Carrot Caviar

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Carrot Caviar by mzed on January 17, 2008

Table of Contents intro: Carrot Caviar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2

Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2

step 1: Assemble your tools and ingrediants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2

step 2: Mix the carrot juice and sodium alginate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3

step 3: Mix the calcium chloride and water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4

step 4: Let stand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4

step 5: Drop carrot juice into water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4

Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4

step 6: Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5

Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5

step 7: Rinse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6

step 8: Enjoy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6

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Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

7

http://www.instructables.com/id/Carrot-Caviar/

intro: Carrot Caviar There is a movement in the cooking world called "Molecular Gastronomy." The term was coined by Herve This, and become associated with chefs like Ferran Adria at El Bulli, Wylie Dufresne at wd~50, Grant Achatz at Alinea, and Homaru Cantu at Moto. Here is an interesting article in the New York Times. Essentially, it involves applying scientific techniques and methodologies to the cooking process. One of the interesting results is found in the use of common substances to control the texture of foods, often in surprising ways. You don't need a chemistry lab to pull off such effects. Jump on board the Molecular Gastronomy train by making up some carrot caviar in your own kitchen. Here's a quick video of me making Carrot Caviar at Maker Faire 2008:

Video

step 1: Assemble your tools and ingrediants Round up a few bowls and a strainer in your kitchen. In addition, you need some more unusual gadgets: A Very Accurate Scale I chose this one. My criteria were 1) It is accurate to 0.1 grams, and 2) It looked more like a kitchen scale than a drug scale. It also had a bunch of nice features (counting, for instance) that I may never use. Immersion Blender (optional) You can use a regular blender, but the immersion version is nice because you get less air whipped into your solution. Syringe (optional) I got these the same place I got the chemicals (below). I have also heard of people using traditional squirt bottles, like the red and yellow ones that are traditional for ketchup and mustard. The syringe makes me feel more like a real chemist. For ingredients, you will need: 250 g Carrot Juice ( some nice Odwalla Juice from the local store) 500 g Water (from my local tap) 2.0 g Sodium Alginate 2.5 g Calcium Cloride These last two are both a bit unusual. I ordered from Le Sanctuaire, which is based in San Francisco. There are other suppliers, like Texturas (Europe), L'Epicerie (in the US). L'Epicerie has a fabulous looking pipette for making cavier on an industrial scale.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Carrot-Caviar/

Image Notes 1. Accurate to 0.1g

step 2: Mix the carrot juice and sodium alginate This step calls for : 250 g carrot juice 2.0 g sodium alginate Measure out 100 g of carrot juice (I used a plastic measuring cup on the scale). Mix in the sodium alginate and blend. Then mix in the rest of the carrot juice and set aside. Any air bubbles you've added my mixing will take a while to dissipate.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Carrot-Caviar/

step 3: Mix the calcium chloride and water This step calls for : 500 g water 2.5 g calcium chloride Dissolve the calcium chloride in the water. I used room temperature water.

step 4: Let stand I waited about 10 minutes at this point to let the air escape from the carrot solution, and to let everything chill out. I'm not sure if this is really necessary.

step 5: Drop carrot juice into water Suck up a bunch of carrot juice mixture into your syringe (or squirt bottle). Put a strainer in the bowl with the calcium chloride solution, so that it is mostly submerged. Slowly squirt drops of the carrot mixture into the strainer in the bowl. You can control the size of the drops by the amount of pressure you put on the plunger. I was trying to make the drops about the size of salmon eggs. Here's a nice YouTube video of someone doing this with blueberry syrup and a very fine syringe.

Video

http://www.instructables.com/id/Carrot-Caviar/

step 6: Set Let the cavier set for 30-45 seconds. The amount of time you wait determines the thickness of the skin on the cavier. Ideally, you want a cavier that holds together, but "pops" in your mouth. Watch this video while you wait:

Video

http://www.instructables.com/id/Carrot-Caviar/

step 7: Rinse Move the strainer with the caviar from the calcium cloride solution into a bath of regular water.

step 8: Enjoy I made this interesting Martini, but the sky's the limit. I'm thinking of making a sushi-style preparation, with various caviars in place of real fish eggs. There are other shapes being made with the same formulation. A "skinless ravioli" can be made with a tablespoon of solution and a noodle shape is also possible with the syringe. Apparently, this caviar is heat resistant, so you could drop it into hot soup, for instance. Ideally, this dish should be made en minute. After a night in the refrigerator, my caviar become solid-ish all the way through. While that was perfectly edible, and tasty, the texture wasn't nearly as engaging as when it was fresh. A bunch of similar recipes can be found in: The Hydrocolloid Recipe Collection I like this DVD called "Decoding Ferran Adria."

http://www.instructables.com/id/Carrot-Caviar/

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Comments 50 comments Add Comment

pee_pills says:

view all 83 comments Apr 18, 2009. 5:49 AM REPLY

Sodium Chlorid is very spice, isn't it? Is it possible to make sweet carrot fake caviar? Here in Brazil I use Sago to make fake caviar, I think this is easier than all those chemicals...

amar55in says:

Apr 27, 2009. 11:27 PM REPLY

hey can u give the recipe of using sago.I mean PLEASE !!?

mzed says:

Apr 28, 2009. 8:16 AM REPLY

Sodium Alginate is tasteless

GorillazMiko says:

Jun 29, 2008. 11:48 AM REPLY

Woah. Zbyszynski. My name is Michael too! :P

mg0930mg says:

Nov 17, 2008. 5:51 PM REPLY

Mine too!

n8man says: Cool instructable. One question, could you do this with other juices like strawberry, blackberry, or orange?

http://www.instructables.com/id/Carrot-Caviar/

Nov 16, 2008. 6:32 PM REPLY

mzed says:

Nov 17, 2008. 1:43 PM REPLY

Yes, although more acidic juices are tricky. With other juices, I've used sodium citrate to contral acidity.

n8man says:

Nov 17, 2008. 4:35 PM REPLY

What about carbonated juices?

alex-sharetskiy says:

Nov 16, 2008. 6:21 PM REPLY

It isn't toxic, right?

mzed says:

Nov 17, 2008. 1:41 PM REPLY

not toxic

alex-sharetskiy says:

Nov 17, 2008. 3:28 PM REPLY

ok

RichardBronosky says:

Jan 24, 2008. 9:00 PM REPLY

Cooking Science? All I have to say about that is "Alton Brown".

DesignerUserName says:

Oct 23, 2008. 11:35 PM REPLY

Yay!!

codongolev says:

Oct 13, 2008. 4:12 PM REPLY

I like the kid randomly popping into frame in the video.

Ward_Nox says:

Mar 16, 2008. 1:28 PM REPLY

has anyone tried chocolate syrup yet?

jdills1196 says:

May 30, 2008. 2:22 PM REPLY

Lol why dont you?

death_match says:

Mar 16, 2008. 11:54 AM REPLY WOW I did this in school for a science project but I never knew it was edibal !! now im a chef I couldn't be more happy! hummm I can feel my creative juices flowing !! you made my day! thanks

recon506 says:

Feb 7, 2008. 7:41 PM REPLY if you substitue soy sauce for the carrot juice will the amounts still work? also, id love the amounts in proportions so that i dont have to use a scale

mzed says:

Feb 21, 2008. 5:58 PM REPLY Soy sauce should work. It it's too acid, maybe it needs some sodium citrate? Alternately, there's reverse spherification, which I'm experimenting with right now. It works better with a different salt: calcium gluconate lactate. As other measurements, I don't think I can be so precise without a scale. The chemicals are <1/4 tsp.

kitchenrat says:

Feb 6, 2008. 12:44 PM REPLY I think I will give it a go with a wasabi/soy solution for sushi. Might make for some nice alcoholic "bubble" tea. This is just ripe for experimentation.

SpiderFarmer says:

Jan 28, 2008. 10:10 AM REPLY

I did something similar last week with coffee, to make Sumatra caviar. A full set of pics and instructions is here, and here's a pic of the final result: Among the differences in our technique was that I heated the alginate mixture, which was according to the recipe I was following, but also I used hot liquid, which as it turns out, was probably not the best of ideas. Also, I did my measurements in standard U.S. cooking measures (teaspoons, tablespoons, cups, etc. just because it was easier than breaking out the real

http://www.instructables.com/id/Carrot-Caviar/

scale.) That said, with a little improvisation (and some added chocolate) the resulting coffee caviar turned out fairly well for a first try.

Ethan_the_Ninja says:

Jan 26, 2008. 8:25 AM REPLY

So liquids can be made into caviar? Like fruit juice?

mzed says:

Jan 26, 2008. 11:19 AM REPLY

Exactly. Or, at least with a caviar-like texture.

dudisguy says:

Jan 24, 2008. 5:18 PM REPLY

This project was in Dr. Dreadful Demented Drink Lab toy. I got it for Christmas when I was like 11. (I'm 14)

neubaten says:

Jan 22, 2008. 6:58 PM REPLY

as someone who works as a chef Im totally intrigued by this, it would make a great garnish, hell you could use it 1001 ways Im thinking tho if you used something like tomato juice youd have to "de-acdify" it anyways wonderful and inspiring, ill definately be using this to amaze my workmates.

Tool Using Animal says:

Jan 18, 2008. 2:45 PM REPLY

room temp jello shots?

marc92 says:

Jan 21, 2008. 4:07 PM REPLY

jello caviar?

westfw says:

Jan 19, 2008. 2:00 PM REPLY Should work. I felt compelled to try it out with my non-food-grade ingredients. Here are Creme de Menthe caviar and a "skinless ravioli." Dissolving the alginate in something alcoholic may be problematic, since I think it requires heating, but it should be pretty easy to dissolve in mixers like sours mix. I taste tested and found it slight salty; margaritas would probably work better than grasshoppers. Note that the pre-hardened mixture has a rather syruplike consistency that some people might find objectionable in a "beverage."

westfw says: oops.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Carrot-Caviar/

Jan 19, 2008. 2:01 PM REPLY

zachninme says:

Jan 20, 2008. 5:57 PM REPLY

Also, what happens when you mix the OPPOSITE quanities? Put drops of the calcium solution into a bowl of the alginate... Curious...

zachninme says:

Jan 20, 2008. 2:34 PM REPLY

Can you just try something for me? Mix in the alginate with enough water to dissolve, then add it to a carbonated beverage. I'm curious to see what the fizz does :P

mzed says:

Jan 21, 2008. 11:25 AM REPLY

I've heard of both things. The first is that "reverse spherification". As for the second, there's a "Cola Caviar" recipe I've seen in the collection I referenced at the end. I'll let you know if I try it.

mzed says:

Jan 19, 2008. 3:13 PM REPLY Brilliant! There also a technique that Adria calls "reverse spherification". It is a reverse, in that the salt (gluconolactate) goes into the food and the alginate is the setting bath. I think that's the way to work with alcohol.

Tool Using Animal says:

Jan 19, 2008. 2:09 PM REPLY

Those are down right pretty! I got to thinking, "Is this how that awful orbitz soda was made?".

zachninme says:

Jan 20, 2008. 2:32 PM REPLY

I was just thinking this is how they make those "LiquidIce" mints.

zachninme says:

Jan 18, 2008. 2:51 PM REPLY

Jello-less jello shots ;-)

Tool Using Animal says:

Jan 18, 2008. 2:56 PM REPLY Just think, because they'd be "cruelty free" hairy legged vegan chicks can now get drunk with the frat boys. I envision a new era in feminist/frat boy relations.

zachninme says:

Jan 19, 2008. 9:30 AM REPLY

And you'll unite the geeks and the frat boys, as the frat boys would just screw it up! Soon: world peace!

ELF says:

Jan 20, 2008. 4:41 PM REPLY I suggest crossing the vegan girls and geeks (geeks usually don't have too high standards, so hairy legs should be fine ;) ) slowly killing the frat boys race, with the ultimate end result being super intelligent humans in a world of peace... :P

MANLY PERSON says:

Nov 9, 2008. 5:45 PM REPLY But then the muscular nords would come down from the mountains with large spikey armor and big intimidating hammers to smash all you little nerdy kids, then shave your vegan mates and rape them.

gamefreek76 says:

Jan 27, 2008. 5:05 PM REPLY

Us geeks have very high standards, and you'd never catch me dead with a hairy legged vegan chick.

spasysheep says:

Feb 13, 2008. 10:34 AM REPLY

Ditto. I'm A Geek, not a nerd - THERE'S A G*DD*MN DIFFERENCE!

ELF says: I could mention more than a few geeks who wouldn't mind the hairs...

http://www.instructables.com/id/Carrot-Caviar/

Jan 27, 2008. 11:58 PM REPLY

gamefreek76 says:

Jan 28, 2008. 9:45 AM REPLY

I could mind the hairs... not the vegan chick. And you'd be surprised how high my standards are.

blubrick says:

Jan 22, 2008. 10:17 PM REPLY Breeding Geeks and Hairy Legged Vegan Girls might seem like a good idea at first, but it will never work. You may be right about Geeks' standards, but it's not the Geeks' standards that were ever likely to be a stumbling block. The Vegans might not be terribly enamoured with this suggestion. After all, they are used to being rather particular about what they put into their bodies. Fortunately, this same reluctance to introduce unhealthy things into the body also deals with the "I got your protein intake right here!" set quite effectively.

rich_moe says:

Feb 18, 2009. 12:52 PM REPLY I've never known a Vegan Girl that was real particular about what they put into their bodies when it is 'natural' (a burning herbal substance that is inhaled comes to mind), this includes homemade alcohol....

ELF says:

Jan 23, 2008. 12:04 AM REPLY ... So we're gonna have to work out untill we look healthy enough to penetrate the vegans? :S Sounds like a long and tedious process...

incorrigible packrat says:

Jan 21, 2008. 8:05 AM REPLY Would the vegan girls have a sufficient protein intake to successfully gestate viable offspring? Most vegans, that I have observed, look a little like death warmed over. Then again, there's the matter of the geeks' possible chromosome damage, from exposure to cathode ray tube electromagnetic frequency radiation (before they all got lcd screens), from computer overuse.

ELF says:

Jan 21, 2008. 11:49 AM REPLY

Yes, there is the problem with vegan girl malnutrition... That would be have to be solved... About the chromosome damage in the geeks... It's called evolution ;) We're just gonna have to kill the useless offspring...

incorrigible packrat says:

Jan 22, 2008. 8:10 AM REPLY I'm just waiting for some wag to chime in, saying something like: "I've got some protein for 'em, har, har, har". This would still probably qualify as an animal product though...

view all 83 comments

http://www.instructables.com/id/Carrot-Caviar/