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Help Needed for Making Foam Sauces


Cookwithlove

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Maybe if you tell us exactly what you are trying to achieve, because there are several different types of "foams"......

Hi Chef,

Very prompt of you. Foam sauce for seafood and fish. I never done it before n also do u need any special gadget?

Voila!

主泡一杯邀西方. 馥郁幽香而湧.三焦回转沁心房

"Inhale the aroma before tasting and drinking, savour the goodness from the heart "

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You're being far too vague. That's like saying "I need to know how to make pasta sauce".

What kind of foam sauce? What flavours? What ingredients? How are you cooking the dish it'll be served with? Why are you intent on using a foam?

Help us help you... :)

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Maybe if you tell us exactly what you are trying to achieve, because there are several different types of "foams"......

Hi Chef,

Very prompt of you. Foam sauce for seafood and fish. I never done it before n also do u need any special gadget?

Voila!

based on the particularly vague nature of the post, i'll give some ideas which may help you to ask more specific questions:

if you're making a seafood dish, you might want to start out with a light seafood broth or stock using fish bones, etc.

then, in order for this stock to have more body or to turn it into a foam, you could reduce it and somehow add some cream or butter

the dairy helps to give body, but sometimes you need a stabilizer...usually something like lecithin (soy lecithin) which can help stabilize your base.

then you can take a hand blender (also known as: an immersion blender, or by its name brand the 'bamix', or stick blender) and buzz the sauce until you get a collection of bubbles on top which you can then scoop off and use as a foam

alternatively: you can create your sauce and if you have the right kind of "isi whip" or "profi whip" to serve warm (if you so desire), you fill and charge up the canister and dispense a denser foam which is more like whipped cream

with either preparation, because you are adding so much volume in the form of air to your 'sauce', you need to make sure that whatever you are creating is very concentrated and flavorful so that when all that air is pumped into it, it still has some flavor on the plate.

is this what you are thinking of?

if so, there are other threads from which you might be able to get more information if you do a search in the forums.

good luck.

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Thanks alanomoana for an idea of how foram sauce is created . Sorry for the explicit question.Don't hesitate to point my mistake. I am still a novice in fine dining but have strong passion in learning this fine art.

alanomoana, you said lecithin(soy lecithin) acts as a stablizer to the sauce, can u give me an idea how is the packing like and cost and the amount to use(ratio to sauce), and it's difficult to operate the ISI whip or Prof Whip and which is the versatile of the two? Thank you.

My curiosity in this foam sauce arose when i saw 2 recipes: The first is Poached Baccalao in Almond foam. Almond foam: 200ml skim milk, 40g ground almonds, salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Bring the skim milk to a boil together with the ground almonds and season with salt and pepper.

The second is Grilled ocean Thread fillet in Bouillabaisse foam. The foamy bouillabaisse sauce on the plate and piece of tread fish. The fish is burnt cross marked(I don't know how to describe it) with a meat fork. What is the idea tool to cross the fish?

Can anyone kindly tell me how to upload photograph for easy explanation?

Thanks you and yummy!

主泡一杯邀西方. 馥郁幽香而湧.三焦回转沁心房

"Inhale the aroma before tasting and drinking, savour the goodness from the heart "

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alanomoana, you said lecithin(soy lecithin) acts as a stablizer to the sauce, can u give me an idea how is the packing like and cost and the amount to use(ratio to sauce)...

depends on where you buy it. there are several sources on-line, but it might depend on where you live. in the united states a lot of people use chef rubber as a good source for specialty ingredients.

also: will powder

...and it's difficult to operate the ISI whip or Prof Whip and which is the versatile of the two?

you'll probably have to check ISI's website. they have different applications depending on whether you'll be using the tool for hot or cold items or want it for both. the "profi" line which includes the hot whip is more expensive. you might want to experiment with cold applications first to see if you like the result

My curiosity in this foam sauce arose when i saw 2 recipes: The first is Poached Baccalao in Almond foam. Almond foam: 200ml skim milk, 40g ground almonds, salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Bring the skim milk to a boil together with the ground almonds and season with salt and pepper.

this almond foam sounds like it would be okay to use a hand blender (described in my first post). but, you could probably use and espresso machine steamer and get some really good micro-foam (like on a cappuccino) using this recipe as well!

The second is Grilled ocean Thread fillet in Bouillabaisse foam. The foamy bouillabaisse sauce on the plate and piece of tread fish. The fish is burnt cross marked(I don't know how to describe it) with a meat fork. What is the idea tool to cross the fish?

do you think the fish was just grilled on a grill? it sounds like english may be your second language so you'll have to ask about terminology more specifically.

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Alright, but what about Versa Whip or lower gelling Methocel? To add to the original question. What are some ideas that anyone has used to establish a foam?

Lecithin, Whipped agar, Versa whip, powdered egg whites, ??? what else do we have out there? What can hold and stabalize? Hot and/or cold?

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  • 1 year later...

Recently I watched Jose Andres create a simple orange juice foam. However, when I tried it the foam wouldn't remain staple. I don't whether the orange juice wasn't acidic enough, or my wand not fast enough or if the ratio of juice to lipid wan't right.

Any ideas?

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A little more information on the approach you used would definitely be useful in diagnosing the problem! I'm guessing that you were using lecithin (though this is just a stab in the dark). In my experience, one of the biggest problems with lecithin is that it has a short shelf life. If you were using this technique, how old was the lecithin you were using? Was it from a reliable supplier?

Matthew Kayahara

Kayahara.ca

@mtkayahara

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A little more information on the approach you used would definitely be useful in diagnosing the problem! I'm guessing that you were using lecithin (though this is just a stab in the dark). In my experience, one of the biggest problems with lecithin is that it has a short shelf life. If you were using this technique, how old was the lecithin you were using? Was it from a reliable supplier?

Yes, I used lecithin, which I obtained from a health food store. I have no idea how old it was. Do you suggest a substitute?

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Yes, I used lecithin, which I obtained from a health food store.  I have no idea how old it was.  Do you suggest a substitute?

It depends on what type of foam you're looking to create. As you can see upthread (and in many other places in the forum), there are a lot of options for creating foams. If you just want to reproduce the one you saw, then you should probably keep using lecithin. Keep in mind that too much lecithin will destabilize the foam; you probably want to keep it below 1% of the total weight. Also, use a wide, flat container to whip the juice.

You can find more information in this old thread on lecithin and in this thread, which is more recent. You should also check out the recipe collection here.

Edit: Punctuation.

Edited by mkayahara (log)

Matthew Kayahara

Kayahara.ca

@mtkayahara

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Yes, I used lecithin, which I obtained from a health food store.  I have no idea how old it was.  Do you suggest a substitute?

It depends on what type of foam you're looking to create. As you can see upthread (and in many other places in the forum), there are a lot of options for creating foams. If you just want to reproduce the one you saw, then you should probably keep using lecithin. Keep in mind that too much lecithin will destabilize the foam; you probably want to keep it below 1% of the total weight. Also, use a wide, flat container to whip the juice.

You can find more information in this old thread on lecithin and in this thread, which is more recent. You should also check out the recipe collection here.

Edit: Punctuation.

Thanks for all the assistance. I now have a bit of study ahead. Tnx again.

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