It’s something that has intrigued me for years, I remember the first time I saw a show on the internet showing the magic of the science behind some of the techniques utilised by one of the best restaurants in the world El Bulli. I managed to procure some Sodium Alginate and Calcium Chloride which in its self if a significant accomplishment, I delayed using them in part because I was a little worried I would stuff it up completely and secondly because I wanted to actually use it on a dish in some way. Claire made some Chocolate Espresso tarts which to me seemed the perfect item to garnish with some faux caviar. I had some Blackberry syrup sitting in the fridge which I had made a few days ago which was destined to become the test subject.
First step was to find out what to do, I found a Blog (here) which had a good first look at how to use these two chemicals, I modified it slightly to suit my needs and according to his recommendation. I used 2gm of Sodium Alginate with 100ml of water and 150ml of Blackberry syrup, I found that time was my best friend in getting the Alginate to mix in correctly, using a blender might speed it up but the amount of air it would infuse would take far longer to dispel, I simply used a spoon and a bit of patience, the result was a bubble free mix. Then with the help of my dropper, I dropped it into the water containing Calcium Chloride (2gm Calcium Chloride 400ml Water). Scoop them out and give them a quick rinse in fresh water and then a little dry.
Next time I will forgo adding water completely to the syrup/alginate mixture. I’ll be trying again later in the week with some larger shapes.
[...] hunting for info on how to make the Blackberry pearls in this mornings post I stumbled across something that took my interest. An initiative called They Go Really Well [...]
Looks like you did a great job for the first time!
so cool, looks so much like caviar!
Did you use a scale that measures to 0.1g accuracy? I was thinking about getting a food/kitchen scale, but it only does 1g increments. Wondering if I should rethink the scale I was looking at, or if it’s that big a deal with this. Please let me know. Thanks!
The scale I used this time only goes up in 1gm increments, I am waiting for my .01gm scale, I got it to work with the less accurate version but I think that might be because I had slightly higher doses that would be necessary.
Wow. This is so wierd. I was driving home from work today, and I forgot to stop and return a movie because I was busy thinking ” I wonder how they make those little fake caviar balls” that I read about recently in somebody’s blog post (must be the scientist in me, I work in a laboratory
). And then I randomly decided to check out your website from the foodbuzz friend request…..
Maybe I need to go buy a lottery ticket
Great site, btw!
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I think I got a little lucky as well Karen.
I really want to try this, but have no idea where to get the Sodium Alginate and calcium chloride from. Help?
Where abouts are you sam?
I’d love to know where you got your ingredients from aswell, I’m based in Christchurch and the only suppliers I’ve found won’t deal in anything below 25kg packages.
Here is a link of places that I have found so far.
http://www.foodology.co.nz/where-do-you-find-that/
Beautiful. I thought I was looking at Salmon eggs.
I can’t wait to try this!
Hi there, where did you purchased the sodium alginate and calcium chloride from?