Kanten (agar-agar)

Agar-agar (kanten)

What it is

The story goes that a Kyoto innkeeper set out leftover tokoroten jelly on a winter night in the 1650s and found it freeze-dried by morning, which is still exactly how kanten is made. Two centuries later Fanny Hesse suggested it to Robert Koch's laboratory as a culture medium that would not melt in a warm incubator, and bacteriology has grown on it ever since.

In the kitchen

It has to reach a full rolling boil for two minutes or it never hydrates and never sets. Count on about 1 g of powder per 150 ml for a set you can slice; it firms at around 40 °C and will not melt again below 85 °C, so it holds on a warm plate where gelatine would already be a puddle.

Goes with

White sugar Adzuki bean Matcha Coconut milk Okinawan black sugar Lemon Honey

Also used with

Kappa carrageenan

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