Grape juice and cranberry juice "caviar": troubleshooting

[MrDelicious]

I tried this but adding 2g of Sodium Alginate to the juice and blending just caused the juice to gel.

Never even made it to the CC bath part of the show.

Are those juices not going to work? Or is there some other reason?

[Tri2Cook]

Sounds like a high calcium level in your juice. Try dropping the straight juice into an alginate bath. If the result isn't as stable as you'd like, add a little calcium (lactate, gluconate, lactate/gluconate... calcium chloride is fine for the bath but please don't use it in the part that is to be eaten) to the juice and try again.

Edit: If the juice needs more body to drop in the alginate bath without difficulty, add a little xanthan gum.

Edited March 22, 2012 by Tri2Cook (log)

[MrDelicious]

Thank you. Today I tried white wine with the same recipe and it worked better.

However, tasting a spoonful of the "caviar" left a less than desirable pasty film in my mouth.

I did wonder about dropping the caviar right into an SA bath just to see what would happen, given that it gelled up so bad.

I also could have removed them from the CC bath sooner, I suppose but they seemed pretty fragile

for a while so I kept them in there until they stiffend up some.

I've never had any professionally made "caviar". Is the liquid center supposed to be fresh and clean tasting

as if nothing was added, or is there always a "gel" feel/taste to it?

All of these things are appealing to me visually but if the taste of all these wonderful creations

leave a gooey feel in your mouth, I wouldn't see the real benefit beyond a visual experience.