High-acyl gellan gum

Gomme gellane haute acyle

What it is

Gellan was found in the late 1970s by a team screening pond bacteria, and it takes its name from Elodea, the waterweed the microbe was living on. The gum leaves the fermenter with its acetyl and glyceryl groups still attached: wash them off with alkali and you get the brittle low-acyl grade, leave them on and the same molecule sets soft and elastic instead.

In the kitchen

Hydrate it at 0.1 to 0.2 % of the liquid brought to 85 °C, and let it set as it cools back past about 70 °C — the gel stays weak enough to pour and strong enough to hold a herb leaf or a pearl exactly where you left it. Salts and calcium in the liquid stiffen it sharply, so test on the actual stock or juice, never on water.

Goes with

Tomato Basil Olive oil Cucumber Lemon Mint Elderflower

Same species

Low-acyl gellan gum

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