Gelatin is one of those strange ingredients that not many know but everybody appreciates. You can hardly pinpoint any recipes that gelatin is used in, save for jelly, because it doesn’t contribute any flavour or colour to dishes it’s used in. Gelatin is used for its texture and contributes to many people’s favourite foods without them even knowing it. Gelatin comes in dry forms and recipes that use gelatin will require one to dissolve the gelatin first then add it in liquid form to the recipe. Gelatin is a temperamental substance and you have to be very careful how you treat it in the dissolving process. Let’s define this weird ingredient first.
Gelatin
Gelatin or gelatine is a food ingredient that is used for its texture and ability to bind and hold things together. It is extracted from collagen found in animal body parts such as pig skin. It has no distinct colour or flavour. When dry it is a very brittle substance but in its wet form gelatin is moist and bouncy offering some firmness. It is used as a binding agent in food, medicines, cosmetics and even paper. The most common food applications of gelatin are in jelly, gummy sweets, ice cream, marshmallows and yoghurt. Gelatin is most commonly sold as powder, granules or sheets which are known as leaf gelatin.
What Makes Working With Gelatin Hard?
For us to understand why there’s a process to dissolving gelatin we need to understand what it’s made of and the behaviour of these elements when introduced to heat. Gelatin is derived from animal parts as we mentioned before. So gelatin contains a lot of animal proteins. Normally when liquid animal proteins are cooked they solidify into a firm mass. Think egg whites. This is because the proteins bond together. The animal proteins in gelatin do not bond together but instead line up side by side in the heating process because these proteins are long and stringy. So when gelatin is dispersed in a liquid the proteins never solidify the liquid it is contained in, the gelatin forms a firm substance with liquid still in a fluid state. This gives us the wonderful creations we have seen made with gelatin.
The first problem experienced when dissolving gelatin is the stringy nature of the proteins contained in the gelatin. If you are required by the recipe to add the gelatin to a warm mixture adding gelatin directly into hot or warm mixtures causes the proteins to clump together and what you will have at the end of all your efforts is a lumpy mixture. So the first thing you want to avoid is adding gelatin directly into a hot mixture when dissolving it.
Another problem with working with gelatin is that it has a poor relationship with acidic foods. Some acidic substances eat away at the proteins contained in gelatin and diminish its ability to hold firm. When mixed with fresh items like peaches, pineapple, papaya, mangos, melons, kiwi, figs, prickly pears, and ginger they release enzymes contained in them that break down the proteins in gelatin and may leave you with a mixture that doesn’t hold as well as you would expect.
Gelatin also doesn’t do well in extremely cold temperatures. Freezing recipes which contain gelatin, contrary to popular belief, will not give you a firmer end product. It will freeze the proteins contained in the mixture and allow the moisture to seep out the mixture thus leaving you with a rubbery end product that may not have the full flavour. Gelatin is an ingredient that requires extra care when working with it. We will see this fully when we discuss dissolving it.
How To Dissolve Gelatin
After learning about the difficulties of working with gelatin we can now safely discuss how to get the best out of gelatin when dissolving it. Firstly you will need two bowls, one larger than the other. For the is to work the smaller bowl must fit comfortably into the bigger bowl. Add cold water in the smaller bowl. Now you can add your gelatin to the bowl while whisking the water. This will help the gelatin mix in with the water. If you are using granular or powdered gelatin you will have a much easier time dissolving your gelatin into the water. For those using leaf gelatin, you will simply need to allow more time for the gelatin to mix in with the water. The next step is to set aside the gelatin for roughly 5 minutes or until the gelatin in the water develops a spongy quality. This is the signal that your gelatin is ready for the next stage of its dissolving process. In the bigger bowl, you can now place hot water. You are going to place the smaller bowl in the hot water contained in the bigger bowl to create a hot water bath. We have already discussed how gelatin behaves with high temperatures so the hot bath method prevents the introduction of direct heat to the gelatin mixture. Once you’ve placed your smaller bowl in the hot bath stir the mixture continuously until the gelatin fully dissolves. How long this will take depends on the amount of gelatin but having transparent glass bowls helps you to easily see that gelatin has completely dissolved. Once it has fully dissolved the final step is to allow the gelatin to cool. The important thing to note before adding your gelatin to its intended recipe is that you should make sure the two mixtures are at temperatures close to each other or equal. If there is a great difference in the temperature you are likely to get lumps forming in the mixture.
Dissolving gelatin is not the easiest process. You will need to first mix it with cold water then place the cold water vessel in a hot bath and gently stir until the gelatin dissolves. Finally, you will have to make sure it is at the same temperature as the mixture you intend to add it to.