THE DEVELOPMENT OF MOLECULAR COOKING was accelerated by the publication of recipes that chefs then tested and gradually modified. Here, then, without any further delay, another small step along a road with no end!
Quantities are not always precisely specified in these recipes. They are meant only to give the reader a sense of proportions and some idea of the sorts of things that are possible. All measures are given in metric units, using the conventions of the International System of Units; a conversion guide to U.S. standard units appears at the end of the appendix, together with a brief list of new note-by-note compounds and compositions.
All recipes are mine unless otherwise indicated. I have ordered them alphabetically, avoiding any suggestion as to whether they should be regarded as appetizers or main courses or desserts. Let the imagination of cooks everywhere decide!
APPLE PEARLS, OPALINES, AND LEMON GRANITA (PIERRE GAGNAIRE)
Preparation of this dish, first served in Hong Kong on April 24, 2009, involves five steps.
WHEY Mix citric acid and cold milk; heat until the mixture curdles, then strain through a damp cloth and let the separated liquid cool.
APPLE PEARLS Use a syringe to inject drops of an aqueous solution containing calcium lactate, artificial green apple flavoring, and the whey into a beaker of water in which sodium alginate has been dissolved using an immersion mixer.
GLUCOSE PÉLIGOT OPALINES Heat water and glucose until they form a brown caramel; scrape it onto a stick-proof surface and let cool; then reduce to a fine powder with a rolling pin. Next, take an indented baking tray with round pockets 6 cm in diameter and sprinkle the powder into the pockets to a thickness of 2 mm and put the tray in a 160°C (320°F) oven. Once baked, remove the péligot disks, let cool, and keep them in a dry place.
LEMON GRANITA Melt some glucose in water, add citric acid and a lemon odorigenic composition (or else a very dilute limonene solution), and freeze. Crush the solid mass with a fork to achieve the consistency of a granita.
ASSEMBLY Coat the bottom of a shallow bowl with the granita, dot with the pearls, and cover with three péligot disks, one on top of the other.
CARAMEL AND PÉLIGOTS
The following elements can be added to various recipes of your own invention:
CARAMEL Heat some sucrose in water until it colors.
GLUCOSE PÉLIGOT Heat some glucose until it colors.
FRUCTOSE PÉLIGOT Heat some fructose until it colors.
LACTOSE PÉLIGOT Heat some lactose until it colors.
CITRIC VAUQUELIN
Put some egg white powder in water (10 percent by mass), then add a teaspoon (5 ml) of citric acid and a soup spoon (10 ml) of glucose. Beat the preparation until stiff and spoon it out into individual “meringues,” then heat them in a microwave oven (or not, as you prefer) and serve in dessert glasses.
DEAD LEAF
To 600 ml water add 400 ml ethanol, then 0.0001 g calcium phosphate, 0.001 g sodium phosphate, 0.3 g oenological tannins, 10 g glucose, and a drop of a dilute solution of paraethylphenol (about four parts per million) to give a peat taste.
EFFERVESCENCE
Prepare a solution of glucose (20 g) in water (500 ml), then add ethanol in an amount equal to 20 percent of the total liquid volume, a teaspoon of granulated sugar (sucrose), and a tablespoon of total polyphenols extracted from Syrah grapes.
Just before serving add a mixture of tartaric acid and sodium bicarbonate (two parts tartaric acid for one part of bicarbonate).
FIBRÉ
Leach some wheat flour to extract the starch, in two steps: first, knead the flour with water to make a firm ball; then gently knead the ball in a salad bowl filled with water so that a white powder (the starch) is separated out and you are left with an elastic material (gluten).
Add water and egg white powder to the gluten and feed the mixture through a pasta extruder so that the strips of dough fall into boiling salted water, forming a kind of spaghetti similar to échaudés.
After three minutes remove the note-by-note spaghetti, bundle the strands together and arrange them lengthwise in a cake mold, then moisten the bundle with an aqueous solution containing agar-agar (5 percent by mass), monosodium glutamate (as much or as little as you like), chicken flavoring, salt, and glucose. Let set, then cut crosswise into slabs. (Note that other shapes are possible: hollow tubes similar to rigatoni are shown in the color insert)
Serve with a conglomèle made by using gelatin to “glue” together pearls with a liquid center composed of water, glucose, and beta-carotene. (Making pearls is straightforward: see any website devoted to molecular cooking where—as in France today—high school students post the results of their supervised experiments.)
The accompanying sauce is made by heating a cup of water in a pan until it comes to a boil, then adding a leaf of gelatin (previously soaked in cold water) and a cup of neutral oil. Once the liquid has emulsified, add three drops of truffle oil.
NOTE-BY-NOTE BEET SOUFFLÉ WITH AN ORANGE CENTER
This dish was prepared by the members of the Paris chapter of Les Toques blanches internationales as part of the chapter’s December 3, 2011, televised charity event.
INGREDIENTS FOR BEET SOUFFLÉ
35 g egg white powder (10 level soup spoons)
900 g water (90 level soup spoons)
40 g beet glaze
300 g powdered sugar
table salt
INGREDIENTS FOR ORANGE SOUFFLÉ
35 g egg white powder (10 level soup spoons)
900 g water (90 level soup spoons)
20 g orange flavoring
300 g powdered sugar
table salt
ASSEMBLY Spray individual ramekins with vegetable oil and sprinkle powdered sugar on top. Coat the bottom of the ramekins with the beet mixture, put a large spoonful of the orange mixture in the center, then cover completely with the beet mixture, filling the ramekins to the top.
COOKING Put the ramekins under the broiler for a few seconds in order to form a light crust, then cook them in a 160°C (320°F) convection oven for four minutes and thirty seconds. Remove from oven and serve at once. Keep in mind that cooking time varies depending on the particular oven, so it may be a good idea to make a test soufflé in order to see if you need a bit more or a bit less than four and a half minutes.
NOTE-BY-NOTE MOZZARELLA
Like the Note-by-Note Beet Soufflé, this dish was prepared by members of the Paris chapter of Les Toques blanches internationales for the December 3, 2011, televised charity event. It consists of three elements, the uppermost of which was inspired by Patrick Terrien’s eponymous creation.
TERRIEN For 15 portions: 200 g clarified butter, 200 g water, 30 g powdered milk, 10 g powdered yogurt, 4 g salt, 4 g iota-carrageenan, 1 g agar-agar, and 100 g neutral oil. Strain the clarified butter through a muslin-lined funnel, heat over a medium flame, adding the other ingredients (except the oil), and gently stirring with a whisk. When the first ripples appear, before the liquid begins actually to boil, remove from heat and vigorously whisk in the oil. Then strain once more, pour into a mold, and let cool.
RED JUICE Dissolve some tomato powder in water. Add monosodium glutamate, salt, and ethanol—just as if you were making a Bloody Mary.
ISOMALT TUILE A tuile is a traditional French wafer-thin cookie. For the note-by-note version, heat some isomalt, then add a green coloring agent (E160a, for example) and basil flavoring (if possible, an artificial flavoring).
ASSEMBLY Pour the red juice into an elegant glass of your choosing, then place the isomalt tuile over the juice and the terrien on top of the tuile.
NOTE-BY-NOTE PIE CRUST
Take some corn starch (94 percent amylopectin), add some gluten, and make a dough to be cooked as you would in making an ordinary pie crust. Decorate with fruits of your choice.
NOTE-BY-YOLK
This dish was adapted from a recipe by Frédéric Lessourd, chef-instructor at École Le Cordon Bleu Paris. It resembles a fried egg, but in this case—a livelier variant of the dish shown in the color insert—with an orange-colored yolk and a blue-colored white. Resting on a circular base, it is accompanied by a thin strip of a preparation known as a gauss and napped with a wöhler sauce.
THE “YOLK” In 10 g water, dissolve a pinch of salt, a tablespoon of glucose, and a few drops of white vinegar. Now incorporate egg white proteins (if none are commercially available, make your own by progressively adding salt to egg whites and recovering the precipitate) and heat until the mixture has coagulated. Then add a teaspoon of soy lecithin and whisk in 40 g soybean oil until emulsified. Finish with a dash of beta-carotene.
THE “EGG WHITE” Salt 200 g hot water and dissolve 10 gelatin sheets (leaves) in it along with a drop of an approved blue coloring, then immediately whisk the solution vigorously until you have a considerable quantity of foam. Ladle the foam into bowls lined with transparent plastic film and put them in a cool place so that the foam will gel.
THE BASE Heat corn starch in a dry pan, without any butter or oil, stirring well until it turns a color somewhere between blond and brown—closer to blond, since then it will have a mushroom taste. Put some of this roasted starch in a salad bowl with gluten and water, knead it into a ball, and roll it out with a rolling pin; then cut out disks 7 cm in diameter with a cookie cutter. Cook them on wax paper at 180°C (356°F) for 20 minutes.
THE GAUSS Spread surimi paste in a thin layer (2 mm thickness) on plastic film and then use a brush to apply a layer of fat obtained by cooling olive oil in the refrigerator until it solidifies, depositing a sediment; decant and recover the solid part, then tint it red with an approved food coloring. Let cool, then fold in two again and again until you have a slab 5 cm thick. Freeze until firm enough to slice into very thin parallelepipeds.
THE WÖHLER SAUCE Over heat, melt 100 g glucose and 2 g tartaric acid in 200 g water. Add 2 g polyphenols, bring to a boil, and thicken with corn starch (about a teaspoonful). Off heat, emulsify the recovered fat in the liquid part of the fractionated oil. If you like, add a little diacetyl in solution to some oil, then add a drop of 1-octen-3-ol in solution (20 parts per million) to some oil.
ASSEMBLY Center the orange preparation on the disks of roasted starch. Unmold the gelled blue foam and make a circular opening in the middle so that it can be placed over the orange preparation, flat side facing upward. Set a gauss parallelepiped alongside it at an angle and around the base nap the plate with wöhler sauce.
POLYPHENOL CARAMEL DISK (PIERRE GAGNAIRE)
Heat 100 g fondant and 70 g glucose until the mixture reaches an internal temperature of 120°C (248°F). Add 3 g polyphenols and continue cooking the sugar to a temperature of 155°C (311°F).
Remove from heat and add 10 g cocoa butter. Transfer to wax paper, shape into a disk, and press down to a thickness of 1 mm.
PURE BISQUE
The gladius of the squid (or “pen,” the feather-shaped internal organ that supports the squid’s mantle) is almost pure chitin. Take some gladii and heat in oil. Then add water, cover the pan and simmer for 20 minutes over low heat.
ROASTED FLOUR COOKIES
Heat some potato starch in a pan, stirring continuously, until it begins to color. Transfer the lightly browned starch to a salad bowl and add sucrose (table sugar), oil, a few drops of water, a soup spoon (10 ml) of egg white powder, and a teaspoon (5 ml) of gluten. Knead into small balls, flatten, and bake for ten minutes at 220°C (425°F).
TERRIEN
Adapted from a recipe by Patrick Terrien, a chef-instructor at École Le Cordon Bleu Paris.
FOR 15 PORTIONS 200 g whey (the liquid obtained by clarifying butter in this case), 200 g water, 30 g powdered milk, 10 g yogurt powder, 4 g salt, 4 g iota-carrageenan, 1 g agar-agar, and 100 g of a neutral oil such as grapeseed or corn. Combine and add a drop of heptanone solution (0.002 g heptanone dissolved in 100 g oil).
Strain the clarified butter through a muslin-lined funnel. Add the other ingredients (except the oil) while whisking gently over medium heat. When the first ripples appear in the liquid, before it boils, remove from heat and vigorously whisk in the oil. Then strain once more, pour into a mold, and let cool.
Serve with a caramel deglazed with a very dilute sotolon solution or with fibers obtained by pressing and chopping parsley.
METRIC TO STANDARD U.S. MEASURE CONVERSIONS
AVOIRDUPOIS WEIGHT
1 gram (g) = 0.035 ounces
100 grams = 3.53 ounces
LIQUID MEASURE
1 milliliter (ml) = 0.034 fluid ounces
LINEAR MEASURE
1 millimeter (mm) = 0.039 inches
1 centimeter (cm) = 0.39 inches
NEW NOTE-BY-NOTE COMPOUNDS AND COMPOSITIONS
CONGLOMÈLE An artificial fruit or vegetable. Plant tissues are made of various structural fibers (cellulose, pectins, and so on) that are joined to form cell walls. It is possible to retain the organizational principle of natural products while varying the flavor and consistency. If you make alginate pearls, for example, which contain a flavorful liquid, and “glue” them together, you get a conglomèle.
FIBRÉ An artificial meat. Natural meat is made of bundles of muscle fibers held together by connective tissue. Again, retaining the principle while changing the material, we get a fibré.
GAUSS A multilamellar system, analogous to puff pastry, whose structural principle can be applied to a variety of materials. Named in honor of the German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855).
GIBBS A system obtained by gelifying an emulsion. Named in honor of the American physical chemist Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903).
LIEBIG Another sort of physically gelified emulsion, made by adding gelatin to a flavorful aqueous solution (tea, coffee, meat stock, fruit juice, wine, beer, and so on), whisking oil into the liquid, and then waiting for the gelatin to gel. Named after the German chemist Justus von Liebig (1803–1873).
MENDELEEV A generalization of the principle underlying infusion, maceration, and decoction in which various materials are combined with various liquids (water, oil, alcohol) at various temperatures. Named in honor of the Russian chemist Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev (1834–1907).
PÉLIGOT An extension of the principle underlying caramel, which is obtained by pyrolosis of sucrose. The use of saccharides other than sucrose (glucose, fructose, lactose, and so on) yields materials having properties different than those of caramel. Named in honor of the French chemist Eugène-Melchior Péligot (1811–1890).
THÉNARD A novel system obtained by adding a concentrated ethanol solution to an egg white. The proteins coagulate in the same way as in a poached egg. Named in honor of the French chemist Louis-Jacques Thénard (1777–1857).
VAUQUELIN If you whip an egg white (or a solution of 10 percent ovalbumin in 90 percent water), you get a whipped egg white. When the volume seems to have reached its limit, adding an aqueous solution (orange juice, for example, or coffee or wine or meat stock) and continuing to whip the foam will make it possible to increase the volume considerably (a world record was set in December 2012, when more than forty liters of foam were obtained from a single egg white). If now you cook this foam in a microwave oven, you get a vauquelin, named after the French chemist Louis-Nicholas Vauquelin (1763–1829), an early follower of Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (1743–1794), the founder of modern chemistry.
WÖHLER A sauce made with water, polyphenols, tartaric acid, glucose, gelatin, and emulsified oil. Named in honor of the German chemist Friedrich Wöhler (1800–1882), the first to synthesize an organic compound from inorganic ingredients.
