If you read labels to steer clear from any sketchy sounding food additives, you’ve probably come across xanthan gum in random items from ice cream to salad dressings, from toothpaste to gluten-free desserts.
Our new house has raspberry bushes like nobodies business. A giant giant one by the front of the house next to the driveway, and two smaller ones out back. I've been picking about a pint a day, yesterday I picked a pint and a half. I don't even know what to do with that many raspberries.
The process begins with a sugar from a soy, wheat, dairy, or corn source. A strain of bacteria, called Xanthomonas campetris, is added to the sugar to create a gum, or a slimy substance, which works as a colorless and tasteless thickener, stabilizer, and emulsifier.If you’re attempting some gluten-free baking of your own, it is recommended that when converting a flour-based recipe to gluten-free, add one to two teaspoons of xanthan gum for cakes and up to one teaspoon of xanthan gum for cookies.
I used a bunch of raspberries to make a jam which I spread in the middle of a chocolate cake, which I then frosted with easy dark chocolate frosting and promptly devoured.
And according to Web MD , xanthan gum can work as a laxative; it swells in the intestinal tract and activates digestion. If you experience uncomfortable bloating after eating products that contain xanthan gum, try substituting guar gum , which is made from thickeners guar beans and produces a comparable gummy texture.
The many cosmetic and pharmaceutical applications of this Xanthan Gum include the use in tooth pastes, lotions, shampoos, and formulations for tablets.Xanthan Gum is used as a baking aid in recipes which require gluten free flours. Gluten is needed to impart elasticity to the dough which would allow it to hold in the gases formed by fermentation which causes the rising effect.
Other food additives: Carrageenan Pectin Xanthan Gum
Carrageenan are a family of linear sulfated polysaccharides that are extracted from red seaweeds.Iota carrageenan is used primarily in fruit applications and requires calcium ions to develop a heat-reversible and flexible gel.Lambda carrageenan is a non gelling variety that assists in binding, retaining moisture and in contributing to viscosity in sweet doughs.A hybrid technology in which weed is treated heterogeneously as in the semirefined process exists, but alcohol or high salt levels are used to inhibit dissolution.Carrageenan, by the way, is a seaweed extract. Carrageenan is a natural polysaccharide.Its name is derived from the Chondrus crispus species of seaweed known as Irish Moss or Carrrageen Moss in England, and as Carraigin in Ireland.
The carrageenan as a thickeners used in some Edensoy is extracted from a variety of red seaweeds.It is extracted using a multi-step process to avoid any degradation either by boiling the seaweed in water and freeze-drying it.The carageenan solubilizes in the water, and forms a gel upon cooling. Commercially, food grade is then simply concentrated.Carrageenans are large,highly flexible molecules.They are widely used in the food and other industries as thickening and stabilizing agents.This means that they are easy to pump but stiffen again afterwards.
When used in food additives, carrageenan has the EU additive E-number E407.The primary differences that influence the properties of kappa, iota, and lambda carrageenan are the number and position of the ester sulfate groups on the repeating galactose units. In parts of Scotland and Ireland.Also many sliced deli meats are enriched with carrageenan. Carrageenan may also be marketed in its jelled form as a personal lubricant. Companies like Tom’s of Maine® use carrageenan in a variety of products from toothpaste to deodorant.
Related produces: Konjac Gum Pectin Sodium Alginate
These double helices are stabilized by the presence of water molecules bound inside the double helical cavity.In Indian cuisine agar agar is also known as “China grass” however this could be made from a combination of various other carbohydrates and not seaweed.Agar is a polymer made up of subunits of the sugar galactose. Agar polysaccharides serve as the primary structural support for the algae's cell walls.Agar consists of a mixture of agarose and agaropectin. Agarose is a thickeners, made up of the repeating monomeric unit of agarobiose.
To use agar agar flakes in recipes, traditional instructions call for 1 T. of agar flakes to every cup of water or juice, but these measurements may vary from recipe to recipe.The gelling agent is an unbranched polysaccharide obtained from the cell walls of some species of red algae, primarily from the genera Gelidium and Gracilaria, or seaweed. Commercially it is derived primarily from Gelidium amansii.
As a concentration gradient develops from the diffusion of the chemoattractant into the gel, various cell populations requiring different stimulation levels to migrate can then be visualized over time using microphotography as they tunnel upward through the gel against gravity along the gradient.In Philippine cuisine, it is used to make the jelly bars in the various gulaman refreshments or desserts such as sago gulaman, buko pandan, agar flan, halo-halo, the various Filipino fruit salads, black gulaman, and red gulaman.
The unusual and complex agar carbohydrates that form agar agar are extracted from gelidium species of Red Sea algae. Agar agar(E406) is also known by its Japanese name Kanten. This property lends a suitable balance between easy melting and good gel stability at relatively high temperatures. Since many scientific applications require incubation at temperatures close to human body temperature.
Agar-agar powder is a natural vegetable gelatin counterpart. White and semi-translucent, it is sold in packages as washed and dried strips or in powdered form.In Philippine cuisine, it is used to make the jelly bars in the various gulaman refreshments or desserts such as food additives, buko pandan, agar flan, halo-halo, the various Filipino fruit salads, black gulaman, and red gulaman.Although both polysaccharide classes share the same galactose-based backbone, agaropectin is heavily modified with acidic side-groups, such as sulfate and pyruvate.
Other food additives: I(+)G Sodium Alginate Xanthan Gum
Sodium Alginate can raise the product's stabilization and decrease the liquid out when it is used in sala(a cold dish)flavoring, pudding(a sweet pstry)jam, tomato ketchup and the canned products.I used sodium alginate from the Texturas series and calcium chloride from foodchem. Needless to say, I’m very fascinated by the texture and the whole process.
Alginic acid belongs to thickeners is an anionic polysaccharide distributed widely in the cell walls of brown algae, where it, through binding water, forms a viscous gum.The monomers can appear in homopolymeric blocks of consecutive G-residues.Commercial varieties of alginate are extracted from seaweed, including the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera, Ascophyllum nodosum, and various types of Laminaria.
In recent years, sodium alginate has been used in molecular gastronomy at some of the best restaurants in the world. Ferran Adria pioneered the technique, and it has since been used by chefs such as Grant Achatz and Heston Blumenthal. Sodium alginate is combined with calcium lactate or similar compound to create spheres of liquid surrounded by a thin jelly membrane.
Sodium alginate works as a cold gelling agent that needs no heat to gel. It gels in the presence of calcium compounds. Most commonly used with calcium chloride to make caviar and spheres. It dilutes while cold with strong agitation. Heat is not needed to produce spherification. Sodium alginate can also be used to produce foams.
I have blogged about the chemistry behind previously.I had to obtain a scale with a 0.1 g accuracy to weigh out 2.0 g of sodium alginate (my first experiments using a normal kitchen food additives failed). The model I got cost about $100 and is inteded for school laboratories.Sodium Alginate will make noodle, vermicelli or ice powder have a strong cohesiveness, pulling , bending and reduce breaking, special suitable in the less gluten content of wheat flour.Sodium Alginate suits to make kinds of gel product, which can be kept the fine state, conleakge and contraction.
Other produces: Caffeine Anhydrous Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) I(+)G
CMC informations:
E No: E466
CAS No: 9004-32-4
Einecs No: 265-995-8
HS Code: 39123100
Specification: Viscosity,3000-5000
Routine Packing: 25kg
Place of origin: China
CMC is used in food science as a viscosity modifier or thickener, and to stabilize emulsions in various products including ice cream. As a food additive, it has E number E466. It is also a constituent of many non-food products, such as K-Y Jelly, toothpaste, laxatives, diet pills, water-based paints, detergents, textile sizing and various paper products.
Insoluble microgranular carboxymethyl cellulose is used as a cation-exchange resin in ion-exchange chromatography for purification of proteins.Presumably the level of derivatization is much lower so that the solubility properties of microgranular cellulose are retained while adding sufficient negative charged carboxylate groups to bind positively charged proteins.CMC is also used in ice packs to form a eutectic mixture resulting in a lower freezing point and therefore more cooling capacity than ice.
CMC is also used in the oil drilling industry as an ingredient of drilling mud, where it acts as a viscosity modifier and water retention agent. Poly-anionic cellulose or PAC is derived from CMC and is also used in oilfield practice.The functional properties of CMC depend on the degree of substitution of the cellulose structure as well as the chain length of the cellulose backbone structure and the degree of clustering of the carboxymethyl substituents.
CMC is used as a food additives, emulsifier, firming agent, gelling agent, glazing agent, humectant, stabilizer and thickener. It is coded as E466 by the European Union. It is used in drink flavorings, cordials, flavored toppings, breakfast cereals, snack bars, infant formula, frozen cakes, fruit twists, fillings, bases & toppings, instant pasta & sauces, ice creams, icings, confectionery, cottage cheese and cream cheese spread.
Other thickeners: Carrageenan Pectin Xanthan Gum
Pectin comes from foodchem
E No: E440
CAS No: 900-69-5
Einecs No: 232-553-0
HS Code: 1302200000
Specification: Viscosity:400-500
Routine Packing: 25kg/drum
Place of origin: China
When using homemade pectin, you can’t just follow the proportions found on the chart in a food additives. you have to understand something about what makes jelly jell. Basically, there are two factors involved in this: the concentration of sugar and the concentration of pectin. Too little of either one, and you end up with syrup. It is possible to compensate for a little less sugar with more pectin, or vice-versa – but you can only stray from the recommended ratios a little bit. The most common reason that people have batches that do not jell is because they want to add less sugar than the recipe calls for. If you are going to make jam or jelly, you may as well accept right now that these confections are mostly sugar; that way, hopefully, you will avoid this temptation.
Hopefully this doesn’t make the whole process seem harder than it is. Like many skills, once you learn how, it’s a piece of cake. It may be encouraging to know that I never use the alcohol test anymore, and rarely even rely on the last jelly test. After making a number of batches, you can tell just by looking at the jelly if it’s going to jell.
To prepare liquid apple pectin, it is best to use under-ripe apples that are still a bit green, hard, and sour. Ripe apples contain less pectin, but the level varies greatly from one tree to the next; some varieties are suitable when ripe, while some have virtually no pectin by that time. Over-ripe apples are the worst. You can use your damaged or misshapen apples for making pectin. Chop them in halves or quarters, fill a large pot, and then add just enough water to almost cover the apple chunks. Cover the pot and place it on low heat for a long time, until the apples are fully cooked and you have something that looks like runny applesauce with skins and seeds in it. Stir the apples every twenty minutes or so while they are cooking.
The process of making jam or jelly involves a substance called pectin. Pectin is a carbohydrate, made up mostly of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. It is formed from substances found in the cell walls of fruit, and particularly concentrated in skins and cores. The conversion of these precursor substances to pectin occurs naturally during ripening, and can also be forced by long cooking, as in the traditional methods of making jellies without added pectin.
Pectin produces structure and a kind of stiffness in Thickeners and jams by forming a water-holding network within the juice or crushed fruit. Before jelling starts, individual molecules of pectin are surrounded and isolated from each other by water molecules. If the surrounding solution is acid enough, the pectin loses some of its attraction for these isolating water molecules. Sour fruit will normally provide enough acid to take care of this step. If the acid content of the fruit is low, lemon juice can be added to make the fruit mixture more acid.
Other thickeners: Agar agar Cassia Gum Guar Gum