Perhaps the obvious first step in cooking is gathering the ingredients. While fine cuisine is most certainly about how a dish is put together, any true chef will tell you that a great meal begins with quality ingredients. Personal experience shows this to be true: would you rather have salad from a prepackaged bag or from vegetables from a farmers' market? A typical shopping trip would involve a drive to the grocery store and poking at the avocados and pears for fifteen minutes trying to decide which ones are riper. As Molecular Gastronomy is a modernization of past methods, there is only one place to go to buy the required ingredients. The Internet of course!
I can see what you are thinking. 'Did he just say the Internet? I am not buying my milk on craigslist!' Well, that is what you said in my mind anyways. The ingredients required for a connoisseur of Molecular cooking are slightly different than those found in an average kitchen. Names like Tapioca Maltodextrin and Low Acyl Gellan Gum tend to invoke images of chemicals rather than things you would want to eat. They also sound hard to find and use.
Even Molecular Gastronomists have to go shopping. But rather than going to a Fry's or Albertson's, many chefs go to Modernist Pantry. This website caters to (almost) all of your possible molecular needs. They have it all. Emulsifiers, pH Buffers, foaming agents, gelling agents, thickeners, even meat glue! Although I have yet to be brave enough to try the meat glue. Today I ordered a plethora of different ingredients from Modernist Pantry in anticipation of the official start of my project next week. There are a few things that I noticed that appeal to the home chef in this process.
1. Price
Most chemical ingredients used in Molecular Gastronomy are used in tiny increments. Often less than a quarter of a teaspoon for a whole meal, depending on the ingredient and dish. Even the most expensive components only run around $5-$15 for 50 grams. Although this may sound like very little, because such small quantities are used, the 50 grams can often last months depending on the frequency of use, and most ingredients have a near limitless shelf life.
2. Ease of understanding
All of the ingredients on Modernist Pantry are well labelled and almost always explained in the description. For the truly adventurous chef who is looking to try new and different techniques, this is invaluable. Agar Agar does not mean anything to the average chef without a science degree. But, luckily, they tell the buyer that it "Will form gels at 88 F and will not melt below 136 F." That makes a lot more sense for someone who is not used to the world of Molecular Gastronomy.
While I wait for my ingredients to arrive, I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has, just leave a comment and I'll get back to you as soon as I can! Stay tuned, next week the great experiments begin, and pictures will be plentiful!
So tell me: What are you cooking that has agar in it?
ReplyDeleteAgar is actually a very cool ingredient in that it can be used to create a gel out of almost any water-based liquid. For example, I have made Guava nectar gel for use in a dessert. The other cool application of using an agar based gel compared to a gelatin based gel is the heat resistant properties of agar gels. You can actually serve a hot gel as part of a dish, which is a very intriguing texture and flavor. A good example of this would be creating a salt gel. Using only saltwater and agar, one can make a brittle salt gel that can be grated or cubed on top of a dish. This is advantageous over using regular salt in that salt gel does not dissolve in liquids and will stay in whatever shape it is placed in. It's also very easy to use! I hope that answers your question!
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