Hi, my name is Earl. This is where I analyze food politics, experiment with molecular gastronomy, and advocate healthy eating. Look around for recipes, reviews, and photographs!Watermelon Caviar, an Introduction to Molecular Gastronomy
Molecular gastronomy is the scientific study of food and cooking processes. More widely recognized are molecular gastronomy’s applications in the food world. Avant-garde chefs have begun to apply molecular gastronomy to combine unconventional textures and flavors. Of course, molecular gastronomy also has its role in the food industry’s desire to create diet versions of traditional foods.
Molecular gastronomy has attracted a small following of foodies who try to replicate the dishes created at restaurants such as Ferran Adrià’s El Bulli and Wylie Dufresne’s wd~50. Some of these dishes include chocolate mousse made from only water and chocolate, flavored foams that don’t collapse as easily has normal foam, spaghetti made from parmesan cheese, cold cooked meat, and artificial caviar.
While one of the most popular and easy-tomake dishes is artificial caviar, molecular gastronomy poses no limits for the imagination. This article by the Harvard magazine includes pictures of some of the most mind-blowing works of molecular gastronomy to date.
It is important to note that molecular gastronomy is the study of cooking processes. The actual application of molecular gastronomy to create the aforementioned dishes is known as molecular cooking.
Spherification
Spherification is the term given to the process of turning liquid juice into juice-filled pearls—think caviar. Through the precipitation reaction between calcium ions—basically calcium particles in liquid—and alginate—a substance derived from algae—a solid, clear film can be formed. By manipulating this reaction, we are able to create fake caviar. Simply dissolve some alginate in a juice. Then, drop droplets of the juice in a calcium water bath. The calcium from the water bath will immediately react with the alginate in the juice to form a film around the droplet. Thus, spheres of juice are created.
The juice I used was watermelon juice. Before dissolving the alginate in the juice however, I condensed the juice into a more concentrated juice by boiling some of the water off.
When conducting molecular cookery, it is important to make exact measurements because molecular cooking is science. Using too much of one ingredient will ruin the recipe. Measurements in molecular gastronomy are as important as measurements in baking because, yes, baking is science and, in a sense, molecular gastronomy.
Adapted from the Texturas website
Ingredients
Use a needle-less syringe or eye dropper to create droplets. I also recommend an immersion blender to mix the alginate in watermelon juice.
Directions
- Mix alginate with watermelon juice.
- Dissolve calcium chloride in water.
- Drop droplets of watermelon juice solution into calcium chloride water.
- Use strainer to remove droplets from calcium chloride bath after 1-2 minutes into a separate cold water bath.
Edit: Here’s a great video made by ScienceFix that demonstrates the process.
Comments (28)
wacca wacca
i'm eating yellow watermelon right now
What does yellow watermelon taste like?
just less sweet
Ahh, I see. I bet yellow watermelon would be great to decorate dishes with!
Were can the calcium and sodium be purchased
You can purchase sodium alginate and calcium chloride on Amazon or other third party websites. Simply Google the terms. Here are some places I found….
http://www.amazon.com/WillPowder-Calcium-Chloride… http://www.amazon.com/WillPowder-Sodium-Alginate-…
I actually bought a kit containing about 15 different molecular gastronomic ingredients from Amazon, but the above two will suffice for this particular experiment/recipe.
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Hey! The best tip ou can have with regards to basic spherification is that you have to choose very tasty ingredient as it will be diluted almost 50/50 with the alginate solution.
Canned frozen juice is great, any flavors as it is concentrate. Form other tric, on molecular gastronomy:
http://www.MolecularGastronomyNetwork.com
For kits with best value on the market:
http://www.MOLECULE-R.com
Enjoy!
May I know the nutritive value of this artificial watermelon caviar?
While I cannot get you a precise value, I can attest to the fact that watermelon caviar is low-calorie. 100% of its calories come from the watermelon juice used to create the caviar, since the calcium alginate film is not absorbed for energy in the body and, thus, has no calories.
I suppose one way to gauge the calorie count would be to fill a cup with the watermelon caviar and assume that the cup is filled with pure watermelon juice. According to this source, watermelon juice contains 110 calories per cup, so you will definitely have less than that in a cup of watermelon caviar.
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Could I add alcohol into the mix?
Yes.
Good food is something that tends to melt and win hearts. A delicacy like caviar scores wonderfully in this aspect, it has managed to achieve recognition and appreciation from across the world. The taste of the dish is indeed something that is retained in the mind for a long time. The Sturgeon variety occupies the zenith position in terms of the roe quality and flavor. This authentic taste and flavor is simply unsurpassed. The lovers of the mouthwatering roe however now need to compromise to some extent with the specificity of the fish variety and producing country.
The downside of the popularity and demand for the cuisine is the declining number of fishes. The sturgeons from the Caspian Sea are the ones that are most desired. The mounting demand of the fish roe has resulted in increased harvesting of the species. Incessant fishing has led to falling density of the variety. To fill the gap for the authentic variety, numerous countries have introduced farmed caviar. The most desired farmed caviar is from the Baerii sturgeon, which is farmed in Germany, Italy, and France.
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would this practice work with a caramel or chocolate ?
Possibly, it’s an interesting idea, one that I might want to try in the future. The thing with chocolate though, is that because chocolate hardens at room temperature, there really would be no point in having a film encasing chocolate. You could, however, have chocolate milk encased by the film to have “chocolate milk caviar.” To do this, you would have to create an alginate bath, since chocolate milk has calcium ions already in it.
I’m not sure of the molecular composition of caramel, but I feel like caramel caviar would not work out well, since caramel is very viscous and ions inside caramel may have trouble moving around. As a result, you would end up with insufficient precipitation reactions on the surface to create a film.
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How long can the caviar be stored? Similar in life of the juice it came from (obviously storing in fridge if a juice) – if done with alcohol or tea/coffee, would fridge be necessary?
Thanks for the info :)
Hey Laurey,
The shelf life should be similar to that of the juice, and I would refrigerate them when using alcohol, tea, or coffee. Have fun!
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Can you use any juice or flavoring to replace the watermelon, as long as it is the same total volume? And are thereany non-internet stores where the chemical ingredients may be purchased that you may know of? Thank you and love your site!
Yes, in most cases, any replacement liquid will work. You’ll have to experiment and try, though. Sometimes, the acidity of the liquid—in this case watermelon juice—prevents encapsulation.
Unfortunately, I do not know of any brick-and-mortar stores that sell alginate or calcium chloride.
I attempted this yesterday and was unabsorbed to achieve the medium sized circles in your picture. Is there any tips to getting larger “caviar” in particlular? Can you use a larger syringe?
The size of the caviar is actually pretty small. The picture may distort a sense of scale because there really isn’t anything in that picture besides the caviar. If you do, however, want to try making larger spheres, use a syringe with a larger nozzle or even just a eye dropper. Increasing the viscosity of the liquid will also allow larger droplets to form before it drips, but I would avoid doing so because that compromises the taste/texture of the final product.
Im just soo interested with this! If you wanted tiny droplets, could you use a syringe with a needle?
Yes, tell me how it goes!
Will do!