Re: carbon-digest V2 #129

On Thursday, December 22, 2005, at 00:18AM, carbon-digest <owner-carbon-digest@spitbite.org> wrote:

The more rapid
>heating with direct double boiler rather than your previous tray may be
>affecting entrainment of air during dissolution of the gelatin, which
>would otherwise manage to surface and the bubbles burst before the
>gelatin is too stiff.

I thought about this. With the stove, the gelatin is in a pyrex beaker, with the gelatin about 3 inches in depth. I heat the stuff slowly, but I noticed that the gelatin at the bottom was *much* hotter than that at the top. I would periodically stir it to even out the temperature. Perhaps the uneven temperature is causing the microbubbles you mention. With the tray method, the gelatin is in a very wide/long aluminum container, such that the depth of the gelatin is only about 1/4 inch, if that. The stuff heats uniformly.

>Of course, it's also possible that using the stove is introducing actual
>oil (as smoke coming off the burner) if the same stove is also used for
>food preparation.

I thought about this too.

>First, after the glop has been mixed and allowed to set for
>an hour or so strain it through a very fine mesh, such as a paper
>coffee filter.

I was about to do it the hard way, and try to skim the stuff off the top.

>Next, and if necessary, try to locate a
>bottom opening container that will allow you to pour the gelatin from
>the bottom rather than the top.
>

I've always wanted to do this from the beginning, but never took the time to look for a suitable container.

Eric.
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Received on Thu Dec 22 08:50:31 2005