Birth of
spherification
One of the primary methods
of discovering new techniques in haute cuisine
is by working in conjunction with the leading
companies engaged in the food industry. This
fact, together with a certain degree of chance,
gave rise in 2003 to one of elBulli’s most significant
techniques. On one of our increasingly more
frequent incursions into the industry we visited
Griffith España to see their installations
and exchange know-how. At a given moment they
showed us a Mexican sauce that contained little
balls in suspension which when eaten added
a hint of acidity and a slightly spicy taste
to the preparation. At the time it reminded
us of a refreshing drink we knew that also
featured these little spheres. It was a liquid
that contained a proportion of alginate and
which, on being submerged in a base of water
with calcium, produced the formation of these
balls.
Fortunately
they gave us a sample of the alginate and on
arriving at the el Bullitaller workshop we quickly
bought some calcium chloride with which to
try it. We made the mixture with water and
alginate and the base with water and chloride,
took a syringe and began to make little drops,
which at first simply disappeared into the
water. Our excitement grew however when, after
straining the water, we saw that small balls
had been formed which, unlike those in the
sauce, were liquid inside! This quickly encouraged
us to swop the syringe for a spoon. Thus was
born the first liquid yolk (or put another way,
the first spherical ravioli), made solely with
water. The thrill of realising we were witnessing
something so entirely new represented one of
those magical moments that happens once in a
lifetime
2003 The first preparations
Spherification
produces spherical forms of varying textures
and consistencies. In the following lines we
explain the first preparations.
1 Spherical ravioli,
filled ravioli, marbles and miniravioli. The first preparation we were
able to materialise with spherification was
spherical pea ravioli. We chose this name because
the sensation in the mouth was precisely that
of a liquid ravioli. We then made mango, raspberry
and even a filled ravioli, with Gernika pepper
broth and pepper seed filling. After that came
the miniravioli, extending a family that continues
to bear fruit. As regards the marbles, they
also maintain some reference to the miniravioli
concept, but in this case we wanted to create
a completely round shape and to make the outer
membrane thicker so they would “explode” on
being eaten.
2 Spherical caviar and
pellets. It is true
to say that creating this preparation was one
of the most thrilling moments in our lives.
First we tried it with ceps and then with apple,
but later realised that the one which convinced
us most was made with Cantaloupe melon. To
make the preparation we had to create a “caviarer” – a
battery of dispensing syringes that could be
activated simultaneously. This snack was one
of the icons of 2003 in elBulli. For their
part, the pellets were born out of the idea
to make truffle “chips” that
never set. Following this line we deviated
from the concept however and decided to make
a kind of chip that was not frozen, which we
called pellets. We created them using the spherification
technique and then macerated them throughout
the night in truffle juice to intensify their
flavour.
3 Spherical balloons. If surprise was
the predominant sensation even among professionals
in the kitchen when they first tried the caviar
or spherical ravioli, sight of the balloons
turned their surprise to amazement. This is
in fact one of the most difficult preparations
to make if one lacks practice, and represents
the fusion of two of elBulli’s most notable
techniques – spherification
and the world of the soda siphon. The balloons
are made by pouring rose-perfumed water and
ALGIN into the siphon. Then, thanks to a special
adaptor, we activate the siphon over a CALCIC
solution, making opaque spheres. A minute later
transparent balloons are formed.
4 “Spherical” noodles. These
noodles are made by filling a syringe with
a lychee-juice and ALGIN mixture, then tracing
zigzagged laces over the CALCIC solution, thus
producing lychee noodles.
2004 The evolution of a technique
Most of the techniques we create in elBulli begin to mark a line of evolution
shortly after their appearance, and this was precisely the case in 2004 with
spherification. The uses to which spherification gave rise that year were four
in number:
1 Spherical filled ravioli. The concept is
remarkably simple – we
had made a ravioli filled with Gernika pepper
seeds in 2003; in 2004 we created two versions
of filled ravioli, but this time they were
served cold. The first consisted in placing
a tablet of frozen lemon juice in the spoon
containing the tea with which we went on to
form the tea sphere.
2 Spherical gnocchi. From a conceptual point
of view, the undoubtedly most significant evolution
of this technique took place in 2004. While
in 2003 we had created the spherical balloon,
here we went a little further by developing
a spherical foam, a preparation that provided
an entirely new texture. The result is very
different from that of normal spherification,
as the siphoned air inside the membrane, which
forms as a result of the spherification process,
makes the preparation take on the form of a
creamy foam. The first version was made from
pumpkin purée.
The second was an adaptation of the classic
potato gnocchi.
2005 Inverse spherification
In 2005, as the result of research being
carried out by the elBullitaller scientific
department in parallel to our trials we were
able to effect a change that would have far
reaching consequences on the spherification
technique. Up to then, the process had been
carried out by mixing ALGIN into a liquid and
dropping the resulting solution into a bath
of CALCIC. The outside surface of the ALGIN
mixture then jellified and produced the spherification.
This procedure, which we now call basic spherification,
was difficult or impossible to apply with certain
products that already contained calcium in
their natural state, given that mixing them
with ALGIN triggered an unwanted jellification
process.
The fact is that when we thought we had exhausted
all available options we realised that it was
in fact possible to carry out a reversed spherification,
in other words, to insert a product that already
contained calcium into an ALGIN bath. This
breakthrough, which we call inverse spherification,
enabled us to make spherical preparations with
dairy products, olives and other foodstuffs
for the first time ever. Instead of adding
CALCIC to the preparations we used gluconolactate
(GLUCO) in proportion to the product’s
natural calcium content, and in every case
concluded the technique by bathing the result
in an ALGIN mixture. Furthermore, inverse spherification
allows us to detain the jellification of preparations,
something we were unable to control in basic
spherification. As the ALGIN fails to penetrate
the sphere in this method, jellification only
occurs on the surface. |
