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One of the great things about molecular gastronomy is it gives us techniques that allow surprising and unusual elemnts to be incorporated into a dish that would be otherwise impossible.
In this riff on bananas foster, a sphere of rum is served on top of a piece of cake and a slice of banana, after being covered in delicious meringue.
"What?!" I can hear you saying, "a sphere of liquid in close contact with meringue? Preposterous!"
Well, I can assure you that yes, it's true. Read on for the secret!
In this riff on bananas foster, a sphere of rum is served on top of a piece of cake and a slice of banana, after being covered in delicious meringue.
"What?!" I can hear you saying, "a sphere of liquid in close contact with meringue? Preposterous!"
Well, I can assure you that yes, it's true. Read on for the secret!
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Signing UpStep 1Rum spheres, the science!
For this, you'll need two ingredients that aren't found in the average kitchen, sodium alginate and calcium lactate or calcium lactate gluconate. I got mine from Willpowder.com, but there are a number of specialized food sites that you can locate them at.
These can also be used in the recipe for carrot caviar here on Instructables!
Making the rum spheres is called, unsurprisingly, spherification. The cornerstone of this process is the hydrocolloid mentioned above, sodium alginate.
Sodium alginate is a natural polysaccharide - a long chain made up of linked sugar molecules. As the sodium salt, the chains are loose and flexible, thickening up a water solution but leaving it mostly fluid. Expose the alginate to calcium, however, and neighboring chains are crosslinked together by electrostatic forces, which instantly creates a gel!
So what we want to do is make a tasty rum solution and add some calcium salts. Freeze that, drop it into a water bath containing sodium alginate, and let it thaw. The crosslinking reaction takes place at the interface, creating a thin membrane with your tasty liquid inside. Poke the membrane with a knife, or bite into it, and bam! Explosion of flavor!
The reason that you need calcium lactate or calcium lactate gluconate for this recipe is that they have a very light unobtrusive flavor. If a simple salt like calcium chloride was used, the taste would be unbearable.
The recipe I'm using for the rum balls is adapted from Grant Achatz's fantastic book, Alinea, which I would recommend for the beautiful pictures just as much as the fantastically creative recipes.
These can also be used in the recipe for carrot caviar here on Instructables!
Making the rum spheres is called, unsurprisingly, spherification. The cornerstone of this process is the hydrocolloid mentioned above, sodium alginate.
Sodium alginate is a natural polysaccharide - a long chain made up of linked sugar molecules. As the sodium salt, the chains are loose and flexible, thickening up a water solution but leaving it mostly fluid. Expose the alginate to calcium, however, and neighboring chains are crosslinked together by electrostatic forces, which instantly creates a gel!
So what we want to do is make a tasty rum solution and add some calcium salts. Freeze that, drop it into a water bath containing sodium alginate, and let it thaw. The crosslinking reaction takes place at the interface, creating a thin membrane with your tasty liquid inside. Poke the membrane with a knife, or bite into it, and bam! Explosion of flavor!
The reason that you need calcium lactate or calcium lactate gluconate for this recipe is that they have a very light unobtrusive flavor. If a simple salt like calcium chloride was used, the taste would be unbearable.
The recipe I'm using for the rum balls is adapted from Grant Achatz's fantastic book, Alinea, which I would recommend for the beautiful pictures just as much as the fantastically creative recipes.
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My way seems sort of stupid now. :)
I'm pretty sure around 30% is the highest you could go in a conventional refrigerator, according to the Engineering Toolbox. Mine hovers around -15 to -20 C, and I assume that's a typical temperature. Do you have access to liquid nitrogen? I'm guilty of occasionally borrowing the dewar for a night to make ice cream. :)
Also, at very high proofs, the alcohol might start interfering with the gel formation - at what point, though, I couldn't pretend to know.
I think I'm going to spring these on my friends for dessert after my annual Christmas Eve dinner.
Calcium lactate and calcium lactate gluconate are both calcium salts that have a minimal amount of flavor.
Calcium lactate can be purchased as a dietary supplement from pretty much any vitamin store.
Calcium lactate gluconate and sodium alginate are available from many specialty ingredient stores online. I bought mine from Willpowder.