Alginate

[Anonymous Modernist 3364]

Hey just wondering if anyone can help me out with some simple recipes and tips to help me understand howto use alginate.. I've just purchased some sodium alginate calcium lactate calcium chloride xanthan gum and some other products I got in an msk starter kit... Would much appreciate some guidance to get a basic understanding to be able to try variations after I've tried some things..

Cheers maL

[Anonymous Modernist 2565]

thats a massive question to be honest matey!

to understand how to use it, first you have to understand what it does.

alginate is used for only a few purposes in food. as a thickener, as a stabalizer and anti settling agent, and as a gelling agent (it forms a gel in the presence of calcium)

with the MSK kit, you should have a few recipes to try, perhaps start out with those? do a bit of googling on the subject as there is a lot of info out there on the web.

i would suggest starting out with "spherification" and "reverse-spherification" (you will have a recipe for those in the MSK kit)

any problems, give me a shout! but im afraid i cant really answer such a broad question any better than that.

Best Regards,

Rick.

[Anonymous Modernist 310]

If you want a little bit more details and more recipe ideas you can consult the hidrocolloid recipe collection:

http://blog.khymos.org/recipe-collection/

Good luck!

[Anonymous Modernist 10]

malmeiers said:

Hey just wondering if anyone can help me out with some simple recipes and tips to help me understand howto use alginate.. I've just purchased some sodium alginate calcium lactate calcium chloride xanthan gum and some other products I got in an msk starter kit... Would much appreciate some guidance to get a basic understanding to be able to try variations after I've tried some things..

Cheers maL

For the most part, these are used in spherification. If you go to our recipe finder, and select "spherify" as the technique, you should get quite a few recipe that use these.

Other than that, besides the xanthan gum, there isn't a great deal of use for these. You can make really set gels with them, but that uses the same principles as spherification, only flat, of course.

There are some scientific papers out there about using some of these for brining.

Alginate is used as a thickener in Listerine strips. We have a somewhat similar recipe in MC for lemon strips.

Calcium chloride is often used in making tofu.

[Anonymous Modernist 393]

Max,

Can you use calcium chloride for tofu making? I know that gypsum or calcium sulfate is sometimes used but I haven't heard of calcium chloride being used.

P.S. You guys are really awesome!

[Anonymous Modernist 10]

Joe Lipinski said:

Max,

Can you use calcium chloride for tofu making? I know that gypsum or calcium sulfate is sometimes used but I haven't heard of calcium chloride being used.

P.S. You guys are really awesome!

Hi Joe,

Yes, you really can. There is a downside though. It will be more bitter, especially if you are making a softer tofu.