Is "powdered corn syrup" a suitable substitute? I can get that from home brewing suppliers. However, they claim that powdered corn syrup is the same thing as maltodextrin (not tapioca maltodextrin), and I'm not sure how accurate that is.

I would appreciate any advice! Thank you.

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I recently bought Migoya's Frozen Desserts book and am trying to get my hands on atomized glucose. This thread has established that "atomized glucose" refers to glucose syrup which has been atomized/powdered, and is not the same as dextrose powder.

I am having difficulty in sourcing atomized glucose in Australia. Is "powdered corn syrup" a suitable substitute? I can get that from home brewing suppliers. However, they claim that powdered corn syrup is the same thing as maltodextrin (not tapioca maltodextrin), and I'm not sure how accurate that is.

I would appreciate any advice! Thank you.

I just wrote a long reply and lost it. Anyhow, it depends on the DE number of the maltodextrin. See the wikipedia entry under maltodextrin:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maltodextrin

For the past couple of months I have been looking into atomized glucose as well as dextrose for additives for ice cream and sorbet. The manufacturer should specify DE number on their datasheet. A problem is that atomized glucose is typically sold in 5kg bags or buckets, which for a home user makes a lot of ice cream. In the US I have seen two suppliers of small quantities of atomized glucose that are probably repackaged and with no DE number specified. As is evident from reading this thread they may not know what they are selling. My own preference would be atomized glucose made from wheat rather than from corn.

If you get some atomized glucose or maltodextrin or whatever and use it for making frozen dessert, please report in the ice cream thread!

Edited by JoNorvelleWalker (log)

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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Hi Jo,

Thank you for your advice.

I've actually got some maltodextrin at home. Its DE is 17. Migoya states in Frozen Desserts that atomized glucose syrup commonly has a DE of 42 or 43, and there is a table in the book which shows that atomized glucose with a DE of 40 has a sweetening power of 45-50%, and solids content of 95%.

I've also got some dextrose monohydrate, which I understand is pure glucose/dextrose. Migoya says that pure dextrose has a DE of 100, a sweetening power of 70-75%, and 92% solids content.

He mentions that many contemporary ice cream recipes call for a combo of granulated sugar, powdered glucose syrup, and dextrose, but he chooses not to add dextrose as a personal preference to avoid excessive sweetness. I'm not too confidence with my own math abilities, but I'm thinking whether it's possible to combine my low-DE maltodextrin with the pure dextrose (and perhaps granulated sugar) to approximate a quantity of atomized glucose syrup with a DE of 40, whilst maintaining a solids percentage of 95. I suppose the most important aspect is to maintain the solids content, as its purpose is more for structure than sweetness, and that it may not be possible to hit a sweetening power of 45-50%. I may have to put pen to paper and start playing around with numbers and see what I can come up with.

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I prefer higher butterfat in ice cream than Migoya specifies. In my case, if I had dextrose, I would substitute it for a portion of the sucrose, as dextrose is less sweet than sucrose. Somewhere on the web there is an old paper (circa 1930, as I remember) on dextrose in ice cream. The researchers tested a large number of volunteers and found that with low butterfat people preferred an all sucrose formula, however at higher butterfat people preferred about 10 percent dextrose and 90 percent sucrose (the actual ratio is stretching my memory here).

That being said, recently I've been able to make something that I like using only sucrose. I still would like to get some dextrose and atomized glucose to play with.

Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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  • 11 months later...

Hi,

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I'm having a similar issue with ingredients I purchased for making ice cream. At Kalustyan's in New York I bought dextrose and glucose powder. The description on the dextrose seems right:

"Dextrose is a monosaccharide or simple sugar created in starchy foods, such as sweet fruits, honey and grains, is about 20% less sweet as cane sugar, very hygroscopic, and contains no fructose or lactose."

It's a bit expensive at $7 for 16oz, but I'm thinking I can probably get this at a home brewing store for cheap if it works out well in my recipes.

However, the glucose powder has an odd description:

"Also known as 'd-glucose' or 'corn sugar' is a monosaccharide or simple sugar that is approximately 70% as sweet as sucrose."

I thought that d-glucose meant glucose alone, in powdered form, aka dextrose. And dextrose is sometimes called corn sugar. What I was looking for here is the atomized glucose called for in pastry chef sorbet recipes, but I'm not sure I got the right thing. Opinions?

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I think so too. I noticed that Laiskonis calls for "glucose powder" in his ice cream recipes and seems to use it in the same way that others use dextrose, so maybe they are nearly interchangeable for this use. I will have to buy my atomized glucose somewhere else.

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Well, it looks like I'm traveling a similar path to Stuckey. I can't find atomized glucose in any practical form, and "corn syrup solids" which seems to be the US equivalent, hardly ever list the DE. I'm thinking I will try making my own substitute for the 21 DE atomized glucose that Corvitto calls for using 4 parts corn starch to 1 part dextrose. I've made plenty of corn starch ice creams before, so this seems pretty straightforward.

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  • 10 months later...

My local Korean market has dextrose.

So we finish the eighteenth and he's gonna stiff me. And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money. But when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness."

So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

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Many "health" food stores also carry it.

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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  • 5 years later...

Now I have both dextrose and glucose powder (DE42) to play with.  I've used dextrose in my last few batches of ice cream; however I just ordered the glucose powder because of Rose Levy Beranbaum's new book.  Rose calls for about 5% glucose syrup in her recipes.  If one does not have glucose Rose suggests boiling down corn syrup, though she says it will not be quite as effective as glucose.  Besides, boiling down corn syrup does not sound like my idea of fun.

 

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Cooking is cool.  And kitchen gear is even cooler.  -- Chad Ward

Whatever you crave, there's a dumpling for you. -- Hsiao-Ching Chou

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On 11/16/2008 at 7:56 PM, ejw50 said:

I don't think you can know for sure unless you always buy from the same supplier (and assuming that supplier doesn't repackage things from their upstream supplier).

L'epicerie actually asked their suppliers about their composition. It appears 'dextrose' by definition will be pretty much the same, but 'atomized glucose' may depend on who you buy it from.

 

 

This is it in a nutshell.

 

Dextrose = Glucose (typically in the monohydrate form)

 

Atomized Glucose = a whole stew of stuff.

Typically a modest amount of glucose (the higher the DE #, the higher the glucose quantity)

The rest is other saccharides, probably with a high proportion of maltodextrins, which have big molecules, which aren't sweet, but do present a high glycemic load (so it doesn't taste much like sugar, but it's as bad for you as most sugars). 

  • Like 1

Notes from the underbelly

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