Comments on: Simple Agar Clarification: 1 Year Anniversary, Plus a Rundown of Current Clarification Techniques

By: Chris Anderson

Chris Anderson — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:11:38 +0000

For anyone that is looking, Pectinex Ultra SP-L is available at http://www.modernistpantry.com/pectinex-ultra-spl.html. Pectinex Smash XXL is no longer available from the manufacturer, but is not required. You can just use straight Pectinex Ultra SP-L.

By: » A Culinary Season Food Post Ink

» A Culinary Season Food Post Ink — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:38:55 +0000

[...] joy. There was Dave Arnold’s experimental Margaritas using clarified lime juice based on a clarification technique using agar. There was also a sampling of tortilla chips nixtamalized, an ancient Mesoamerican process [...]

By: davearnold

davearnold — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 15:07:07 +0000

Howdy KennethT,
A vacuuming would definitely help. Air in the pulp won’t ever settle out.

By: KennethT

KennethT — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 12:53:28 +0000

hey Dave – so I recently tried the enzyme clarification (with Smash XXL) on puree’d fresh tomatoes (strained first). I got about a 50% yield, but the problem is that the solids didn’t settle to the bottom, they floated on top of the clear liquid! I think it was because there was too much air still in the liquid from the food processor. Maybe I should have run through the vacuum first? Any other ideas? Unfortunately, I don’t have a centrifuge yet – my ebay skills still need a bit of work….

By: Cyndi

Cyndi — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 23:11:39 +0000

I read my notes wrong and made a mistake on the proportions for the agar. It should be .2% of the total resulting weight, so in this case

1/2 of the original banyuls wt + chocolate wt + milk wt

By: Cyndi

Cyndi — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 23:01:07 +0000

No salad spinner. Your method worked beautifully.

banyuls
Tanariva chocolate (10% of banyuls weight)
skim milk (25% of banyuls weight)

agar (.2% of total weight)

I hydrated the agar w/ a little bit of banyuls and set aside. I boiled the rest of the banyuls and reduced it to about half. Next I added the agar/banyuls mixure to the banyuls pot to boil. Then I followed the rest of the chocolate wine recipe from the Fat Duck and set it over an ice bath to set. Instead of using a centrifuge, I used your Simple Agar Clarification technique. Done and Yum!

I’m off to take my precious liquid and millionaire shortbread to a Fat Duck pot luck dinner party.

Thanks for your advice.

By: davearnold

davearnold — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:07:44 +0000

I think a salad spinner will make a mess of it. Just develop the art of “massaging the sack.”

By: Cyndi

Cyndi — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 05:46:15 +0000

Hi Dave,

I’m a home cook trying to make the chocolate wine from The Fat Duck and don’t have access to a centrifuge. I like your Simple Agar Clarification Method w/ Centrifuge idea, but instead of the centrifuge, do you think it will work if I put the ‘curds’ in a cheese cloth lined salad spinner and spun away? My friend and I are going to try it in a couple of days, but wanted to see if anyone else had tried it before we go down that road.

-cyndi

By: Sara D

Sara D — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 17:00:18 +0000

I just tried the Simple Agar Clarification technique on Clam Juice. I’m trying for a clear clam broth that I can then use to make a clear ravioli via edible gels. I used 500g clam juice & 1g Agar, followed the your directions, strained through triple-layer cheesecloth. The result was a little clearer — just not as clear as I’d hoped [still beige color]. Is it possible to get a truly clear liquid using this method? Any tips?

Thanks — Sara

By: davearnold

davearnold — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 11:54:13 +0000

I’ve never used the superbag, but 250 micron sounds big. The main thing is to “massage the sack” to get more product out and not squeeze so hard that you extrude the agar through your filter. If that doesn’t help, maybe you are breaking up the agar pieces too much before you filter.