Spherification

What is Spherification?

The new Caviar-Box® is the perfect accessory to develop the spherification technique - the culinary process of shaping a liquid into spheres which visually and texturally resemble caviar - since it effortlessly allows a very fast production of large quantities of liquid caviar drops with great precision. You'll be able to produce more than 96 caviar drops per second.

False caviar was originally developed by the creative team at elBulli to produce Melon caviar under the direction of executive chef Ferran Adrià.  elBulli developed two main methods for creating such spheres.  These methods differ based on the calcium content in the product to be spherified.  For substances containing no calcium, the liquid is mixed with sodium alginate, and dripped into a cold solution of calcium chloride or calcium carbonate.  For substances which contain calcium, a 'reverse' spherification technique is used which requires the substance to be dripped into an alginate bath.  Both methods give the same result: a sphere of liquid held by a thin gel membrane, texturally similar to caviar, i.e. a creamy texture, very pleasant to the mouth.

How does Caviar-Box® Work?

To create, for example a "Bloody Mary" false caviar, you need to mix your liquid product (i.e. 250 g tomato juice, 1/2 teaspoon of lime or lemon juice, 3 drops of Tabasco and 3 drops of Worcestershire sauce) with 2.5 grams of sodium alginate (a flavourless gum used by the Food Industry to increase viscosity and as an emulsifier).  Once mixed the product should be allowed to hydrate for up to 30 minutes to ensure that any air bubbles have been removed (this can be speeded up by removing trapped air in a vacuum packer).  The next step is to prepare a large bowl containing 500 g of mineral water with 2.5 g of dissolved calcium chloride to which the liquid is added via the Caviar-Box® for about 15 seconds and then, using a slotted spoon or small strainer, the tomato 'pearls' are dipped into cold vodka.

The Caviar-Box® is primarily used for dripping the liquid product as follows:

1. Pour the liquid into the container tray:	2. Place the lid with the spherification tubes on top of the container:
3. Pull the plunger of the syringe to completely fill the 96 pipettes of the Caviar-Box®	4. Slowly squeeze the plunger of the syringe to empty the pipettes into the calcium bowl about 10 cm above the bowl. Allow 15 seconds for gelantisation to occur and remove "pearls" from bowl.

If necessary, repeat as many times as you like.