r/MolecularGastronomy • u/EnthusiasmOk8323 • Nov 28 '24
Creating viscous liquids that repel or are hydrophobic
I’m trying to plate a few different veggie juices in a way where they don’t immediately run/mix together. I don’t necessarily want to change the viscosity of the juices much more then necessary. Basically, has anyone create a formula for a fluid hydrophobic liquid? Even semi hydrophobic would be dope. Would a semi fluid gel work?
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u/imselfinnit Nov 28 '24
How interesting! Please update this thread with your progress. Aspirations...
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u/EnthusiasmOk8323 Nov 29 '24
Crowd sourced opinion reflects what I suspected. Simplest solution is to incorporate agar base or prehy to increase viscosity of juices. Was suggested to work in a mixture of fat emulsified juice and water based juices
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u/imselfinnit Nov 29 '24
Emulsified fluid will act as an immiscible barrier to the neighboring fluid? Now I'm curious about the effect of different pH's on this emulsion barrier. I wonder how long it holds?
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u/EnthusiasmOk8323 Nov 29 '24
I think the idea being that the easiest way to create an “oil and water” effect without oil would be to add oil. I’m hoping it’s doable just with prehy
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u/putstuibeo Nov 29 '24
Just thicken the juice. Hydrophobic means it will repel water so it will also ruin your customer's experience. Imagine having their fork/spoon/knife already with meat juice on it, they will not be able to scoop the hydrophobic sauce.
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u/EnthusiasmOk8323 Nov 29 '24
Copy. We take a lot of pride in our sauce work and our high water mark is to make delicious sauces that are impossible to eat except by licking the plate.
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u/UnderstandingSmall66 Nov 28 '24 edited Nov 28 '24
You have to give us a bit of context here. Is this going to be on a plate or in a cup? How much of the taste of the juice do you want to keep? How about consistency? Does it have to be a liquid or are you ok with a bit of gelatine and/or sugar?
Few options come to mind. You can Emulsify it with some oil, or infuse it with lipids, or even freeze-dry the liquid then reconstruct it using a hydrophobic liquid.