Ingredient: Gelatine
Category: Meat - Extract
Season: All
Gelatine (also gelatin, from French gélatine) is a translucent, colourless, brittle, nearly tasteless solid substance, extracted from the collagen inside animals' connective tissue.
It has been commonly used as an emulsifier in food, pharmaceutical, photography, and cosmetic manufacturing.
Substances containing gelatin or functioning in a similar way are called gelatinous.
Gelatin is an irreversibly hydrolyzed form of collagen.
Gelatin is classified as a foodstuff and has no E number.
Edible gelatines
Household gelatin comes in the form of sheets, granules, or powder . Instant types can be added to the food as they are; others need to be soaked in water beforehand.
Conversions:
4 sheets leaf gelatin = 1 envelope granulated gelatin = 1 tablespoon granulated gelatin.
Special kinds of gelatin indicate the specific animal origin that was used for its production. For example, Jewish kosher or Muslim halal customs may require gelatin from fish.
Vegetarians usually avoid gelatin and use other emulsifiers instead, such as agar, carrageenan, pectin, or konnyaku.
There is no vegetable source for gelatine .
Uses
Probably best known as a gelling agent in cooking , different types and grades of gelatin are used in a wide range of food and non-food products:
Common examples of foods that contain gelatin are gelatin desserts, jelly, trifles, aspic, marsh mallows, and confectioneries such as Peeps and gummy bears.
Gelatine may be used as a stabiliser, thickener, or texturiser in foods such as ice cream, jams, yogurt, cream cheese, and margarine; it is used, as well, in fat-reduced foods to simulate the mouth feel of fat and to create volume without adding calories.
Gelatine is used for the clarification of juices , such as apple juice, and of vinegar. isinglass, from the swim bladders of fish, is still in use as a fining agent for wine and beer. Beside hartshorn jelly, from deer antlers (hence the name "hartshorn"), isinglass was one of the oldest sources of gelatin.
Hypromellose is a vegetarian substitute for gelatine, it is slightly more expensive to produce due to semi-synthetic manufacturing processes.
Try to keep a stock of both powdered and leaf gelatine.
The powdered variety is added and used in several different ways, explained within the relevant recipes.
Leaf gelatine has to be soaked in cold water for five minutes and then squeezed dry before use.
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