Advanced Textures: Hydrocolloids and Fat Design

Advanced Textures tackles the problem that ruins more plant-based preparations than any other: consistency. Not flavour, structure.The book begins by giving itself an operational vocabulary. Viscosity, elasticity, plasticity and meltability are not adjectives for reviews, they are quantities that can be assessed and designed, even with artisan tools.An overview of hydrocolloids follows, one by one: agar-agar, carrageenan, alginates and spherification, xanthan gum, pectin, kuzu, methylcellulose and modified starches, with their thermal behaviour and synergistic combinations. Then practice: dosages, plant-based gels and jellies, direct and reverse spherification, thickeners for sauces and fillings, stable emulsions, recipe sheets and common problems.The second half is devoted to a subject almost unexplored in plant-based cooking: solid fat. Principles of oleogelation, edible plant waxes such as carnauba, candelilla and rice wax, marbling and coatings, controlled crystallisation. In practice: artisan oleogels, the plant-based fat cube to be inserted into non-cold cuts, non-butter fermented with koji, the waxing of mature non-cheeses, infused and aromatised fats.A chapter of integrated applications closes the book, referring back to Volumes 5, 6, 11, 12, 13 and 15 and showing how texture is designed inside products the reader already has at home.