recipes that get you laid

3/21/2011

I picked up a few sachets of agar agar the other day from an Asian grocery store after reading about it on a website. It’s basically a gelling agent, similar to gelatin yet with some big differences.

Agar Agar is derived from seaweed (Vegan Friendly), gelatine is derived from animals. Agar Agar will remain firm up to 85C while gelatin will begin to melt at 37C, meaning agar agar creations such as agar agar pasta can be mixed with hot sauces.

The food industry uses agar agar for an amazing variety of products such as jams, pie fillings and dairy products such as ice cream, yoghurt and cream cheese.

However, my interest is in the field of molecular gastronomy! From what I’ve read, using some interesting techniques you can use agar agar to form liquids into a variety of shapes from little beads to spaghetti.

My first attempt with agar agar was quite basic, simply boiled some orange juice (1.5kg), added agar agar powder (12.5g) then let cool in mini muffin moulds. It was amazingly easy to work with and I’m excited to get a bit more creative and I’m especially keen to try out the agar agar spaghetti technique!

Learn more here:
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelatin
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agar

And an example of the spaghetti method:http://www.molecularrecipes.com/gelification/parmesan-spaghetto/