Handling fluid gels

ejf12009

I've been experimenting with the fluid gels class, but have some questions on how to handle the gels:

1) As the recipes warn, it can be hard to get a good vortex going in the blender. I have this blender; it's extremely powerful but food does tend to get stuck in the corners, just out of the blades' reach. With more liquid items or larger quantities it's okay, but if I'm doing ~300ml of fluid gel that's just enough to sit perfectly out of blade reach. Best way to get around this?

2) In the videos we see fluid gels coming from squeeze bottles. How do the gels get into the bottles? E.g. I made the beet fluid gel best I could due to the above problem, but after it was done it was so thick I couldn't pour it into a squeeze bottle. I tried pushing it through a funnel but it just got stuck in the tube of the funnel.

Any advice?

Thanks,

Evan

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Comments

tshewman

1. After the gel initially sets, chop it into cubes.

2. Make more than you need (e.g. double he batch). Most fluid gels freeze and keep pretty well.

3. Use a tamper device (some blenders have their own) and push the product into the blades. You can also try tapping (hard) the side of the blender to get the product off the side.

4. Once blended, strain the fluid gel into a measuring cup or beaker (personally I find beakers work better). Then pour it into the squeeze bottle.

Hope it helps. Fluid gels are such a nice addition to any meal.

Tim_Sutherland_52834

Put the fluid gel in a piping bag to transfer into a squeeze bottle, or just use directly from the bag.

com-chefsteps

part 1: I feel ya.

part 2: this solution feels a little wasteful equipment-wise, but maybe smush the gel into a pastry bag, and fill the squeeze bottle from there? You'll lose some product along the way, and you'll have to either clean or toss the pastry bag, which is annoying, but I wouldn't say that squeeze bottles and pastry bags are interchangeable.

There are certain brands of squeeze bottle that are wide-mouth with screw-on lids at both ends. I don't love them (the squirt tip requires so much force to open that I tend to over-sauce).

ejf12009

With an appropriate tip a pastry bag would well mimic a squeeze bottle, no? Or do you mean in terms of being able to toss a squeeze bottle in a warming bath, exchange tips on the bag, things like that?

com-chefsteps

Definitely can mimic in terms of the product on the plate. I was referring to the speed of use. Pastry bag is two hands and a whole aiming stance... squeeze bottle is rap-rap-squirt.