For the food science types

August 16th, 2007

There was a real movement towards food science in this year’s WBC I think, which I love. For those that like that kind of thing this here pdf may well be of interest:

Hydrocolloid Recipe Collection (via blog.khymos.org)

I love that people are sharing these kind of things, and I look forward to playing with a few of the recipes!

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  • http://www.murkycoffee.com Nick

    “Movement” indeed.

    Four 2007 WBC Day 1 national barista champions… all whipping out the “Sodium Alginate Calcium Chloride” sphericals…

    Yipes.

  • http://www.cafe-grendel.blogspot.com Grendel

    James – thanks for that link, I’d love to play with a few of those and see what I can come up with in the way of a semi-solid epsresso or even a latte – huge entertainment potential plated as a dessert with a liquified version of a traditional dessert dish served in a demitasse in a reversal of ‘coffee and dessert’. . .

  • http://www.lux-delux.com/Purchase.html David Pier

    An interesting compendium of recipes, but it doesn’t contain any information, except by inference, on the differences between the gums (a.k.a. hydrodcolloids, why use a long word when a short one is more accurate) besides typical concentrations. There are many differences in the gelling properties, temperature and pH sensitivity, reactions with particular ions such as calcium (e.g. milk), interactions with other gums, pseudoplasticity (also called shear thinning, a property that must be understood to effectively use these gums), etc. There are also many different purity grades, strength grades, and other variations available for each of these gums, so don’t be surprised if your hydroxymethylcellulose doesn’t do the job the way the recipe suggests it will.
    Besides Wikipedia, I’ve found this company’s website provides some very useful information:
    http://www.ticgums.com/store/prod_FN.asp
    Note that most of these gums count as dietary fiber, so if you work this into your coffee drinks, they will perform an additional dietary need.
    Watch out, there isn’t much separating a creamy mouthfeel from a slimy mouthfeel…

  • http://www.pourquality.blogspot.com luca

    Thanks for that, James. I’m wondering if you’re cookbook collection is as large as your coffee collection. I’m also wondering what a day of eating nothing but hydrocolloid recipes would be like ;P Mmm … roast beef espuma with potato foam and jellied gravy …

    Cheers,

    Luca

  • http://www.dutchbarista.blogspot.com Jeroen Veldkamp

    http://www.elbulli.com/catalogo/catalogo/index.php?lang=en

    Dear all,
    on this link you will find the a lot of pictures of science food from El Bulli.

    A lot of these pictures are publiced in books, but there is a large collection publiced n this site!

    Enjoy the link…

    Jeroen Veldkamp

  • http://www.mentness.wordpress.com mentness/stuartlee

    Love it Jim!

  • http://www.lux-delux.com/Purchase.html David Pier

    An entire blog devoted to molecular gastronomy:
    http://moleculargastronomyingredients.blogspot.com/

  • http://members.iinet.net.au/~simonandysolde/home.html Simon James

    Great resource James.

    How far will this envelope be pushed I wonder?

    Simon.

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