Fluid gel (gellan) doesn't remain fluid

I tried making a fluid gel an hour ago. Since I don't have a scale for measuring a precise amount of gellan to liquid, I just added some gellan to the liquid.

The mixture set, and blended (liquified) properly and worked out nicely. But after I put the squeezer into the fridge for 20 minutes, the liquid gel set again.

Is this a result of adding too much gellan to the liquid, or is it caused by something else? Does anyone have any advice for measuring the gellan without a milligram scale?

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Comments

brian_martin2001

it's quite possible that you did use too much. ChefSteps recommends using between .25% and 1 % concentration when dealing with gellan gum, so it's quite possible your eyeballing it could have been too much. My only advice for measuring gellan without a milligram scale is to buy a milligram scale.

Tim_Roth_78505

Scale-up is really the only way to avoid the milligram scale issue. If you make a larger batch, you'll have a larger quantity to weigh, which gives you fewer precision issues. Another thing chemists will commonly do is make a stock solution at a higher concentration so that instead of weighing out small milligram quantities, instead you add a set volume of a chemical solution to a desired final dilution (for example, the "bleach" you buy at stores is concentrated bleach in water that you dilute down before using).

With gels, this is pretty tricky, since you can't really dissolve 10x concentrations of gellan in water without having a significant issue, but you could possible make a set volume of gel and calculate how much you'd need to redissolve in a higher volume of water in order to achieve your desired amount. So if you put 1 gram of gellan in 100mL of water, solidify it, weight it, and then cut out 1 tenth of THAT gel and add it to 100mL of water, you've essentially replicated what you'd get with 100mg of gellan in 100mL of water. More steps, but it should work well with less precise equipment.