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From Material Science to Avant-Garde Cuisine. The Art of Shaping Liquids into Spheres
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posted on 2014-10-09, 00:00 authored by Haohao Fu, Yingzhe Liu, Ferran Adrià, Xueguang Shao, Wensheng Cai, Christophe ChipotEmploying
avant-garde cuisine techniques, in particular sodium
alginates, liquid food can be shaped into spheres, thereby conferring
to the former original and sometimes unexpected forms and textures.
To achieve this result, rational understanding of the science that
underlies food physical chemistry is of paramount importance. In this
contribution, the process of spherification is dissected for the first
time at the atomic level by means of classical molecular dynamics
simulations. Our results show that a thin membrane consisting of intertwined
alginate chains forms in an aqueous solution containing calcium ions,
thereby encapsulating in a sphere the aliment in its liquid state.
They also show why the polysaccharide chains will not cohere into
such a membrane in a solution of sodium ions. Analysis of the trajectories
reveals the emergence of so-called egg-box spatial arrangements, which
connect the alginate chains by means of repeated chelation of one
calcium ion by two carboxylate groups. Free-energy calculations delineating
the formation of these egg-box structures further illuminate the remarkable
stability of such tridimensional organizations, which ensures at room
temperature the spontaneous growth of the polysaccharide membrane.
Spherification has been also examined for liquid aliments of different
nature, modeled by charged, hydrophilic and hydrophobic compounds.
The membrane-encapsulated food is shaped into robust and durable spheres,
irrespective of the liquid core material. By reconciling the views
of spherification at small and large scales, the present study lays
the groundwork for the rational design of innovative cooking techniques
relevant to avant-garde cuisine.
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calcium ionsodium alginatesresults showMaterial Sciencecarboxylate groupscalcium ionssolutioncooking techniquesalimentspherificationtridimensional organizationsalginate chains formscuisine techniquessodium ionscore materialShaping Liquidspolysaccharide chainsalginate chainspolysaccharide membranedynamics simulationsroom temperature