Reverse Spherification

BlvCook_25591

I made the
following carbonated mojito spheres: http://www.molecularrecipes.com/spherification/carbonated-mojito-spheres/.
I mostly executed the recipe, but had 2 glaring problems.

1. My mojito mixture
   did not sink into the alginate bath when poured, but floated on the surface. I
   had to flip my spheres over with chopsticks to finish the “cooking” process,
   creating quenelles, not spheres. The alginate bath did not seem too thick and I
   used distilled water. Any ideas as to why my spheres floated and did not sink
   to the bottom?
2. I charged my ISI
   with two CO2 cartridges (not N2O) for the solution, waited the appropriate time,
   and the quenelles were not fizzy. Reasons? As these are spheres, I can't shake
   up the canister.

grant

BlvCook,

These are common problems when making spheres. They floated because there was air in your base. This is better than if they sink quickly actually, but neutrally buoyant is ideal. You need to remove the air from the base by:

1) let it rest in the fridge overnight

or

2) pull a vacuum on the base

or

3)strain through a fine sieve

Then you need to play with the height that you drop the base into the bath if using a liquid base. This will determine the initial shape. The absolute best thing to do is to freeze the portioned based into silicone hemisphere molds and gel the frozen base into a warm bath. This is the restaurant technique. This will give you perfect spheres every time.

As far as the carbonation goes, you need to clear the siphon of ambient air/atmosphere before charging it. Just add one co2 cartridge then empty it. Then add the remaining two cartridges. Place the siphon in an ice bath for 1 hour then empty.

We will cover all of this eventually in a hydrocolloid course.

Grant