Mis-shapen spheres with reverse spherification

just trying out reverse spherification and it works - up to a point! the "spheres" are more like flat, mis-shapen blobs.

I'm using 0.5% Calcium Chloride in the liquid (ginger beer in this case) and an alginate bath with 0.5% sodium alginate. I used bottled water with 10mg/L of Ca to make the alginate bath (the lowest I could find) and left it for 2 hours to go clear. The spheres work in that they form a skin and have a really nice pop in the mouth but they are definitely not spherical!

Any suggestions?

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Comments

Chris_Young_80640

Usually when they're too flat like this, it means the liquid inside the spheres is too thin, is it just straight ginger beer? You might try thickening it with some xanthan gum. If you can upload a photo, that might help us figure out what's not working.

owaint

Hi Chris,

That sounds like it could be the answer - the liquid seems to flow too easily when I drop it into the bath.

Here's a pic of how they turn out - a bit fragmented:

The ginger beer is just straight, with the calcium chloride in it. How much xanthan gum would you use?

(great course btw!)

Chris_Young_80640

I would suggest starting at 0.1% of the weight of the ginger beer. Increase to 0.15% or 0.2% as needed.

owaint

Thanks again, Chris - that worked much better. I tried 0.1% and it firmed things up just enough. I was still getting a few odd shapes so will try a bit more next time, but at least I know I can make it work now.

Here's the best one (green colour is from a little food colouring I added to allow me to see the damn things in the ginger beer-coloured alginate!):

richard.fine

Damn... just ran into this problem myself, went to add xantham gum and just realised I've added 1% rather than 0.1%.

Ah well. Time to throw out my liquid and start over...

Chris_Young_80640

Whoops.

richard.fine

Confirmed, 0.1% works much better

Got significantly 'rounder' shapes now, though they're more ellipsoidal than spherical. What's my best bet for that - a touch more xanthan gum to make it thicker? A different shaped spoon? Dropping from a different height?

Pretty chuffed with the results so far anyway... making spheres of a coffee mixture (320g brewed coffee, 160g Tia Maria, 10g brown sugar, +0.1% xanthan gum), though they're not very interesting on their own. Going to see about getting some ladyfingers and champagne syllabub together to make something worth of photographing...

Chris_Young_80640

A touch more xanthan will make them a bit rounder. You'll never get perfect spheres unless you can do them in zero-gravity (spherification on the vomit comet zero-g flight?).

Brendan_Lee_56950

Modernist cuisine in space. Chefsteps should make it happen.

Chris_Young_80640

You know, I think I could make that happen with Grant. I actually fly glider aerobatics, so Grant prepares spheres while I fly a nice big parabolic arc. Maybe this should go on the vote for new content?

richard.fine

I'll try adding a touch more xanthan tomorrow. 0.05% increments, you suggested above?

And I would watch the shit out of zero-g spherification videos, absolutely

grant

Another thing you will find is as you store them they get the Ball Park "plump." If you let them sit in a storage bath the membranes begin to tighten up a bit and they will become more spherical.

Chris_Young_80640

Great point Grant. Osmosis to the rescue.

Lennard__34626

Something really cool

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Capsul8/2556459

Brendan_Lee_56950

That's pretty sweet!