Spherification is the process of creating small spheres, often with a liquid center, that resemble caviar. The process uses a gelling agent to achieve the sphere, normally Sodium Alginate dropped in to Calcium Chloride. Reverse spherification involves the same two chemicals but switches the order. Agar agar can also be used for spherification by dropping it in to cold olive oil.
Questions tagged [spherification]
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How can I make a chocolate cup that looks like the seaweed on a sushi roll?
I want to make a dessert that simulates a salmon roe sushi (like this) using rice pudding and spherified melon juice with a chocolate "seaweed" wrapping. But I can't figure out how to make the seaweed convincing.
How do I do this?
yossarian
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How to fake salmon roe using jello
A couple of days ago I made a first attempt at dessert sushi. Everything went reasonably well except for the salmon roe which I'd planned to make from orange jello. I made my own mould from plasticine covered in plastic wrap and imprinted all over…
Chris Steinbach
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What substances are good for spherification with algin?
Using sodium alginate, I know you can make "caviar" of many ingredients. For those who are not familiar with the process, here is an online explanation.
Looking online, however, I keep seeing the same ingredients repeated over again: blueberries,…
luispedro
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Can I reuse an alginate bath for reverse spherification?
Can I REUSE an alginate bath for reverse spherification? If I use a solution of alginate today, can I use the same solution next week? How should it be optimally stored? How long will it keep. How many "spheres" can be produced by a batch of…
Ken
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how to get powerful flavours when spherifying
Whenever I try to create something delicious using spherification I find that whatever has gone in comes out quite bland (I've tried using fruit juices (non-citric), liquers, soups).
When I taste the food before it goes into the salts, it usually…
Dibstar
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How do I create spherical coffee?
As a Barista, I have been playing around with different coffee flavours and creations. Now I have been thinking of also adding textural elements in the coffee. I was hoping somebody could give me a quick guide on how to make spheres out of…
RedFox
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How do I make large spheres using spherification?
I've had great success making 'caviar' with sodium alginate and calcium chloride. I've used both an eye dropper and a Parmesan shaker (when I needed a whole lot of spheres). But I've never been able to make the larger spheres, sometimes referred to…
yossarian
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How can I get good spherification results with alcohol?
I've been trying to make chocolatini (vodka, godiva liqueur, baileys) spheres, but I've had some issues with separation of the alcohols. Also, I've been deciding whether the alginate solution should be placed into the mixture (vs. calcium lactate…
kevin
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Do gel spheres hold up to heat?
I want to plate a carrot sphere, made using reverse spherification, for a hot entrée. How do carrot spheres hold up to heat?
Anthony Brienza
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How can I hold the flavor and texture of my spheres?
I'm doing apple caviar using alginate in my apple juice and calcium lactate as my spherification bath. Everything worked out well, the result is amazing, but after one hour my caviar turn out to be flavourless and instead of nice juicy bursting…
Vincent
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How to preserve the green colour of mint when doing spherification?
I was recently making some mint spheres using reverse spherification, as a bit of background here was my process: I blended around 15g of mint leaves with 250ml of boiling water and left to steep for an hour. I strained the infusion through a 50…
Stefano
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Why did my reverse spherification method fail to produce proper spheres?
After much experimentation with reverse spherification this weekend, I completely failed to get an acceptable product. Caviar didn't form properly. In particular, when dropped from an eye dropper, the drops would not penetrate the bath and so did…
yossarian
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Use of algin and calcium chloride in spherification
I belong to a cooking club in which we have several home cooks who wish they had gone to culinary school. Anyway, I am cooking a dinner in which I am exploring modern cuisine utilizing new molecular gastronomy techniques.
My question is as follows:…
Catherine
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What is the best way to hold a sphere and for how long?
I have been playing around with the spherification process. My questions are how long can I hold a sphere and what is the best way to do so??
Juan
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How do I control the shape of my spheres?
I've been experimenting with reverse sphereification this week. The results... well, the results remind me that even the professionals have to practice.
How do I control the tension of the alginate shell, so that it can maintain a round shape when…
VoiceOfUnreason
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