Fruit Caviar - Molecular Gastronomy

This instructable explains the basics of fruits spherification.
It gives example of desserts with orange, lemon, raspberry and kiwi.

For your first try I recommend a fruit with strong taste like lemon.

Step 1: Ingredients

- Fruit juice
- Sugar
- Agar Agar
- Water
- Yogurt
- Cold vegetable oil
- Syringe
- Jar

Step 2: Prepare the Mixture

In a cooking pot, mix the following ingredients:

One portion of fresh fruit juice, the same quantity of water, half the amount of sugar and some Agar Agar.
The more you put Agar Agar, the firmer the result will be. For one orange I recommend 1/4 tsp (1 gramme) of Agar Agar.

Step 3: Boil the Mixture

Boil the mixture until having a homogeneous solution.
When it is still hot, use a syringe to take some liquid.

Step 4: Make Pearls

Drops by drops, put the liquid in the jar containing cold vegetable oil.
It should form some pearls at the bottom of the jar.

Step 5: Separate Oil From Pearls

Fruits pearls are ready but mixed with oil.
To separate the oil from pearls we will wash them with some water.
It is easy to clean as long as oil is less dense than water and pearls are more dense.

Step 6: Orange Pearls Presentation

There is many ways to eat fruits pearls, here is an example.
Cut an orange in two, remove the inside and fill with yogurt.
Then just add the orange caviar on the top.

Step 7: Lemon Pearls

To make lemon pears, use the same process:
- Mix fresh lemon juice, water, sugar and Agar Agar.
- Boil the mixture.
- Drop it in a jar filled with cold vegetable oil
- Clean lemon pearls

Step 8: Presentation of Lemon Caviar

Put some lemon caviar on top of some yogurt and add a slice of lemon.

Step 9: Raspberry Caviar

The same process can be use with raspberry juice.
The red color makes beautiful pearls.

Step 10: Presentation of Raspberry Caviar

On top of some yogurt, add the raspberry caviar with some raspberry

Step 11: Kiwi Caviar

Use the same process with some fresh kiwi juice. For a greener color you can use food coloring. In this picture I used one drop of blue and one of yellow.

Step 12: Presentation of Kiwi Caviar

On top of some yogurt add the kiwi caviar with some fresh slices of kiwi.

Step 13: Video

Watch the result in video.

Comments

[HoneyO2]

Can you make the pearls ahead of time? How do you store them? 😊

[sabu.dawdy]

do they dissorlve in water ? and how to make bigger pearls

[YouLab]

They do not dissolve in water. I used water to remove the vegetable oil from pearls.
It is easy to make bigger pearls, at step 4, put 2 or 3 drops very fast and they will merge to form a bigger pearl.

[sabu.dawdy]

are these the way chewy boba are made???

[Molecular Noa]

No, chewy boba are made with tapioca pearls, which can be colored by changing the liquid in which you let them sit in.

[SalenaM]

With regards to 'washing' off the oil from the pearls, must it be cold water, or would tepid-warm be ok. It looks like such a fab thing to have a go at; just concerned that the pearls will taste more oily than fruity. I wonder if using some of the original fruit juice might work better? Or is the lighter density of the oil enough to remove all traces from the more dense pearls?

Thanks again, fab idea.

[YouLab]

Water can be cold or tepid-warm as long as it is not hot.

Water is good enough to wash oil from pearl. You don't have any taste of oil after 'washing' pearls ;)

[RunningGirlHealth]

Can you use oils other than cold vegetable oil? Veg oil usually contains corn or soy, which I'm allergic to, so I'm wondering if cold olive oil or hemp oil or avocado oil would work, or does it need to be a clear oil?

Thanks!

[YouLab]

You can use any oil as long as it is cold.

[PinchOfChili]

Congratulations on winning the contest! Your pictures are awesome!

[YouLab]

Thank you so much

[abbotts1234]

where do you get Agar Agar?

[YouLab]

I found it in grocery store, but if you don't you can check on vegan stores as Agar Agar is a substitute of pork gelatin.

[ecstanzel01]

Does clear gelatin work as a substitute to Agar Agar?

[YouLab]

It should work but I never tried

[haley.cordova]

does it work well with watermelon?

[YouLab]

Yes is works, but in my opinion the fruit taste is not strong enough once in pearl.

[tmv22]

seems very laborious.

wasn't there a machine that does this automatically? i thought i saw it

[7GG]

Great Post. I have not long returned from America and had melon flavoured in a restaurant and did wonder how they were made. Now I know and will definitely be making these. Thanks!

[WilliamR223]

Can you use something other than sugar like Truvia or monk-fruit granules? The reason I am asking is that I am a diabetic.