A Brief Introduction to Molecular Gastronomy
Molecular gastronomy, a branch of food science, was first proposed by physicist Nicholas Kurti and chemist Hervé This in 1988. It was originally intended to seek techniques that could replace or extend traditional French cooking, and later it gradually begins to explore the natural physical and chemical changes of ingredients in cooking. In short, molecular gastronomy is a general term for dishes that can change the nature, taste, state and even artistic conception of food by adding some specific ingredients and achieving related reactions according to some chemical or physical theory, so as to better satisfy the requirements of color, smell and taste. Therefore, science is the keyword of molecular gastronomy, and cooking in a scientific way is a new trend of the modern kitchen.
Here are some typical molecular gastronomy techniques.
1. Sous Vide
Sous vide is to pack food in a vacuum-sealed bag, put it in a sous vide cooker with precise temperature control, and cook it until the intended temperature and time are reached. This method is able to reduce the loss of food's original flavor, lock in the moisture and avoid the pollution of other odors. Meanwhile, sous vide can prevent the growth of bacteria, and help ingredients absorb heat from water or steam effectively.
2. Flash Freezing
The temperature of liquid nitrogen is very low, which is close to -200℃. In this ultra-low temperature environment, the water in the ingredient will condense into small particles instead of large-sized ice crystals, with the taste being delicate. It takes only five minutes to make ice cream with liquid nitrogen. However, please be careful about the use of liquid nitrogen which can cause severe frostbite. So it's necessary to wear safety gloves and glasses during application and don't let liquid nitrogen directly touch the skin.
3. Emulsification
Emulsification refers to a phenomenon that one liquid is evenly dispersed into the other immiscible one after emulsifying agents are added or being stirring. In food processing, one of the most commonly used emulsifiers is lecithin. Mayonnaise or Hollandaise sauce, which is many people's favorite food, is made by mixing oil, vinegar or lemon juice, egg yolk liquid and salt, which takes advantage of egg yolk lecithin's emulsification. And nowadays, this technology has been widely used in making foam.
4. Spherification
Generally speaking, it is to change the shapes of all sorts of liquids into spheres through chemical reactions. Fruit caviar, which is very common in molecular gastronomy, condenses through slowly dropping lecithin that dense orange juice has been added into the solution dissolved with calcium salts. Actually, it has nothing to do with caviar. However, due to calcium and lecithin, a film similar to the outer layer of caviar is formed outside the juice so that it has the same taste and appearance as caviar.
