Gelatin sebenarnya telah lama dikenal masyarakat sebagai adesif biologis. Kurang lebih 8000 tahun yang lalu masyarakat Timur Tengh telah memproduksi sebagai lem dari jaringan binatang. 3000 tahun kemudian Bangsa Arab menggunakan untuk lem kayu yang dihasilkan dari kolagen dan digunakan untuk perabotan. Penggunaan gelatin untuk pangan dimualai di Perancis ketika diblokade Inggris. Sekarang gelatin juga digunakan dalm bidang farmasi dan fotografi. Sejarah lengkap gelatin dapat dibaca pada buku “Gelatine Handbook - Reinhard Schrieber and Herbert Gareis - 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim

Komponen utama dari gelatin adalah protein. Kandungan protein berkisar antara 85 dan 92%. Gelatin dihasilkan melalui hidrolisis parsial dari kolagen. Kolagen protein yang terdapat pada binatang dan manusia. Berbeda dengan protein yang umumnya sperikal maka kolagen memiliki struktur linier seperti serat.

Dalam pembuatan gelatin, perlakuan terhadap bahan baku adalah dengan melarutkan pada larutan asam atau alkali sehingga terjadi pemecahan parsial pada ikatan silangnya. Struktur yang pecah ini disebut sebagai kolagen yang larut air dan dikenal sebagai gelatin. Hidrolisis kimia ini dapat dilengkapi atau diganti dengan penggunaan enzim yaitu enzim kolagenase.

Gelatin membentuk larutan koloid dengan air, sehingga secara teknologi, glatin adalah hidrokolid. Yang termasuk dalam hidrolkoloid selain gelatin adalah pectin, karaginan, gum arab, xanthan, guar gum, locust bean gum dan sebagainya.Hidrokoloid digunakan dalam industry pangan bukan karena nilai nutrisinya namun karena multifungsinya. Namun demikian, hidrokoloid tunggal tidak mampu memenuhi semua keinginan termasuk juga gelatin sehingga sering dipakai lebih dari satu hidrokoloid.

Sifat fungsional dari gelatin dapat dibagi dalam dua kelompok. Pertama adalah sifat yang berkait dengan gelatinisasi yaitu: kekuatan gel, waktu gelatinisasi, suhu didih dan viskositas. Kedua yang berkait dengan sifat permukaan gelatin misalnya pembentukan dan stabilitas buih dan emulsi, sifat adesif dan ketidaklarutannya.

Sifat-sifat yang penting bagi gelatin adalah:

Sifat yang berkait dengan gelatinisasi:

· Gel formation

· Texturizing

· Thickening

· Water binding

Pengaruh-pengaruh permukaan”

· Emulsion formation and stabilization

· Protective colloid function

· Foam formation and stabilization

· Film formation

· Adhesion/cohesion

Pembentukan gel, viskositas dan tekstur adalah yang paling berkait dengan struktur, ukuran molekul dan suhu system.

Gelatin adalah campuran polimer dengan panjang rantai yang berbeda-beda. Jadi, larutan yang sejati tidak terbentuk, jelasnya adalah sebagai larutan koloidal atau bentuk sol. Pada keadaan dingin, sol akan berubah menjadi gel dan dalam keadaan hangat akan kembali menjadi sol. Sifat dapat balik ini disebut proses gelatinisasi dan merupakan teknologi yang paling penting dari gelatin.

Analisis untuk mengukur kekuatan gelatinisasi adalah Nilai Bloom. Proses ini ditemukan oleh Oscar T Bloom yang kemudian dikembangkan oleh “Machine for Testing the Jelly Strength of Glues, Gelatines and the Like” yang dipatenkan pada tanggal 9 Juni 1925 (US Patent No. 1 540 979). Nilai Bloom adalah berat dalam gram yang dibutuhkan untuk penghisapan spesifik terhadap tekanan pemukaan standar.

Nilai Bloom untuk gelatin komersial adalah 50 – 300 Bloom. Gelatin dengan nilai Bloon tinggi dikarakteristikkan oleh melting point dan gelling point yang lebih tinggi dan waktu gelatinisasi yang lebih pendek pada produk akhir dan warna lebih cerah serta baud an tastenya lebih alami. Gelling power yang lebih kuat juga menunjukkan jumlah gelatin yang dibutuhkan lebih sedikit untuk mencapai produk akhir yang diharapkan.

Secara umum, transisi sol/gel dapat dievaluasi dengan kisaran suhu 5 – 60⁰C, dan konsentrasi gelatin dapat bervariasi antara 0,5 dan 50% (tergantung pada kualitas gelatin).

Sifat permukaan gelatin didasarkan pada kenyataan bahwa rantai samping gelatin, seperti halnya protein yang lain, memiliki gugus yang bermuatan dan bagian tertentu dari rangkaian kolagen mengandung asam amino hidrofobik dan hidrofilik.

Bagian hidrofobik dan hidrofilik dapat berpindah di permukaan, sehingga mengurangi tegangan muka larutan. Pada saat yang sama, gelatin memeliki beberapa sifat melindungi stabilitas permukaan yang dibentuk. Sifat multifungsi dari gelatin ini digunakan dalam produksi dan stabilisasi buih dan emulsi.

Titik isoelektrik adalah dasar yang penting dalam mempengaruhi aktivitas permukaan gelatin. Jika pH sekitar gelatin berkaitan dengan titik isoelektrik, gelatin menjadi tidak bermuatan, jika pH lebih tinggimaka akan bermuatan negative dan jika lebih rendah bermuatan positif. Dalam larutan gelatin pH berkisar 5,0 – 9,0, jika dkondisikan alkali, gelatin bermuatan negatif dan jika dikondiskan asam bermuatan positif. pH di bawah 5,0 semua tipe gelatin akan bermuatan positif dan di atas 9,0 semuanya negative.

The Jell-O Gelatin Salad Selector (paperback) published by General Foods in 1980. JELL-O® is a registered trademark of Kraft Foods Holdings, Inc.

Finding a copy of The Jell-O Gelatin Salad Selector at a used book sale I was immediately overcome with memories of my mother's Jell-O desserts: Jell-O with whip cream, Jell-O with canned fruit cocktail, and Jell-O with canned pineapple rings. The book is filled with amazing images of Jell-O dishes, some quite ambitious: there's Banana Greens, Carrot Cheese Ring, Saucy Yogurt Salad, Hawaiian Harvest, and Pineapple Lime Temptation. And the ever popular Tomato Aspic to be served with hamburger.

What's especially nifty are the paper wheels in each page that can be rotated to offer several Jell-O recipe options to match tonight's entree.

Amazing but true Jello-O facts:

● Every day, an average of 758,012 boxes of Jell-O are purchased in the U.S.
● As immigrants passed through Ellis Island, they were often served a bowl of Jell-O as a "Welcome to America" treat.
● When hooked up to an electroencephalograph machine—an instrument that records the electrical activity of the brain—Jell-O demonstrates movement virtually identical to the brain waves of a healthy adult man or woman.
● Fresh or frozen pineapple contains an enzyme that prevents Jell-O from setting. Canned pineapple can be used because the canning process eliminates the enzyme.
● Jell-O can be used to make finger paint, dye your hair, clean the dishwasher, scrub the shower, and deodorize cat litter.

And of course this wouldn't be MadSilence without some Jell-O art! Check out this video about Liz Hickok, Jell-O artist and photographer, who makes architectural sculptures from Jell-O. Be sure to visit Hickok's San Francisco in Jell-O.

View from Alcatraz, C-Print, (2007) by Liz Hickok

Jell-O: A Biography

According to Jell-O: A Biography by Carolyn Wyman (Harcourt, 2001), Jell-O had modest beginnings. Peter Cooper, inventor of the Tom Thumb steam locomotive and founder of Cooper Union College, took out the first U.S. patent for a gelatin dessert in 1845. Beyond obtaining the patent, Cooper did little with it. In 1897, Pearl B. Wait decided to enter the rapidly expanding packaged food business and focused on developing a fruit-flavored version of Cooper's gelatin. It was Wait's wife, May, who named it Jell-O, for reasons unknown today. She may have been referring to the way it had to jell before being eaten. The "O" was a popular ending for product names at that time. The first Jell-O flavors were raspberry, lemon, orange, and strawberry. Wait tried to sell Jell-O door-to-door, but he lacked the resources to market it properly. Wait sold the Jell-O business in 1899 to Orator Woodward, a successful entrepreneur, for $450. Woodward's first-year sales of Jell-O were so poor that, after seeing stacks of unsold cases of Jell-O during a plant tour, he offered to sell the business to his plant supervisor for $35--and was turned down. But he increased advertising, and by 1902, Woodward had to double the size of his plant to keep up with demand for the quarter-million-dollar Jell-O business.

Wyman's book illustrates how Jell-O's culinary evolution paralleled changes in American society. It was marketed as a simple, inexpensive dessert to women in the early 20th century; as a way to stretch food during the Great Depression; as a convenient dessert when convenience foods were introduced in the 1950s; and as edible entertainment beginning in the 1990s.

Related links:
Kraft Foods Holdings, Inc., the manufacturer of Jell-O
JELL-O: The quintessential American dish is a part of everyone's childhood from Chemical and Engineering News
Japanese Yebisu beer jelly
What exactly is Jell-O made from? from HowStuffWorks
How to make Jell-O shots

JELL-O® is a registered trademark of Kraft Foods Holdings, Inc.

~TAB

A Panna Cotta is probably one the most easiest and most delicious desserts ever, especially when made correctly. It is said to have originated in the Northern region of Italy, Piedmont.

And this is what I made last night, so I wouldn't have to prowl around my apartment with a growling tummy craving for dessert.

What You Need: (pretty simple stuff really)

- 1 cup of milk (toned or otherwise depends on how health conscious you are)

- A quarter cup of regular cream (try not to use double or heavy cream)

- 4 tablespoons of sugar (I used brown sugar, but plain white does just as well)

- Half a teaspoon of coffee

- Half a cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)

- 2 tablespoons of sweet chocolate chips

- 1 teaspoon of powder gelatin (for vegetarians: use Agar Agar )

(if you don't have powder gelatin, two strips of paper gelatin would be fine)

- 2 drops of mint essence

- Quarter cup of warm water

How-To:

- Soak the gelatin in warm water and keep aside.

- Mix the milk and cream together and heat. (Don't let it boil over!)

- Add the cocoa powder, chocolate chips, sugar and coffee to the milk mixture and stir well to make sure there are no lumps.

- Remove the mixture from the heat just before it boils over and stir to reduce all lumps.

- Pour the mixture into the soaking gelatin.

- Add the mint essence.

- Mix well.

- Pour into glasses, cups, jars or dessert bowls and put in the freezer for about 4-6 hours.

- Garnish with mint leaves and crushed chocolate and serve chilled.
It satisfies most of your cravings at 2 a.m. in the morning......uh...I said most...not all. :-)

Pudding, or purin as it’s called here, is a popular dessert in Japan. It is usually more firm than an American-style pudding, more like a custard’s consistency. The most common flavor is vanilla with caramel sauce. Another popular flavor is black sugar, which is a dark, slightly salty, molasses flavored sugar. One of my favorite flavors is black sesame. The pudding is flavored with sesame paste, which gives the pudding a strong sesame flavor, almost reminiscent of peanut butter.

This recipe is super-easy to make if you use Japanese sesame paste. Of course, you can grind your own sesame seeds too, but it will be a bit of work. If you are grinding your own sesame seeds, I recommend that you use a suribachi, a Japanese mortar and pestle. The texture of Japanese sesame paste is thinner than tahini, so it’s a good idea to look for the real thing at an Asian market, but if you can’t find it, it might be fun to experiment with tahini or another nut butter like peanut or almond. The black sesame paste gives the pudding a gray color, flecked with black bits of sesame. It may look a little strange at first, but once you taste it, you too will become a fan or gray desserts.

This recipe is adapted from a Japanese cookbook called Pudding Book by Junko Fukuda. While the vanilla pudding is an egg-yolk custard, the black sesame pudding is set with gelatin, a bit like a panna cotta except that the milk and cream are not cooked. I actually found it almost a little bit too creamy, so I think I will experiment with using more milk or a lighter cream (I used nama cream 47, which I think has more butterfat than nama cream 35).

Kuro-goma purin – Black Sesame Pudding

2 teaspoons powdered gelatin
2 tablespoons lukewarm water
45 grams (about 3 tablespoons) kuro neri goma, Japanese black sesame paste
70 grams (1/3 cup) sugar
250 mL (1 cup) milk
150 mL (about 2/3 cup) cream

Put the water in a small dish and sprinkle the gelatin over the top. Set aside.

Stir the sesame paste well to incorporate the oil and sesame solids. Put the sesame paste in a large bowl. Add the sugar and mix well. Next, stir in the milk a little at a time. Stir well to ensure that the sugar is fully dissolved.

Microwave the softened gelatin for 20 seconds on high to melt it. Stir in a few tablespoons of the sesame-milk mixture. Then add the gelatin to the rest of the sesame-milk mixture and stir well.

Stir the cream into the mixture. Place the bowl over another bowl filled with ice water and stir well until the mix begins to thicken. Finally, strain the mix and pour into custard cups or a gelatin mold.

* if your neri goma has separated and is difficult to stir back together, try putting the lid on the jar tightly and leaving it upside-down for a few hours. It should be much easier to stir together afterwards.

Vedlagt finner du en oversikt der gelatin inngår i TINE sine produkter.

GELATIN/BULJONGER (ANIMALSKE) INNGÅR

Sans Yoghurt (alle smaksvarianter)
Creme CheriePiano Sjokoladekrem
Piano Karamellpudding med karamellsaus - singelbeger
Piano Ostekake
Litago Kesamyoghurt
Piano Sjokoladepudding med vaniljesaus - singelbeger (gjelder Italia)

Gelatinen i disse produktene er svinebasert.

But live and learn. And then make cupcakes. I was delighted to find this recipe in VCTOTW that combines the flavor elements of the traditional s'more in a gloriously vegan way. Brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon and graham cracker crumbs go into the batter so that the cake portion can take over the role of graham cracker in the standard sandwich. I obtained vegan graham crackers through a quick trip to my local Safeway and swift perusal of ingredients, and then I got to use my super-speedy food processor to grind the crackers up into crumbs. Once the cakes were done, I frosted generously with that reliable old Fluffy Vegan Buttercream (142), which stands in for the marshmallow. Then over top I dribbled the Quick Melty Ganache (160), which does chocolate the right way. Not only do these three elements working together in cupcake harmony create an outrageously tasty snack cake, they are a pretty picture of deep brown, creamy white, and graham-crackery tan, hence becoming the greatest baked-good model for racial cooperation since the black-and-white cookie. And as an added bonus, you can slather your leftover graham crackers—the ones you didn't use for crumbs in the batter—with the leftover buttercream. It's a great quick sugar fix to get you through that awkward time between batches of cupcakes.

My one caveat with this recipe? The Vegan Buttercream doesn't really taste like marshmallow, so if you're looking for an exact flavor replica of the animal-protein-filled (yuck-yuck-yuck) s'more, you'll be frustrated. But don't worry. The problem has been duly noted, and Charlotte plans to experiment vegan marshmallow fluff (yes, such a thing exists) in place of the buttercream next time she makes these. And, oh, there will be a next time…

Now where's my plaid jumper?

Alguns visitantes e amigos pessoais que também usam Linux me questionaram como procedi a configuração. Apenas para registrar, minha placa de vídeo não tem suporte a 3D e esse foi o principal motivo que fez com que eu encontrasse uma maneira de usar o Avant-Window-Navigator sem o Compiz. Após uma busca refinada na Net consegui finalmente colocar o AWN para funcionar. A partir dai foi só mudar algumas coisas e deixar o ambiente como eu gosto.

Para usufruir do AWN, usei o pacote Xcompmgr, um gerenciador ambiente gráfico que possibilita usar alguns efeitos 3D sem tem aceleração gráfica.

Para instalar o Xcompmgr:

sudo apt-get install xcompmgr

Para executar o aplicativo toda vez que iniciar o sistema, vá ao menu /Sistema/Preferência/Seções.

Adicione em Programas Iniciais conforme a figura abaixo

Após a instalação do Xcompmgr, é hora de instalar o AWN.

sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator

Ao terminar a instalação do AWN, proceda a configuração para iniciar o aplicativo automaticamente entrando em /Sistema/Preferência/Seções.

Adicione conforme feito com o Xcompmgr, porém use em nome "AWN" e em comando utilize "avant-window-navigator".

Pronto. Neste momento já podemos usar o AWN em sistemas que não tem suporte a placas 3D, como a VIA Chrome9.

A configuração do AWN é bastante simples, conforme pode ser visto na imagem abaixo. Você pode optar pelo 3D look (MacOS) ou Flat Bar (barra simples).

Para inserir ícones na barra clique em adicionar e colocar o nome e o comando da aplicação. Normalmente o ícone é vinculado ao aplicativo sem o usuário ter que ficar procurando a imagem correspondente.

O mesmo ocorre com os Applets, que devem ser escolhidos e enviados para o lado esquerdo da tela para serem ativados na barra.

As demais configurações ficam a gosto do usuário. Use sem moderação. ;-)

Agora é hora de refinar a aparência do sistema.

Uma das maiores frustrações de alguns usuários do Ubuntu foi a notícia de que o Hardy não receberia as modificações sugeridas inicialmente em sua interface gráfica. Isso ficou para a próxima versão, o Intrepid Ibex. Já estão trabalhando no que será a nova cara do Ubuntu em sua próxima versão, mostrando um mockup e disponibilizando um tema (ComicGel) que pode ser baixado clicando aqui.

Foi com este tema que implementei as demais configurações gráficas de meu sistema. No pacote está disponível além do tema propriamente dito, cursores, ícones e um capt onde são sugeridas fontes para serem utilizadas.

O processo de instalação do tema é bastante simples e familiar para que usa o GNOME. No Ubuntu, clique com o botão direito do mouse na área de trabalho e vá até a opção alterar o plano de fundo. Ao abrir a caixa, aba "Tema", clique na opção instalar. Localize a pasta onde você descompactou o pacote baixado com o tema ComicGel. Na pasta "Main theme", selecione o pacote Gelatin.tar.gz. Pronto! Seu novo tema está instalado.

Para instalar os ícones e cursores, na mesma caixa selecione personalizar, vá até a aba "ícones". Mais uma vez, na pasta onde você descompactou o pacote ComicGel, entre na pasta Icons e arraste o arquivo até a caixa anteriormente mencionada. Após esta ação, tanto o Gelatin quanto os ícones (Human Elephant Savane) já podem ser usados.

Em relação aos cursores, não os instalei considerando que os atuais disponíveis no sitema me atendem, porém se quiser instalar siga o mesmo procedimento acima entrando na aba "cursor".

Uma dica para quem curte transparências, o Xcompmgr possibilita usar a transparência no do terminal, não só mostrando a área de trabalho, mas sim qualquer aplicação que esteja em background. Para configurar, vá no menu Editar/Perfis/Editar e na caixa que surgir, procure a aba "Efeitos" e marque a opção fundo transparente.

Atualizado

Outra dica é instalar o gDesklets para deixar o ambiente ainda mais bonito. Existem outras opções, mas gosto dessa devido não usar muito recurso da máquina, pelo menos aqui não. Para instalar digite no terminal - sudo apt-get install gdesklets

Para chamar o aplicativo quando o sistema for iniciar, siga as instruções do Xcompmgr e AWN acessando o menu Sistema/Preferências/Sessões.

Existem diversos "widgets" que podem ser usados e configurados.

Para acessar as configurações do gDesklets vá ao menu Aplicações/Acessórios/gDesklets.

Finalizando, a instalação é bastante simples e em menos de 10 minutos dependendo de sua conexão você terá uma nova interface elegante e bonita. Você pode ainda fazer combinações e deixar o seu sistema com a sua cara. Espero que tenham gostado.

Créditos: BR-Linux, Desenvolvimento do Ubuntu, Rafael Proenças'Home

Originally I was going to bake something, as that is something I am better at than traditional main courses (and I tremble to think what might happen if I attempted a gelatin mold). But the cakes I liked all seemed so - so heavy, so wintery. And it has been so warm here in Ontario, we are all quite excited about this. Wearing T shirts, getting reacquainted with ice-free sidewalks, opening windows. So I was looking for something light.

When I saw this recipe for blueberry ice I had to make it. Summery, strangely contemporary - and yet, and yet!  Definitely pre-1924! It is from the Cook Book of Left Overs (1911), by Helen Carroll Clarke (former Instructor of Cookery, the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York) and Phoebe Deyo Rulon (Former Instructor in Invalid Cookery and Dietician, Bellevue Hospital, New York City).

Helen and Phoebe recommend this ice for using up stewed blueberries, should you be troubled by a surfeit of them. But I think that you could substitute any stewed, fresh or frozen fruit.

I left out the egg white since raw egg white is not a good idea these days. And I used frozen blueberries, to which I gave a cursory stew, just to keep to the recipe (except for the egg white). I also left the whole berries in, but it would be just as good without them. Up to you, really. Here's the original recipe:

 The gelatin in the recipe really makes the texture better - unlike previous ices I've made, it scooped well even when frozen solid, and I didn't have to keep taking it out of the freezer and beating it to break down the ice crystals. It's a lovely color, and tastes deeply of blueberries. Here's a picture of it. I put it in the sugar bowl of my grandmother's tea set, circa 1895:

Når det gjelder gelatin i HARIBO varer er det stort sett svinegelatin vi bruker. Du kan gå inn på www.haribo.com og velge det danske flagget, der ligger det informasjon om hvilke produkter som har gelatin under "Forbrugerinfo".

Med vennlig hilsen
Anne Line M.Sagbakken
HARIBO Lakris AS

Hei
Takk for din henvendelse.
I Möller's Dobbel er gelatinen av svinehud.
I Collets Triomega kommer gelatinen fra storfe.

Det er riktig at det utvinnes gelatin av planter ,men foreløpig er det ikke
komersielt. I ingen av våre produkter er det noe fiske gelatin.

Mvh

Egil.K.Kjemperud
Forbrukerkonsulent
MöllerCollett AS
Tlf: 22 53 48 00 / 22 53 47 80
petermoller@petermoller.no

Here's the perfect buffet-table dish for physics conferences.

This is from Mary Margaret McBride's Encyclopedia of Cooking (1960). Volume 1 to be precise, which includes ABC's For Cooks, Appetizers and Party Snacks, and Bean Bakes. I am not sure what category the Self-Layering Salad comes under, but I am pretty sure that it is not a Bean Bake.

Self-Layering Salad

2 packages orange-flavored gelatin
2 cups hot water
2 cups cold water
1/4 tsp almond extract
2 cups drained sliced Cling peaches, drained (No. 2 1/2 can)
3 medium bananas, sliced

Empty gelatin dessert into 2-quart bowl. Add hot water and stir until gelatin dessert has dissolved. Add cold water and almond extract to gelatin mixture. Cool and pour into a lightly oiled 9 1/2 x 5 1/4 x 2 3/4 inch loaf pan. Add peaches and banana slices to gelatin mixture. Be sure bananas are coated with gelatin mixture. Stir to distribute fruit evenly. Chill in refrigerator until firm.

Peaches will sink to the bottom of loaf pan and bananas will float, making a self-layered salad. Serves 6 to 8.

I guess those peaches did sink - canned peaches are like wet sponges. All that syrup. They even call it heavy syrup. That stuff has a very low center of gravity.

I think this probably is a party snack after all - a party for research scientists. Serve the self-layering salad and have them figure out the physics of the fruit to gelatin ratios. Or devise a few experiments for determining which fruits rise to the top of Jell-O and if so, in what sort of formations. Oh, or whatever. What do you want, I was an English major. They'll figure something out, believe me. They will just entertain themselves over by the buffet table over there, and then we can sneak off and relax out by the pool with a nice big vodka and tonic. (Well, if we had a pool. But you know what I mean!)

Image is from a 1961 women's magazine ad, about promoting higher education. It claims that the guy is a high school student in a physics lab. I don't like the look of the glowing smoking stuff on the right though. And I don't see a classroom in the background. However, the ad says "who is to say that he won't someday be a brilliant scientist."  Me, I will say he won't. For one thing, a brilliant scientist would wear protective goggles around that stuff on the right. And turn on the overhead lights too.

What I think he should do is get out of the lab and start making Jell-O salads instead.

Would a vegetarian eat yogurt, then? I pondered. It has a living 'thing' in it.

Vegetarianism is, cheating from Wikipedia, the practice of a diet that excludes all animal flesh, including poultry, game, fish, shellfish or crustacea, and the slaughter-by products. Since I skipped a lot of my Microbiology classes back in high school *ahem* especially the microorganism subject, I don't quite remember the detail about bacterias. Would a few micrometres in length (in the shape of spheres, rods, or spirals) be considered 'fleshy' for Lactobacillus or its cousin, Streptococcus?  Does eating something alive or fleshy even though it's a tiny thing, bother a vegetarian?

Something to keep in mind though, unlike cells of animals, bacteria cells do not contain a nucleus and rarely harbour membrane-bound organelles. In plain English, bacteria does not have chromosomes thus we won't know if it's a girl bacteria or a boy bacteria. Not only bacteria lacks of gender identity, it also lacks of proteins and lipids.

So what? We don't need to call it Miss Lactobacillus or Mr. Streptococcus anyway. I pondered again. No protein or lipids? Even better for the vegetarians. I began to feel confident.

If a tiny living thing doesn't bother a vegetarian, would the fact that Yoplait contains gelatin -which is made from boiled pig skin, animal bones and hooves- bothered them?

Gastric bypass in India is becoming very popular among international patients just because of cost consideration. For the 48 hours before your gastric bypass surgery, you will be on a liquid diet. This includes water, clear juice, tea, coffee, popsicles, gelatin and broth. This is the same diet that you will follow immediately after surgery. Any heart and blood pressure medications should be taken as usual until the night before your surgery. Other medications require specific recommendations from your doctor. Make sure that you let the nurse coordinator know when you schedule your surgery if you are on any blood thinning agents, such as Coumadin®, Plavix®, aspirin or ibuprofen. For Gastric bypass in India, there is a vast pool of experienced surgeons with latest technologies. Share my experience here.

Men Like It Salad1 pkg. cream cheese
2 sm. cans crushed pineapple
2 pkg. lime Jell-O
1 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped nuts

And why exactly do men like this? Are we talking about all men, everywhere? That is a pretty sweeping statement. Also, maybe some of them would prefer the dressing to be tinted another color, or just left alone. If some men you know don't like it, you can offer them this instead, which is even more mystifying:

Krunchy Goo2 cans English peas, drained
1 cup diced celery
1 small onion, diced
1 cup diced sharp cheese
3/4 cup Miracle Whip
Salt and pepper to taste

Out of all the possible names you could give to a conglomeration of comestibles, why - why would you call it Krunchy Goo? I get the contrasting-textures idea, but this is not a name that encourages consumption. And why spell crunchy with a 'k'? Possibly to show that you are whimsical, you are kidding, you don't really expect people to eat it. Surely not. And yet it is in a salad cookbook.

We may never know the answers to the questions these salads bring to mind. (And come to think of it, we may not want to).

Image from the Library of Congress American Memory collection.

I hadn't known that there was any other kind of gelatin except Knox, but here's its rhyming rival, Cox, "used by good housewives since 1845." Knox gelatin came along in 1896, so it was the latecomer.

There is a special section for "Recipes for Use with Mechanical Refrigerators," but if you still had an icebox, that was all right too, you just couldn't make Frozen Apple Cream or Maple Fig Mousse.

I have got two recipes for you - a strange one, because those are fun, and a really good one - those are also fun, plus you might even want to make those kind.

I doubt that you will want to fill your sandwiches with the following, however:

Mint Filling For Sandwiches1 tablespoon Cox's Gelatine
4 tablespoons cold water
25 fresh mint leaves
4 tablesppons boiling water
1/8 teaspoon salt
Few drops green color
1 cup thick cream, whipped
2 tablespoons sugar
Unbuttered bread or crackersMix Gelatine with cold water. Cut mint leaves into small pieces, put them into a cup and add boiling water. Cover and soak thirty minutes, strain, pressing hard. Dissolve Gelatine over fire, add sugar, mint, water, salt, color, and cool. Fold in cream and turn into a shallow wet mold. When firm, turn out carefully, cut in thin slices and put between bread or crackers.

Grape Fruit Lozenges

1 tablespoon Cox's Gelatine
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
8 tablespoons cold water
1/2 tablespoon corn or golden syrup
4 tablespoons grape fruit juice
Yellow color Put one-half cup of the confectioner's sugar and four tablespoonfuls of cold water into a saucepan; when dissolved, add corn syup, bring to the boiling point, add Gelatine mixed with remainder of water, grape fruit juice and a few drops of yellow color. Sift remainder of sugar into a bowl, pour hot mixture into center, and allow it to cool. Work it with a wooden spoon until smooth. Spread mixture into a layer one inch thick in a wet pan, allow it to harden, cut into squares and roll in sugar.

Oh, Knox Sparkling Unflavored Gelatine, how we love you. "More and more thousands of women" - just like the over-caffeinated and disembodied woman in this ad - are savings loads of money on food by sticking Knox gelatine into everything. Just make it into a mold - anything you've got. It'll go farther that way - leftover casseroles, cake, fruit, peas and carrots, tuna, anything. "Prove to yourself that homemade is always best, just as easy, and far more thrifty." That would depend on what you're gelling, though. I like the sound of the Coffee Sponge, though. We used to have coffee jello when I was growing up, and it was really good.

Coffee Sponge

1. Soften 1 envelope Knox Unflavored Gelatine in 1/2 cup cold coffee. 2. Dissolve gelatine and 1/4 cup sugar thoroughly in 1 cup very hot coffee.

6. Whip gelatine until fluffy, very thick., fine-textured, and volume has doubled.7. Fold into egg white mixture.8. Turn into 2 1-lb. coffee cans waxed paper lined (or use half for a pie filling) and chill until firm.9. Unmold and decorate as desired.

The project was overseen by one Florence Arfmann, the Director of the Experimental Kitchen at Young and Rubincam Inc., Advertising. I guess they were friends of Time magazine or something. Anyway, Florence writes about how women are so busy now, with careers even, some of them, but boy they still love to cook and get in the kitchen all the time making swell pies and so on. She doesn't say "swell pies," though.

Florence says that people are worried that all the new electric gadgets mean that the food won't be so good anymore. She's not worried, though: "There may be women for whom liberation from a hot stove means atrophy, but I haven't met them." Women now are spending their leisure time looking after kids, running clubs and gardening - and heavens, some of them even work! Still, they do love to cook cook cook. And boy oh boy, "the services and devices at their command may even be responsible for what seems to me to be an increasing love of cooking."

Yes, well. Let's everybody relax! We'll all get something to eat, somehow. Just as soon as Mother gets back from her club - just like the ones Lucy and Ethel used to go to, like the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League. This dessert would be nice for the bridge club ladies too, after the sandwiches cut into heart, spade, club and diamond shapes.

Macaroon Pudding2 Tbs plain gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
48 macaroons, crushed
1 cup pecan meats, chopped
1 8-oz jar maraschino cherries, chopped
6 eggs, separated
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup sherry wine

Sprinkle gelatin over water. Let stand. Mix macaroons, pecans, cherries and cherry juice. Beat egg yolks with sugar until well blended. Add wine and cook over hot water, stirring constantly, until thick. Add gelatin. Stir until dissolved. Pour over macaroon mixture. Fold in well-beaten egg whites. Pour into two-quart mold. Chill until set. Serve with whipped cream. makes 8 to 10 servings.

This sounds quite good I think, except you would have to rethink the raw egg white if you were making it now. You might fold in some whipped cream to aerate and lighten the mixture, instead of egg whites.

But sometimes one's ambition rises above sandwiches (mine, not often really, but it can do). And that's when you may want to know about this salad.

The recipe is from the 1968 Favorite Recipes of Jaycee Wives Salads. Jaycees are members of the United States Junior Chamber, an organization for entrepreneurs established in 1920. Here's the link to the Wikipedia article about them. They are involved in all sorts of civic and local affairs and charitable things. And in the 1960s, their wives made a lot of salads. A lot of salads. I have some others lined up for you. Here's a little amuse-bouche to start us off.

Pickle Stretcher Salad

2 3-oz. pkg lemon-flavored gelatin
2 cups boiling water
1 3/4 cups cold water
6 to 8 medium-sized dill pickles, finely diced
2 tsp sliced, pimiento-stuffed olives

Dissolve gelatin in boiling water; add cold water and chill until syrupy. Rinse pickles quickly with cold water and drain well; fold pickles and olives into gelatin mixture. Pour into 1 1/2 quart baking dish and chill in refrigerator until firm.
Makes tart relish for meat. Yield: 12 servings.

I wish there was a picture of this. Or maybe I don't. I can see it in my imagination pretty well and I'll bet you can too. I'm wondering though, why you would worry about stretching the pickles because (a) you had 6 to 8 of them to start with and (b) wouldn't stretching the main course be more of a concern. I mean, if you ran out of the meat and all you had was pickle salad, that would be a problem. It might be a problem anyway, though.

The picture of - molds! - is from the 1963 classic, The Joys of Jell-O.

Using the new Gelatin theme and a nice grassy background with the Discovery icon set.

I have a lot of ideas floating around in my head. Some of those concepts are going to be easier to work with and implement than others. Some of them require special ingredients or tools that I don't have access to right now. Others require knowledge or skill that I don't have yet. Luckily, a few of them are within reach. One of those concepts was the idea of making crème brûlée, but having the custard freestanding on the plate and having the burnt sugar as a separate component that could be placed as I saw fit.

One of the reasons I wanted to pursue this dessert is the idea that you, as a chef, can get your guest to try something new by giving them something familiar. In general, and of course there are always exceptions to every rule, but in general people like to eat that which is familiar to them. I think that especially is true when it comes to dessert. When people want something sweet and comforting, they look to the things that have given them pleasure in the past. Why do you think chocolate desserts are always the most popular on a menu? In this dessert, I am using the familiarity of the crème brûlée to give the guest a new experience in the way it is presented.

As a reference to creating the crème brûlée, I looked at two of chef Alex Stupak's recipes, his cuttable lime curd and his flexible chocolate ganache. My initial thought was to make the crème brûlée stable enough that I could mold it in a shallow tray, cut it to the shape I wanted, and lift it out to place it on the plate. However, as I researched what stabilizers I wanted to use and the more I thought about it, I realized that this would take the final texture of the custard much too far away from the original crème brûlée that I am referencing. Eventually, I decided to set the custard in a flexible silicon mold, which would give me the general shape I was looking for and allow me to keep the texture closer to what I wanted.

My first attempt at making the custard was a bit of a failure, though it pointed me in the right direction. I used a standard crème brûlée recipe but added kappa carrageenan and locust bean gum. The casein micelles in the cream mesh with the gel network of the k-carr that has synergistic effect, which increases the gel strength. However, by itself the gel would be too brittle, which is why I added the locust bean gum. LBG softens the gel and increases its pseudoplasticity. To be honest, the reason I chose these gums is because it is what I have on hand. My first choice would be iota carrageenan alone, but I don't have any right now. At some point I will order some and rework this recipe using it.

As I was working on this dessert, I saw a posting on Ideas in Food about a custard that they had stabilized with carrageenan. I have to thank Aki and Alex for the idea of dispersing the gums in the egg yolks before tempering. My first attempt failed when I tried to add the gums (mixed with sugar) to the custard after I had tempered it with the yolks. The gums clumped together and couldn't be sheared apart without breaking down the egg proteins.

My next attempt got me closer, but not quite there. As Aki and Alex suggested, I whisked the gums and sugar with the egg yolks, tempered the cream into the yolks, and then cooked the custard to 65 degrees (60 is the minimum to hydrate the gums). I strained the custard, poured it into my flexi-mold and baked it in a water bath just like I would a normal crème brûlée. After it was finished baking I put it into the fridge overnight to set. When I tried to unmold it the next day, I found that the gel was strong enough to hold the shape but was too brittle and did not have as much flexibility as I wanted. Also, the mouthfeel of the custard was just plain wrong. The gums left a slick, almost greasy feeling in your mouth.

To address these issues I cut the amount of k-carr and LBG by half, though I knew that this would weaken the gel. However, I also knew that I needed to add something to give it the flexibility I was looking for. To address both of these issues I settled on two changes. First, I substituted 1/3 of the sucrose with dextrose, which would add to the flexibility of the gel. Second, I added a small amount of gelatin, which would also increase the flexibility and would provide the additional gel strength. The gelatin would provide structure and also has the benefit of a better mouthfeel and flavor release.

Why didn't I use only gelatin? Gelatin by itself would make it more like a panna cotta texture than a crème brûlée. I feel that the combination of the gums and the gelatin give me a gel that can stand up on the plate but isn't too far from the texture of a traditional crème brûlée. Another reason to leave in the k-carr and LBG is because I decided to freeze the custard in the mold and the k-carr should protect the custard during the freeze-thaw cycle, though I haven't tested this hypothesis. Finally, the last change I made is to just cook the custard on the stovetop and skip the baking step. The reason being that I think the baking of the custard might weaken the gelatin, though I haven't tested this hypothesis either. The final result was just what I was looking for. Once the custard thawed on the plate, the gel was firm enough that it maintained its shape and the texture was soft and very much like a traditional crème brûlée.

So, now that I had the custard right, I set to work on the other components of the dish. The burnt sugar was made with raw cane sugar, which I spread on a silpat and burned with a propane torch. After it cooled and hardened I was able to lift it off in pieces. The strawberry fluid gel was a simple strawberry puree set with agar agar and then blended in a vita-mix. The caramel was made by cooking sugar to a dark caramel stage and then adding strawberry puree and balsamic vinegar. The cilantro, to be honest, was added just because the plate needed color and that was the only herb I had in the house. I don't have access to micro-greens, otherwise I would have used something like micro-basil.

Well... what do I think of the results? I like it and I don't like it. I like the texture of the custard. I like the acidic counterbalance of the strawberry-balsamic vinegar against the richness of the custard. However, I don't like how it looks, which is too severe. The shards of sugar sticking out and the zebra-like stripes of caramel across the plate are the two things that bother me. There was one thing I didn't like when I tasted the dessert. The pieces of burnt sugar were a little too thick and there was too much of it on the plate; it wasn't in balance with the quantity of custard.

So, now I have some things to fix. I already have ideas of how I want to address the issues: the visual aspects of the plating and the thickness of the burnt sugar. I also want to experiment with some of my theories: k-carr stabilizing the freeze-thaw cycle and the gelatin unable to withstand baking of the custard. Stay tuned for the next iteration!

This is a delicious dessert which is easy to make and looks good. The little tips is to buy mango which is in yellow but not in red or green. This kind of mango will make the pudding taste better!

Here is the video of how to make mango pudding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knwyMZmyTAU