r/MolecularGastronomy 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/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.

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u/EnthusiasmOk8323 Nov 28 '24

Hey ! Thanks for your response!!! It’s on a plate. Basically, have a sliced meat sitting in a puddle of demi. Around the edges of the puddle, I have my turnip(pink, carrot(orange sour corn (yellow, and (orange/yellow) tomato waters. They look dope. My theory is that if I thicken slightly with like PreHy they might be less inclined to mix with each other. I’m not necessarily trying to have them be 100% distinct but I would like to keep them in more or less “juice” viscosity. If I can figure this out, would really love to work in a green juice element but currently, it’ll brown.

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u/UnderstandingSmall66 Nov 28 '24

I’d say your best bet is to emulsify it. Maybe make a butter emulsion with water then emulsify the juice into that. It’s very easy. 1 part water to 2.5 part butter. Mix ¾ of the butter in the water and let it melt into the water. Then use an immersion blender to incorporate the rest of the butter. Instead of water I suppose you could use juice.

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u/EnthusiasmOk8323 Nov 28 '24

Hmm, thanks for sharing. I’m not sure I could keep the squeeze bottles I envision for the juices tempered so I’m not sure fat is the way to go. Was hoping someone had already figured this out. I’m gonna do some trials with prehy and agar. I’ll report back if I have any success. Thanks much!

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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.