I'm vegan and I love chewy balls
July 26, 2024 7:35 AM Subscribe
I love these chewy vegan balls made from Glucomannan. I'm trying to replicate them at home, but all I get is goop. Halp?
These are my favorite things ever. Chewing them is like chewing a hard rubber ball (this is good). I've tried to make these same things at home using close to the listed ingredients on the package, but all I ever end up with is glop. Is there some secret to getting the GLucomannan/Konjac to harden? This happens any time I try to get creative w/ konjac flour. I would switch to using Agar Agar, but the texture just isn't the same. What am I missing?
These are my favorite things ever. Chewing them is like chewing a hard rubber ball (this is good). I've tried to make these same things at home using close to the listed ingredients on the package, but all I ever end up with is glop. Is there some secret to getting the GLucomannan/Konjac to harden? This happens any time I try to get creative w/ konjac flour. I would switch to using Agar Agar, but the texture just isn't the same. What am I missing?
Response by poster: @yellowcandy - I have not tried that. And it makes sense! I do have both calcium hydroxide and calcium sulfate at home. Both food grade. I remember doing a food experiment with calcium hydroxide once, and I ended up burning my mouth. So maybe I just need to start googling. Thanks.
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:46 AM on July 26
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:46 AM on July 26
Re calcium hydroxide: If you're working with extreme source ingredients (sodium carbonate, various hydroxides, etc), I would get some pH test strips, test the high end and low end of what you'd feel comfortable consuming (maybe like lemon juice or or vinegar for the low end, sodium bicarbonate/baking soda at the high end), and do a little test before you consume that you're somewhere in the middle of that.
Cheap way to give you a little sanity check for when the chemistry calculations may or may not have worked out like you'd hoped.
My initial thing was "maybe pH test strips from a pool place", but it looks like pool pH kits are *way* more sensitive in the middle (like 6.8 to 8.2), and don't go far enough to the edges, to cover the edible range, which seems to run 2.2 to the low 7s, maybe as high as 9 according to some first page Google sources (which I super don't trust).
But if you peg the high end of your pool pH test kit, it's probably gonna taste yicky, not just turn fats into soaps, so maybe that is a reasonable analytic to use with hydroxides.
posted by straw at 12:31 PM on July 26 [1 favorite]
Cheap way to give you a little sanity check for when the chemistry calculations may or may not have worked out like you'd hoped.
My initial thing was "maybe pH test strips from a pool place", but it looks like pool pH kits are *way* more sensitive in the middle (like 6.8 to 8.2), and don't go far enough to the edges, to cover the edible range, which seems to run 2.2 to the low 7s, maybe as high as 9 according to some first page Google sources (which I super don't trust).
But if you peg the high end of your pool pH test kit, it's probably gonna taste yicky, not just turn fats into soaps, so maybe that is a reasonable analytic to use with hydroxides.
posted by straw at 12:31 PM on July 26 [1 favorite]
Here's a video from Modernist Pantry showing how to make shirataki (aka konjac noodles) at home. Written version here.
posted by O9scar at 4:03 PM on July 26 [4 favorites]
posted by O9scar at 4:03 PM on July 26 [4 favorites]
@straw I use pH test strips for fermentation, so I'll give it a try. Thanks!
posted by Bucket o' Heads at 12:35 AM on July 27 [1 favorite]
posted by Bucket o' Heads at 12:35 AM on July 27 [1 favorite]
« Older Eggplant dishes for the freezer | Early Fat Acceptance blogger whose lung cancer was... Newer »
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by yellowcandy at 8:19 AM on July 26 [4 favorites]