Agar and other alternative gelling agents

[alexandra]

Eureka! I think I figured it out. I decided to go back and use Michael Recchuiti's recipe for marshmallows. This time I just substituted gelatine for agar agar using the same ratio. Before I added the

gelatine

as he suggested, I heated the agar agar in 3 T of water in the microwave for 1 min 100% power. When the syrup reach 250 degrees, I added the agar in placeof the gelatine, ( it bubbled up, but did not volumize 4-fold as he said the gelatine would ). Nevertheless, I added it to the beaten egg whites and voila, yummy yummy marshmallow!!! Beautiful. Now....waiting for them to set up..... will let you know in 24 hours how they do! Wish me luck!

[tangaloor]

Elizabeth Falkner gives a vegan marshmallow recipe in Demolition Desserts, using xanthan gum rather than gelatin. Haven't tried it yet, but she does make some fine desserts...

[alexandra]

Thanks! I'll check it out and let you know how it turns out :-)

Also found a source for fish gelatin, which I understand acts exactly like traditional gelatin. Once I receive it ( I had to buy 2 lbs! ) I'll make the recipe and post m results here.

[ermintrude]

Have you a link to using xanthan gum.

From my experience it does not set, just get different degrees of slime with enough sheer force. Would love to see the recipe

[alexandra]

I found an alternative to regular gelatine - I am using fish gelatin. But the Bloom is 250 as opposed to 180 bloom which is called for in recipes. Since I am using the fish gelatin with the bloom of 250 should I reduce the amount of gelatin called for in my recipe? I am making marshmallows.

THANKS!!!

[_john]

Are there any advantages/applications to using both gelatin and agar-agar (kanten) to make a gel? Has anyone experimented with the ratio to create a good hybrid gel? Given 100ml liquid how much agar and how much gelatin is needed?

[Tri2Cook]

You can strike a balance between gelatins mouth melt properties and agars temp stability and also get different textures ranging between gelatins soft, smooth texture and agars short, brittle texture. The ratios would depend on what you're trying to achieve.

[pastrygirl]

Last summer I was making a dessert where combining the two worked well for me. I think I was having a hard time getting the right texture with just agar, so I added some gelatin and it was firm enough to handle without being too crunchy/crumbly like agar can get. It was a layer of strawberry balsamic agar/gelatin topped with strawberry chiboust, cut, then stacked with crispy layers to make a napoleon. I needed the agar firm enough to cut and handle but soft enough to get a spoon through.

For a thin layer covering a half sheet pan:

500 g strawberry puree

100 g water

50 g balsamic vinegar

1 tsp agar

1-1/2 sheet bronze gelatin

IIRC, it was a somewhat thick strawberry puree, which is why I added water, a thinner base like perfect puree wouldn't need it.

I hope that gives you a starting point.

[Toufas]

Hello, is it possible to make agar spheres with a different feeling? Let's say the famous spherical olives, can i have a smaller sphere of red pepper jus inside it?

[Toufas]

Anyone? And I meant filling!

[KennethT]

You wouldn't use agar to make spheres with a liquid filling... For that, it's better to do reverse spherification using sodium alginate in a calcium bath of some kind. Probably best to make a sphere of pepper jus. Then using an ice cube tray or something, add the olive sphere base about halfway up the mold. Freeze... then add pepper jus sphere and more olive sphere base to top of mold. Freeze again. Drop frozen "spheres" into warm calcium bath for a few minutes? As the warm bath defrosts the sphere, it will gel the outside. Then, when you have removed and rinsed, the sphere can full defrost leaving a sphere within a sphere.

[Tri2Cook]

Are you asking if you can put agar "pearls" inside a spherification? If so, yes. If you're wanting to put a liquid sphere within another liquid sphere, I wouldn't be surprised if someone has done it but I haven't and I'm not sure what the best way to go about it would be. It seems like freezing a sphere in a liquid then doing a spherification with that would work initially but could lead to some syneresis issues once all of the liquids have thawed. Unless maybe one of the spherification methods is more freeze/thaw stable than the traditional sodium alginate version.

[ermintrude]

Could always do a divided alginate sphere