Savoury Mirror Glazing? Hard Glazing?

[philie]

Hey there, i hope to find some help in the wise hands of yours. after some research i am still having some problems concerning glazing:

 

For a party i would like to make some cubes and rounded savoury cakes and foams out of silicone forms that have a ready bottom and a colour glazing. 

Somehow i just do not manage to find a steady glazing ( one that does not run ) and is for texture reasons preferably hard or crisp that does not include sugar or syrup.

 

can you help me or lead my way in a certain direction?

 

thanks very much!

[Lisa Shock]

You have to start by thinking about the composition of the glaze. Yes, sweet glazes can be crisp because sugar becomes crisp when cooked (so that the crystalline structure is disrupted) and all the moisture leaves. What sort of savory food do you wish to use, and does it have a crisp or hard phase?

 

Traditional glazing for savory foods has been a gelatin with things like mayonnaise mixed in. These glazes, obviously won't be hard or crisp, but, they can be very flavorful. Bread and pastry crusts ( pâté en croute ), wrapping in meat like bacon, or rolling food in nuts or crumbs are all I can think of. (I have several professional books dedicated to garde manger.) There are other crisp/hard item one can surround food with, like edible starch papers, but I cannot think of one that has a flowing phase.

 

Where did you see such glazes? Can you simply ask the chef for more info?

[Tri2Cook]

Savoury glazing is easy. Gelatin, agar or a combination of the two all work, with agar or the combo (which allows for a less brittle gel than agar alone with better stability at warmer temps than gelatin alone) being the best bet for room temp or slightly warmer. Gellan works and you can heat the finished product without melting your glaze. Gellan has really good flavor release and a clean mouthfeel so I like it even for unheated items but it's not generally as easy to get as gelatin and agar unless you order online. As with gelatin and agar, you have the option of combining low and high acyl gellans in various ratios to get the gel texture you want.

Crispy savoury glazing without sugar may be easy as well but somebody else will have to chime in with how they do it. It's not something I've ever done or even attempted.