Imagine that you are eating in a restaurant, and the waiter serves you a fresh and tender fried egg. You can't wait to swallow it, but the next second, it's full of mango, which makes people cover their mouths, as if witnessing a miracle. In fact, this is the most common way of molecular cooking.

in the internet age, besides competing for "color, fragrance and taste", food has a very important point, that is, "creativity", and molecular cuisine perfectly interprets the creativity of food. The so-called molecular cooking is to apply chemical (or physical) theory to cooking and reorganize the molecular structure of food. Here, the caviar you see may be filled with juice, and the mashed potatoes you specially ordered may turn out to be a bubble.

Many years ago, a group of short films of Longyin Cuisine in Michelin-starred restaurant in Japan exploded, and laboratory equipment such as constant-temperature water bath pot, liquid nitrogen and n-butane spray gun were moved into the kitchen, which made people open their mouths and could not help but wonder. Can this thing also cook? These amazing delicacies are the favorites of Michelin restaurants today, aiming at constantly challenging the limits of people's vision and taste buds.

When you hear Michelin's lofty words, don't feel far behind. In fact, many girls' favorite desserts, such as exploding pearl milk tea, cotton candy and ginger milk, are all manifestations of "casual" molecular cooking techniques. Let's take a look at some common cooking techniques of molecular cooking.

nodularization technology of p>NO1

nodularization technology is one of the most common and classic technologies in molecular cuisine. In 23, Michelin's three-star chef Ferran Adrià first introduced "Hami melon caviar", which was a sensation. After the crystal clear caviar burst, it turned out to be sweet Hami melon juice, which surprised the diners at that time. Nowadays, the formula of Hami melon caviar has been made public, even ordinary people can DIY at home, which has also made the explosion of pearl milk tea in the streets today.

the beaded milk tea is made by spheroidizing technology. If you want to fix water, the first thing that many people think of may be freezing. How can you seal and fix water in a liquid state? That is spheroidization, which is mainly realized by sodium alginate and calcium chloride.

sodium alginate will cross-link with calcium ions, thus forming a gel ball wrapped with liquid. Spheroidization can be divided into forward spheroidization and reverse spheroidization. To put it bluntly, it is a question of who will pour the above two solutions first. Adding fruit juice into sodium alginate and mixing it, then dropping it into sodium chloride solution, which is forward polarization. On the contrary, you add fruit juice into calcium chloride solution, mix it and then drop it into sodium alginate, which is reverse polarization.

when the ball formed by forward polarization is bitten, it has obvious brittleness, and with the passage of time, the ball with forward polarization will become more and more compact. The effect of reverse polarization is that it is full of liquid, and when the skin is broken, it will explode and need to be eaten as soon as possible. Generally, the milk tea with exploding beads that girls often drink is positively polarized, while the reverse polarization is especially suitable for drinks containing alcohol, such as Mojito cocktail exploding beads. When the exploding beads burst, the fresh and cool mint reaches the throat, bringing people a unique drinking experience.

NO2 low-temperature slow cooking technology

As the name implies, low-temperature slow cooking technology is to slowly "time-consuming" the ingredients by means of constant temperature water bath. Why should we invent such a technology? It is entirely to lock the moisture in the ingredients, so as to keep the freshest and tender taste of the ingredients to the maximum extent in the process of cooking.

I think many people will encounter a problem when frying steak, that is, if the cooking temperature is not well mastered, it will be easy to fry the water in the beef, and the beef will become old and hard. How to fry the meat and keep it juicy and tender? This is a very test for chefs. Some chefs fry both sides of the steak first, in order to lock the moisture in the steak.

The low-temperature slow cooking technology is to put the ingredients into a plastic bag, then vacuum the bag, then put it into a constant-temperature water bath pot, and let the beef mature slowly at a temperature of only 5-6 degrees Celsius. Some kitchens even heat steaks for up to 24 hours, which makes the steaks tender like sponges, the boiled salmon as tender as tofu, and the boiled eggs with jelly-like texture, which makes you salivate.

NO3-liquid nitrogen freezing technology

Nowadays, when many dishes are served, they have a fairyland-like feeling, that is, the effect of adding dry ice or liquid nitrogen. The liquid nitrogen freezing technology uses the ultra-low temperature of about MINUS 196 degrees Celsius to quickly freeze the ingredients, and what is needed is a quick one. Under normal freezing conditions, the moisture in the ingredients will condense and form large ice crystals. It is well known that the volume of water will increase after freezing into ice.

the ultra-low temperature of liquid nitrogen will freeze the water in the food before it condenses into larger ice crystals, thus forming fine particles. After the liquid frozen by liquid nitrogen is crushed, it is fine and even, and it doesn't taste like ice. Nowadays, many well-known brands of shaved ice use low-temperature liquid nitrogen technology. This kind of shaved ice overcomes the shortcomings of traditional shaved ice that it is not easy to taste. It is simply an essential artifact in summer and is deeply loved by dessert people.

NO _ 4 emulsification technology

is also called foam. Many people have had the experience of making cakes with an egg beater. Lecithin in eggs and casein in milk are both good emulsifiers. Emulsifiers can blend water and oil, reduce the surface tension of liquid, and thus form stable bubbles. We often say that sending cream and eggs is to quickly fill the air with emulsifier, thus forming a foam texture.

However, except for eggs and milk, such as fruit juice, vegetable juice and various sauces, even if you beat them hard to foam them, these bubbles will soon burst. Molecular cooking is to add foaming agents such as soybean lecithin, xanthan gum and gelatin to these ingredients that you think are impossible to foam, to help chefs make unexpected foamed ingredients, such as chocolate foam, cheese foam and soy sauce foam. Unexpected changes in the structure of ingredients can always make people exclaim. Can you still eat like this?

if traditional cooking is a skill, then molecular cooking is an art, which, with the attitude of scientific research and development and a curious heart, constantly expands the boundaries of food, and brings people an unprecedented feast of food senses in the process of exploring the unknown world.