EDF Cooking Contest--Cranberry Challenge

[BretWeir]

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The foam is really neat. I definitely think the molecular gastronomy stuff is interesting. What other projects have you tried? What happened when you tried to make the cranberry caviar?

The foam and garnish on the dessert both look really fun. Well done.

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I've mostly been playing around with foams and with sodium alginate/calcium chloride gelling. I've made a couple of caviars that came out better than the cranberry -- one with apple juice and one with (strangely) flat Coke. When I dropped the alginated cranberry juice into the solution, it just didn't gel -- it kind of flattened out and sunk to the bottom of the bowl. It was cohesive enough not to disperse immediately, but when I stirred the water gently, it broke apart.

I also picked up a couple of other toys -- including some tapioca maltodextrin, which is supposed to turn fats into powder (bacon powder, anyone?) My next experiment will probably be pea soup "ravioli", which I may try this weekend.

If people are interested, I'll start a thread to report and discuss. I'd love to hear if anyone else has experimented with this stuff.