1.29.2008

JOURNAL: Molecularly Gastronomical Advances

Here’s what I have discovered since my first experiment:

  • Carrot Juice requires less sodium alginate. I could have gone with ½ teaspoon per cup.
  • Rather than pour water back and forth between bowls through a strainer, I added another cup of water to the bowl and set the strainer inside, so that once I had dripped in enough juice, I simply lifted the strainer and rinsed the pearls within.
  • With a smaller tipped syringe, I can drain the “noodle” and then refill it with something else, potentially making a many-layered tube.
  • You can make larger “ravioli” by pouring a big glob of juice in a little bowl and then pouring calcium water over it.
  • The ravioli can be drained, inflated and resealed, making balloons of carrot juice jelly. They don't stretch particularly well, but can be inflated at least to their original size. Yeah, I have no idea what practical purpose this could serve, but hell, I had fun figuring it out. I was like a 12 year-old kid with a chemistry set.
  • Once the pearls gelled all the way through, they reminded me of Orbitz, a fad soft drink from the late 90s that had little gel balls suspended in it. I think that it may have been the same thing, but wikipedia says it contained gellan and a Perdue chemistry class page said it was xantham gum.
  • Carrot Pearls mixed with mango juice and Veev makes for a cocktail that is neither particularly good nor particularly bad. I think that goes for Veev on it's own as well.

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