Molecular cooking or molecular gastonomy, saw it on Nadia G's B. Kitchen.
By writersedge
@writersedge (22563)
United States
January 10, 2012 3:59am CST
Had no idea what it was. She made what she called "basil caviar." She showed how to make up a batch of a basil mixture. The sodium alginate and water. Did drops of the first into the second, you wait a few minutes, then the outside forms a skin. She said they pop in your mouth. They did look like little green caviars. She used that in a drink, strange to me because I had never heard of molecular cooking.
So I went to youtube, the closest thing to what she did is demonstrated as cocoa caviar. But there were also some other interesting ones there like:
Molecular gastronomy Raspberry Ravioles
Molecular gastronomy Balsamic Vinegar Pearls
ditto ditto Lemon Cloud
ditto ditto Strawberry Spaguetti or Reconstructed Tomato Soup
Just to see how pretty the moleculars presentation can be is Mixologia Molecular.
So have you ever heard of molecular cooking or gastronomy before now? Have you ever seen it demonstrated? Do any restaurants or bars make things that way where you live? Have you ever cooked molecular style?
I think I'd like to try the chocolate caviar or the raspberry ravioles. Maybe the lemon cloud. The strawberry sp and the reconstructed tomato soup looked creepy, like something you'd have on Halloween. The technique might be interesting if applied to decorating cake or something. So do any sound good to you?
1 person likes this
4 responses
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
10 Jan 12
I thought the burst of flavor and making things pop in your mouth like a grape is interesting. Esp. since I like grapes. Mix this together, mix that together. Squirt a into b, didn't seem much different from making baked goods. Mix the dry and then the wet and then fold in for cakes, cookies, pies, etc. I guess it all depends on who you look at it.
Now Moto restaurant, on youtube, I agree, they take it to exremes. But they have people coming in from NASA to eat. So they do wild scientific cooking. That was way over the top for me.
Thanks, I think everyone has different ways of looking at it. Nadia G only showed it that one time for something special and different, like around the holidays. Not really every day cooking.
Thanks for your take on it and take care.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
10 Jan 12
how you look at it, not who,sorry
exremes should be extremes
@pepai123456 (879)
• Philippines
12 Jan 12
I find molecular cooking is like baking though it uses extreme science and it somewhat revolve on agar-agar,stabilizers,sodium alginate and other stuffs that makes the food stable (jelling?). I prefer baking it uses basic chemistry and physics.
1 person likes this
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
12 Jan 12
Yes, except that the recipes I looked at, it incapsulated the liquid in a gelatin-like skin to make it like a liquid filled bead. But at Moto's restaurant video, that was more extreme and they used all kinds ofwild since there.
Yes, baking soda and baking powder in baking are elementary forms of science. Another interesting take on this subject, thank you.
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
14 Jan 12
If you look at the videos, I think you can use a lot of glass stuff you may already hamve in your house, it's buying the ingredients that I haven't really seen around much.I think some of the ingredients, you may ahve to go to a pharmacy.
Yes, yeast are cool. Esp. for those of us on low salt/hypertension diets.
@pepai123456 (879)
• Philippines
14 Jan 12
Unless your doing a bread i feel like bread is more in biology because the dough is actually a living thing due to the yeast.
If your making a cake its pure chemistry and physics the air you incorporate in the eggwhites and stretching its albumen(egg white) by the use of cream of tartar and sugar,the expansion of gases by the help of baking powder and baking soda,Heat transfer,convection currents and color of the pan and etc.
I want to try Molecular gastronomy sadly the equipments are 
expensive and dispensable in my own opinion.
expensive and dispensable in my own opinion.1 person likes this
@JenInTN (27514)
• United States
11 Jan 12
I had never heard of that type of cooking before. I looked it up and it is apparently a "food science." I think the concept of altering the shape and texture while leaving the tasted the same is amazing...especially to the extreme that this particular way of cooking seems to do. There ate some videos on youtube that came up when I researched it. We could all learn hoe to be molecular gastronomy cooks! You could pioneer the cake!
@writersedge (22563)
• United States
11 Jan 12
Yes, there are a lot of videos on youtube with this type of cooking. The ones I listed above I thought were particularly interesting. Moto restaurant was also on youtube and they take molecular food cooking to the extreme.
Glad I'm not the only one who hadn't heard of it before. I'm surprised by all the people who have heard of it. I wonder why they have heard of it and I haven't. I guess if you live near a restaurant that uses it, that would explain knowledge of it. I watch cooking shows all the time for the last few years and this is the first I've heard of it.
@topffer (42155)
• France
11 Jan 12
I bought a molecular cooking kit 2 years ago for about $60. It was a bit expensive for what I got : a few grams of agar-agar, sodium alginate, calcium lactate, calcium chloride, etc, syringes to make alginate caviars and special spoons to make ravioles. I always liked chemistry lessons at school, and I have been amazed by the result, though I would not recommend to eat these chemicals every day. I think that molecular cooking is a fashion, with a few working and not bad recipes, but I definitely prefer traditional cooking
.
.@writersedge (22563)
• United States
11 Jan 12
I think you are correct. It certainly was fun to watch. Agar-agar is a seaweed, so that isn't so much a chemical, I think, maybe I'm wrong. Yes, a lot of kits are let downs. Mushroom ones I've heard are the worst. Nadia G acted like it was just for a special occasion. All the videos said to wash off the stuff after you make it. Wonder how much soldium the sodium alginate adds.
Intersting that the ingredients that you listed end in ate and ide. Our chemistry teacher had us sing the acid and base table every day.
ic and ate
us and ite
hydro-ic and ide.
So we had the acid and base table memorized. We had to bring in wrappers from candy bars and ingredients from food containers, then tell her the acids and bases.Singing the song and using the table with real life ingredients made the class fun.
Alginate, lactate, chloride are all on the base side. Balsamic vinegar, most berries would be acid. Strange how this cooking doesn't nutralize the acid but forms a skin where they meet.
Thanks and take care.
