Gelatin in warm savory sauces?

[nathanm]

Veal stock, demi-glace and other concentrated meat stocks are used to add both flavor and texture to sauces. Normally the texture and flavor are a package deal - they come together.

A large part of the texture comes from gelatin. The long slow process of simmering veal bones causes collagen to denature and turn into gelatine. That's why a good stock gels when it is cold. It is also why you typically want bones for stock - the bones, joints, tendons and connective tissue have a lot of collagen. Although the highest gelatine content stocks are those made from veal, you can get similar results from chicken (particularly if you use chicken feet), and from fish bones too.

That much is clear, and is part of the standard way we make many kinds of savory sauces.

Well, how about going directly there and adding gelatine (sheets or powder) to the sauce?

Gelatine is used quite a bit in dessert and pasty, but in almost all cases you cool the mixture down to cause it to gel and become solid, or if not totally solid, at least add some body (as with most of the El Bulli style foams or espumas). The typical use is to heat it up the liquid, add gelatine, then let it cool and set before serviing. Agar agar and other gelling agents are used similarly, with somewhat different properties.

I am suggesting somethnig different - use pure gelatine as an addition to savory sauces meant to be served hot. In that case we would add enough gelatine to change the texture even while hot/warm.

This would not add as much body as adding arrowroot powder, starch, a flour based roux. Instead it would emulate the addition of a reduced stock. The advantage is that you can get the thick veal stock-like texture without the veal taste - separating the taste and texture aspects of a demi-glace or glace de viand.

This would be an advantage for some kinds of sauces - particularly those that are vegetable or fish based. However, it could also work for many kinds of meat sauces.

I am in the process of experimenting with this. Has anybody else tried this or had experience with it?

[RETREVR]

I have been thinking about it lately. I have some vegi base that a supplier dropped off. We don't use bases. I might try gelling that. I have put gelatin in a sauce before but have not done enough research on it to say I know what I am doing. I used other thickeners at the same time so I don't know for sure how the gel performed. Some thickeners break down after extended time on heat. I don't know if this is the case with jello. I would guess no. Tell me what you find out.

[ducphat30]

I cannot speak from experience using sheet or powdered gelatin to provide thickening and texture to sauces, but as for agar, we use it quite often, especially with vegetable base sauces that we emulsify with oils and want to use warm. It gives a nice texture, viscosity and works very well in this application.

Another ingredient to think about using is micri, it is something I am not extremely familiar with, but it too may give you the results you are looking for.

[nathanm]

I'll try agar agar also.

There have been several posts about MICRI on eGullet, some claiming that it is just tapioca, others saying something different. I have not seen a grand conclusion, nor have a seen a supplier. A source in Spain was mentioned in previous posts...

The interesting thing about gelatin is that it is a refined form of the same thing that occurs in a normal stock. It is a protein.

Meanwhile, MICRI and the various other additivies (arrowroot, flour, cornstarch, carregean bean etc.) are all starches, and and are thus quite different.

Activa TG (transglutimase) is an enzyme that cross links proteins (mentioned in another thread about shrimp pasta) is another possibility.

[Really Nice!]

I add gelatin to my sauces all the time. It works very well, but it's easy to over do it, and it's very noticable when it is overdone. Make the strength on the weak side, something you'd do for making an aspic for a terrine; about 4 grams of gelatin to 1 pint of seasoned stock should be about right.

Another thing I do for poultry or fowl served with the skin on is to heat about 1 oz of this extra gelatanous stock at the last minute just before plating the dishes and brush it on the skin of the poultry or fowl. It adds a little of that lip-smaking goodness to the crisp skin.

Also try this with clarified butter to brush on beef, lamb, pork, etc. Brush it on the meat as you plate.

And as long as you're making clarified butter, take the milk solids you skim off and combine them with a wee bit of this thickened gelatin. Spread it on a sheet pan about 1/8-inch thick and freeze it. Cut it into rectangles about 1-inch by 2-inches and push it between the skin and breast meat of chicken, turkey, duck, etc before cooking. This too adds a nice touch to the meat.

The important thing is to be conservative, too much gelatin will clog up your taste buds.

[scott123]

I frequently utilize gelatin to bump up the body constituent of my stocks. None of my recipes require a white stock, so I brown everything (even chicken/skin) religiously. I also reduce the heck out of my stocks so they cool faster/take less freezer space. With all the browning/reducing, I get maillard reactions up the wazoo. 9 times out of 10, I end up with a stock with slightly too much flavor (in proportion to body) so I break out the gelatin. Works like a charm.