Molecular cooking is the current direction in cooking; this idea is an implementation of science, especially when it comes to food. However, you should note that several things associated with this term are not clear; hence many people have no good idea about molecular cooking. On the other hand, the existing situation of molecular cooking equipment needs improvement as well as innovation. This is a primary goal of ensuring that you improve how you prepare your meals to give it a taste that it deserves. This article will make you more informed on molecular cooking equipment.
What is Molecular Cooking?
There is a significant change in how you cook and eat, especially now that culinary science and art seem to combine. Note that several cooking restaurants and hotels have tried to have cooking laboratories in their businesses.
On the other hand, colleges, as well as universities worldwide, offer degree courses in Culinology. As years go by, food science has become increasingly popular due to increased awareness in boosting health, economic status and well-being of the nation, individual and people’s desire, and curiosity not to miss out on innovative and new dishes.
Therefore, food science a study based on the foods’ chemical composition in combination with food ingredients. These include their biochemical, biological, and physical properties and food constituent interaction with each other plus the entire environment.
So, what is molecular cooking? It is the implementation principles that are scientific to the improvement and understanding of food preparation in a small scale. Note that molecular cooking is an invention of Hungarian physicist Nicholas Kurti n1969 during a presentation at an institution that is royal and termed as The Physicist in the kitchen.
On the other hand, molecular cooking works due to the interaction of different ingredients that lead to several effects. You need to know that almost every recipe has an underlying chemical, biological and physical mechanisms that bring out the dish as intended. You must understand that molecular cooking achieves its purpose through molecular cooking techniques. These techniques include freezing, smoking, sous vide, spherification as well as emulsification, among many more.
Benefits of Molecular Cooking
Molecular cooking is beneficial since it bridges the technical, artistic, and social ramifications of the entire food and food preparation. By studying the science behind various culinary processes, scientists and chefs can understand why specific results are prone to occur. Furthermore, this enables them to reproduce favored impact. On the other hand, molecular gastronomy allows scientists and chefs to practice food techniques and build a shared social experience of delight and culinary innovation.
Note that molecular cooking is also healthy since it can minimize your sugar intake and fat. Moreover, it reduces the need for you to add salt, among other stuff to boost the flavor; this makes you healthier than before. So, you must opt for molecular cooking.
Molecular cooking gives you an appealing visual, according to the statistics conducted by Giorgio Milos, sight is the first powerful sense; this means it is the quickest in acting. Your eyes have the potential to take millions of information each second. It is the primary factor in how you are likely to perceive something.
Moreover, it boosts the taste of your food, additives like liquid nitrogen are responsible for opening your taste buds, enabling the entire flavors of food to be boosted. This has been proven according to molecular cooking recipes.
Molecular Cooking Equipment and Their Usages
Rotary Evaporator
You should know that molecular gastronomy can combine passion and culinary experience with food science technical foundations. The use of a rotary evaporator is one of the methods used in molecular cooking. The rotary evaporator can be used for two objectives, the primary one being concentrating non-volatile components in a mixture.
Another purpose is the extraction of flavor molecules as well as the volatile aroma from gentle combinations. You need to understand that distillation. Note that bitter compounds, colors, acids, and sugar are usually separated from minimal flavor molecules, water, alcohols, and aromas, among many more. In a nutshell, a rotary evaporator is a chemical laboratory device used efficiently and gently in the removal of the entire solvent from samples through evaporation.
The rotary evaporator has primary components. These are:
- A mechanical mechanism to lift faster the evaporation flask from the heating bath.
- A collecting bottle that is condensate at the bottom of your condenser to hold the distilling solvent after it re-condenses.
- The condenser with a coolant coil passing, whereby the coolant mixtures like acetone and dry ice are positioned.
- Water bath for sample heating.
- A vacuum system for minimizing pressure with an evaporator system.
- A vapor duct for responsible for sample rotation, it is also a vacuum conduit tight for a drawn off vapor sample.
- The motor unit for evaporation flask rotation.
It is appropriate for you to note that the vacuum system working with the rotary evaporator can also be a water aspirator with a trap deep in a cold bath. The vapor stream glass wears, and condensers can be complex depending on the purpose of evaporation. A rotary evaporator has a crucial disadvantage because some sample types can bump, which results in loss of a material portion you intended to retain.
It is also crucial that you take precautions to avoid coming into contact with rotatory evaporator parts because if you do, you will lose your necklaces, hair, and clothing. On the other hand, it can also cause chemical exposure, burns, and glassware breakages. Therefore, you must exercise precautions whenever you are using this equipment.
Freeze Dryer
The freeze dryer executes the removal process of water; this method is used in preserving materials that are likely to be perishable. This is to extend the shelf life or and make your materials convenient for transportation.
Therefore, a freeze dryer functions by freezing the content, minimizing pressure and heat addition to enabling the water that is frozen in your material to sublimate. You need to know that the freeze fryer works in three phases, the primary phase is freezing. Furthermore, the freeze-drying can minimize the freezing duration by 30%. These three phases include:
- Freeze Phase
You must know that the freeze dryer uses several methods to freeze the entire products. Freezing can be achieved on a shelf in your freeze dryer, a chilled bath, or a freezer. It can cool your material beneath its triple point to ensure that sublimation occurs and is not melting. Moreover, this helps in maintaining the physical form of your material.
A free dryer can quickly freeze ice crystals that are primarily generated by annealing or even slow freezing. In case the materials are too large, they are likely to break the entire cell walls; this will result in an inappropriate freeze-drying performance. For you to avoid poor results, you have to freeze quickly. If you have material that precipitate, consider using annealing. This process entails fast freezing, then later, it raises the temperature of the product allowing the growth of the crystals.
- Sublimation Phase
This is the freeze dryers’ second phase, where the pressure is drastically minimized, and you add sufficient heat to your material for water to sublimate. You must know that the vacuum of your freeze dryer fastens the sublimation process. The condenser of the freeze dryer generates a platform for the adhering of water vapor and solidifying.
On the other hand, the condenser plays a crucial role in sheltering the vacuum pump against water vapor. You need to know that you get rid of 95% of the water in your material in this particular phase. You need to understand that the primary phase of freeze-drying is a slow process. However, if the heat is too much, it is likely to change the material structure.
- Adsorption Phase
The adsorption phase is also called the secondary drying phase; in this process, you do away with the ionically-bound water molecules. This phase requires maximum temperature than the sublimation phase since it breaks the bond between the water molecules and the material. Additionally, the freeze-dried materials maintain the porous structure after the freeze dryer completes the entire process; inert gas breaks the vacuum before sealing it. Several materials can be dehydrated to 1 to 5% residual moisture.
It is necessary that when using this equipment, you do not heat products in maximum temperatures since these products are likely to lapse or even melt-back
Spherification Spoons Kit
Spherification Spoons Kit enables you to produce shaped caviar pearls from any given liquid. So, whenever you are producing flavored pearls for your molecular cocktail since you will be able to use it as a cocktail strainer. You are required to collect all the pearls with extreme care, and the Spherification Spoons Kit is the ideal choice for you to opt for during this process. After using this spoon kit, you need to gather the pearls that are on the water bath. The slotted spoon bar will allow you to drain water from these pearls.
Furthermore, it is a unique and first pearl former that is automatic worldwide; it is a hand tool that generates 700 pearls each minute. It is an ideal tool for molecular cooking, especially for bartenders, chefs, foods, and anyone who is into cooking. This Spherification Spoons Kit enables you to amaze your entire family and friends with your ability to use the spherification technique with less hassle. In case you are a gastronomist, and you have tried using the Spherification Spoons Kit. You can now bid bye to syringes and opt for this spoon kit that makes the entire process consistent and incredibly fast.
Moreover, it is easy to use as well as clean. This tool has a 1/8-inch perforation for faster draining. Therefore, if you are need of molecular equipment, opt for Spherification Spoons Kit.
Microwave Vacuum Distiller
The microwave vacuum distiller for essence as well as hydrolates with maximum speed and performance. With this equipment, you can comfortably distill your hydrolates from vegetables, flowers, aromatic roots, and cold citrus skins. You can later use the essential oil and floral water that you obtain through this equipment for aromatizing preparation for cooking, cocktail, or even pastry. Prepare your vacuum and condense your essence at the lowest temperature of approximately 35 degrees Celsius.
This will also help you preserve the quality or standard of your product compared to when you would have used the traditional distillation system. Depending on your microwave energy, your system will be able to function between 150 and 300W. This equipment comes loaded with six conical pipettes, two threaded test tubes, a manual pump, cover with vacuum valve, pick-up vessel, and cone of the refrigerator.
Portable Pump Vacuum
This pump has many applications; these applications can be in general, paint, pharmaceutical, petrochemical, and chemical industries. The compressor of this product contains operation fluids, enhancing the port plates to create internals, where the rotating impeller creates a fluid ring. So during the rotation, it expands and draws gas using the suction port.
As the impeller continues to rotate, the cells become smaller and subsequently compress the gas using the discharge port. The gas, together with the fluid, will expel using the discharge port different from the gas from the separator. This will be adequately achieved through a flexible discharging port, located at the port plate. Note that the fluid ring vacuum pump functions with high efficiency in the entire range of suction pressure.
With time the pot opening gets used to a real ratio compression to prevent over-compression from emerging. Therefore, the primary application of liquid the portable pump vacuum is handling vapor and wet gas, which condenses during compression. Furthermore, this equipment produces minimal noise. It has a robust design, and it is simple.
Conclusion
Based on the above information, molecular gastronomy is a branch in science that entails the study of chemical and physical transformation of consumable materials, especially after cooking. Therefore, this means that molecular gastronomy is a scientific area that exceeds the kitchen, primarily food technology.
When you talk about food technology, it is analyzing of food not only in the kitchen area but beyond it on a larger scale. It can also be more than molecular cooking. This article has enlightened you on molecular cooking equipment, definition. If you are interested in the molecular cooking equipment we provide, kindly contact us!
