Molecular Gastronomy

[kevin gilmore]

So after seeing the 60 minutes last week, and already knowing all the liquid nitrogen

cooking tricks, the chemist in me idecided to try my hand at the ravioli/caviar things with the sodium

alginate. Yesterday's try was a complete disaster, but today came out almost perfect.

As with all of this kind of stuff, technique is all important. Its helpful to have a stash of

USP grade chemicals to pull this off...

So i present mohito caviar, and mohito ravioli

http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/mg1.jpg

http://gilmore.chem.northwestern.edu/mg2.jpg

Maybe we can have birgir show us how to do this...Correctly

Edited May 9, 2010 by kevin gilmore

[CD44hi]

He, he. Saw this last week as well and when I saw the thread title first thing that came to mind was the mojito stuff.

Well how does/ did it taste? I've been ti his parent restaurnt jaleos and food was ok, never remarkable

, but I am guessing his perSonal bar service is quite different...

[spritzer]

That's just brilliant!!

[kevin gilmore]

It tastes exactly like what you put in it. And its fun when it goes squish.

I've tried chilling them and that works great too. So a whole batch of

about 50 proof half size golf balls, would get you drunk in a hurry.

The biggest trick is to let the sodium alginate mixture sit for about 4

hours to get rid of all the bubbles. The stuff does not disolve easy.

And you do have to weigh out the ingredients carefully.

For stuff that contains high amounts of calcium, you do it in reverse

i.e. you deposit the sphereoids into the sodium alginate solution instead

of depositing the spereoids in the calcium carbonate.

Another chef trained at el-bulli has a place in chicago.

http://www.alinea-restaurant.com/

The 23 course dinner with wine parings is about $500 plus tip

(per person)

We could do a CJ run saturday night...

Edited May 9, 2010 by kevin gilmore

[oogabooga]

The biggest trick is to let the sodium alginate mixture sit for about 4

hours to get rid of all the bubbles. The stuff does not disolve easy.

We use a sonicator (bath type, not probe type) to dissolve stubborn compounds in the lab - might speed up the process. It also helps with the bubbles sometimes (other times it makes them worse - chemistry is cruel like that, I suppose).

[Beefy]

Degassing with even a modest vacuum pump is very effective way to get bubbles out of viscous solutions. Or centrifugation, of course!

[voodoochile]

That blows the doors off absolut knox blox.

[jvlgato]

Always wanted to try Alinea ... Never could pull the trigger due to the price tag.

Are you suggesting a CJ run to Alinea, or to the NU Chem department? )

[kevin gilmore]

Always wanted to try Alinea ... Never could pull the trigger due to the price tag.

Are you suggesting a CJ run to Alinea, or to the NU Chem department? )

The food at the chemistry department is very lame. However we have lots of 200 proof drinkable

alcohol... Just for fun i will be bringing a special bottle of water to CJ... It is absolutely pure to

9 digits. And priced accordingly.

I doubt that we could even get a reservation at this point even if we were nuts enough to try.

[spritzer]

The food at the chemistry department is very lame. However we have lots of 200 proof drinkable

alcohol... Just for fun i will be bringing a special bottle of water to CJ... It is absolutely pure to

9 digits. And priced accordingly.

Shots anybody? I still have fond memories (or lack there of) of two weeks spent in Greece drinking nothing but 160proof Stroh rum.

[jvlgato]

The food at the chemistry department is very lame. However we have lots of 200 proof drinkable

alcohol... Just for fun i will be bringing a special bottle of water to CJ... It is absolutely pure to

9 digits. And priced accordingly.

I doubt that we could even get a reservation at this point even if we were nuts enough to try.

The special water sounds good! The only thing better would be to do it in the sub-basement of tech. Ah, the memories! Think your admin would mind if we had a CJ field trip to do mojito caviar shots in the sub-basement of tech? We'll tell them it's for MGD, the Molecular Gastronomy Department. )

CJ field trip to Alinea probably wouldn't go over so well with the wife anyway ... 'bye, honey ... I'm gone for the weekend, you've got the kids, plus I'm going to that $500 restaurant without you.'

[Mister X]

That's pretty cool.

Do it with Baileys and might have something you could ...

Coffee drops?

[Trav]

lol my first ex (aka nuclear chemist) said this was kinda interesting....

[Icarium]

Alinea would be cool to check out as well, but I should probably do the French Laundry first since it's closer.

The chef owner's story is pretty crazy to losing his sense of taste to tongue cancer and then clawing it back and coming back as strong as ever.