Atelier d'activités pratique note à note / Note by Note activities

Désolé pour mes amis qui ne parlent pas l'anglais : ce billet nécessitera l'utilisation de Google translate.

One word of explanation: I produced this after I did a workshop yesterday for a Swiss laboratory, after a  lecture. These are very easy experiments producing new food, and in particular note by note food.



Wöhler sauce

This one is a synthetic sauce, like a wine sauce.

1. in a pan, add 200 g water
2. add phenolics, tartaric acid, salt, msg, a spoon of grilled corn starch, and one small glass of ordinary oil.
3. put to the boil while whipping.

Wöhler was a remarkable German chemist.


 Würtz

Wurtz are gelified foams.

The protocole is the following:
1. in a large bowl, put 5 g gelatine
2. add 200 g aqueous solution
3. add  100 g sugar
4. heat until the gelatine is dissolved
5. whip extensively while cooling (put the pan in a larger pan with cold water or ice) until a large volume of foam is obtained
6. store in the fridge for gelification of gelatine.

The name is from Charles Adolphe Würtz, a famous chemist from Alsace.


 Gibbs

This is a soufflé that you can make in some seconds, but more precisely, it is a chemically coagulated gel.

The protocole is:
1. In a large bowl, put 1 tea spoon of coagulating proteins (such as egg white powder).
2. Add 2 spoons of water
3. Add oil while whipping until the system is like a white mayonnaise sauce  (probably about 200 g of oil)
4. Put this emulsion in small cups
5. Heat the cups in the microwave oven, until you observe an expansion by about 40 %: you get the chemically coagulated emulsions.

Now, repeat the experiment, but before cooking (step 5), add sugar (50-100 g), a pinch of salt, food colorant, odorant compound.

The name is from the famous American physical chemist Josiah Willard Gibbs.



Record volume for whipped egg white and Geoffreys

You have to know that today, we have the world record of the largest volume of foam from one egg white: we made more than 40 litres.
And if you try  to beat this record, be ready to spend some time, and have multiple collaborators, with large vessels.

1. put one egg white in a vessel
2. whip
3. when it is fully whipped, add 1 spoon of sugar, and whip
4. then add one spoon of a liquid (with no fat : apple juice, etc.), and whip
5. while whipping, add alternatively sugar and liquid
6. when the volume is more that can be stored in one vessel, divide in two vessels and whip the two
7. and so on until you beat the record.

In the end, you can add color, taste (sugar, salt, citric acid...), odorant compounds (taking into account that oil can "kill" foams).

Also in the end, you can distribute volume of foams in cups or glasses, and cook in a microwave oven, until a chemically gellified foam is obtained, and this is a Geoffroy, from a French chemist of the XVIIIth century.


Conglomeles

Conglomeles are artificial plant tissues. They are made from alginates pearls with liquid core, glued together.

1. In a large vessel, dissolve  2 g of sodium alginate in 300 g water
2. Mix with a blender
3. In 1 L of orange juice, add 200 g of calcium lactate.
4. Pour drops of orange juice in the water with alginate
5. Recover the pearls and rince them.

For making conglomeles :
6. put the pearls in a bowl
7. in a pan, heat water with citric acid, sugar and gelatine
8. Pour this liquide on the pearles and cool unti it is set.


 Liebig (sheets of dressing)

Liebigs are physically gellified emulsions.

The idea is to make an emulsion using gelatine as a surfactant. When cooling, it will gelify.
1. In a large vessel, put 1 g of gelatine
2. Add 100 g of vinegar
3. whip oil added slowly until a thick consistency is reached.
4. Pour this emulsion on a silicone sheet or in an oiled plate
5. put in the fridge
6. when gelified, detach the "sheet" of dressing.

Justus von Liebig was a German chemist. He began his studies in Giessen, and finished in Munich.


 Diracs

Diracs are artificial meats.

In order to choose the right consistency (not too hard, not too soft), one has to make the following experiment:
1. In one large bowl, pit 50 % water and 50 % egg white proteins. Mix thoroughly.
2. Take a sample of this mixture and put it in a small cup or glass.
3. Then add 50 % water to the remnant, mix and keep a sample in another cup or glass.
4. And repeat, forming a series of glasses with decreasing quantities of proteins.
5. Put all glasses in the microwave oven and heat: you will get coagulated masses in decreasing order of toughness.

 Select now the consistency that you need, and make it again, adding finally color, odor, taste, and cook.

For emulsified diracs, you have to add oil in the dirac preparation before cooking.
For aerated or foramy diracs, whip the water+protein mixture before cooking.

Paul Adrien Marie Dirac was one founding father of quantum physics. He was from England.






 Chocolate Chantilly

This one is not "note by note", but it is frequently asked.  It is a chocolate mousse without eggs, with a very delicate consistency as whipped cream.

1. in a pan, put 200 g water
2. add 225 g of ordinary chocolate
3. Heat until the chocolate has melted and makes an emulsion
4. Put the pan on cold water or ice and whip until the consistency changes (as well as color: becoming whiter).
5. Stop immediately whipping. You can store it in the fridge.