Must Have Chemical Ingredients

robert.c.brown15

Hello all,

I'm looking to bring some modern techniques into my cooking to add dimensions and refinement to my dishes, but not go wild. I'm thinking about a sous vide and I already have a lab sieve for making my purees better. Are there any chemicals that are more or less the basis for a variety of components? I'm not interested in spherification but gels and foams do interest me. I've looked at soy lecithin and gel sheets but that's all for now and may be all I'm interested in for the time being. Modernist cuisine has plenty of lists for must have equipment and tools but not so much for any chemicals. Any thoughts on this? Thank you!

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Comments

Matt_67991

Xanthan gum, gelatin, agar agar, albumin powder are some good basics to have. What do you have already?

robert.c.brown15

Nothing. Was just curious of a few useful starting ones. Not interested in have everything right now.

Lennard__34626

You can get xanthan gum and soy lecithin from health stores. I would say what you want to do with your cooking will govern what you 'need'. I would say that xanthan as a thickener and liquid soy lecithin as an emulsifier are very useful and can be easily incorporated into non-modernist cooking

FrankM_3301

I'm wondering if we should be referring to these ingredients as "chemicals?" The vast majority of modernist ingredients are natural occurring, and while technically they might be referred to as "chemicals", that might have the unwanted effect of perpetuating a negative view of using them in the kitchen.

No offense intended, I am generally not the word police...just thinking out loud.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

Completely agree on the negative view.

robert.c.brown15

I agree too, but it was the only word that came to my mind.

robert.c.brown15

if I am using agar agar to make gels (like in EMP), what is the form of the agar agar? Is it a powder? And why agar agar AND gelatin? Can't I just use one or the other? And what is the best for making foams without an iSi canister, but with an immersion blender?

Lennard__34626

Agar agar usually comes in powder form to my knowledge. It needs to be taken close to a boil for hydration

Usually agar and gelatin are combined because agar alone is pretty brittle and (IMO) doesn't have a great texture. Gelatin is far softer and has a nicer mouthfeel, but gelatin also has a very low melting temperature. The two are combined for an intermediate texture with better heat stability.

You can make a blender foam with soy lecithin, or you can do it with no 'chemicals' by blending a seasoned milk(less fat is easier)

Matt_67991

Xanthan gum is really useful for a lot of things. I like it most for thickening, stabilizing and preventing sauces from weeping. It's really strong, so it's very cost effective to use.

robert.c.brown15

I have been looking at some EMP recipes and it calls for glucose syrup. If I didn't have glucose syrup could I use more sugar or simple syrup? Is there any substitution? If I were to buy glucose would this be the appropriate product - http://www.amazon.com/Unknown-Glucose-16-oz/dp/B00085F7VO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1379200356&sr=8-1&keywords=glucose+syrup

ttpoker

Robert Brown : Try Chef Rubber for Glucose or any other materials that are commonly used by pastry chefs, I find this company to be the best source in the USA for things like Glucose, this company caters to the Las Vegas casino market which keeps the prices very agressive: http://www.shopchefrubber.com/Glucose-Syrup-5.5kg/

Lennard__34626

I've seen corn syrup used as a substitute for glucose

Samuel_68313

For me sodium citrate is the best after xanthan gum. Not that it is as versatile as most ingredients, but it is extremely easy to use and makes such a noticeable difference to cheese sauces.

Johan_Edstrom_5586

Xhantan, Agar, Sodium Citrate is what I seem to use the most, they are quite accessible technique wise and do provide a pop

to anything you use them with.

Matt__34377

If you start heavy into modernist cooking I think xanthan is essential. It has a synergistic relationship with pretty much everything; it brings body to your fluid gel (agar), is useful as a texturizing agent (carrot "soup" made from straight up carrot juice), traps bubbles very well (methocel, lecithin foams), is thermoirreversable so you can heat it up and as @henri mentioned it prevents sauces from weeping.

As for gels, gellan is touted as having great flavour release, but it all depends on what you're gelling. If it's something like a passionfruit gel, I'm sure agar will do the trick and its much cheaper (pick it up at your local Asian grocer). If making a set gel I would suggest pairing agar with locust bean gum and xanthan. It gives it more of a pudding-like texture and sort of does away with the brittle mouthfeel a straight agar-set gel will have.

As for foams, oh the world of foams. Methocel, xanthan, gelatin, dhairy products, lecithin, will all create foams though how they are foamed may vary. From my experience, methocel, xanthan and dairy can be foamed with an iSi whipper; methocel, gelatin, lecithin and dairy through aeration with a whisk (or hand blender for the dairy and lecithin). The bubble structure of the foam will vary as well - lecithin produces a product with larger bubbles, as will dairy (unless its foamed in an iSi as per whipped cream); the rest are pretty small. An interesting property of methocel f50 is that it can be dehydrated once its whipped up (there are a variety of methocels, each suited to different uses), but it also has a tendency to have an unpleasant corky flavor if used with a product that is high in sugar. Aki and Alex from Ideas in Food suggest putting a piece of plastic wrap in the mixture for a few hours to leach out the corkiness. While on the subject of Aki and Alex, I would highly reccomend picking up their book, Ideas in Food, if you're considering using modernist elements. It's cheap, compact and chock full of info on not only modernist techniques, but also the science behind homecooking.

I hope that ramble helped somewhat.

@Robert - I don't really know if this would do for what you're looking to achieve, but whenever a recipe calls for glucose I use invert sugar (which you can make at home using lemon juice, sugar and water). I haven't had any disastrous results so far. It's pretty much sugar that, with the addition of lemon juice and application of heat is broken down into fructose and glucose. The end product i incredibly vicscous and clear like glucose, though I am not sure what the difference is in terms of how it will affect your product.

robert.c.brown15

So Xanthan gum seems to be the most useful in the kitchen as it works for a wide variety of things. When making foams with soy lecithin and an immersion blender, I would add the soy lecithin and xanthan gum and then aerate it and the xanthan gum will help it keep its shape? or does it not do much for that time of foam creations?

The glucose syrup was for an ice cream recipe so I guess I could get by with the invert sugar method.

Thanks for your help!

Johan_Edstrom_5586

The puree with the salmon is a neat illustration of how one could use Xhantan.

http://www.chefsteps.com/activities/watercress-puree

This can be re-used in a ton of ways, I use it for "Coulis", BBQ/Spicy sauces, Quick pasta sauce/Pizza sauce

and so on.

Matt__34377

@robert - I don't think it really matters, but I add the xanthan, let it spin for a couple of mins, then the lecithin.

Also if the glucose was for an ice cream, definitely just make it at home. Johnny Iuzzini uses it in his ice creams in Dessert Fourplay, probably for the same purpose as straight up glucose (to help prevent crystallization & improve mouthfeel)

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