Day 12. Seaweed makes ice cream. ice cream is dairy. cheese is dairy. Therefore….
April 12th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments »Seaweed makes cheese.
Luckily for me that relevance allows me to use that day to tell you about the class I was in this particular Monday evening. It was a class on seaweed (algae) of the California coast. I’m afraid to speak much further about on my own because I know some people in the field who still get pissed for me saying algaes.
So therefore, I will give you some short but sweet and true facts about algae and their role in many things. almost cheese.
Seaweed has alternation of generations. It lives in different states of seaweedism. It’s very cool.
There are three types: red, brown, and green. just because it looks green doesn’t mean its green.
One thing it makes is Carrageenans, which are a family of linear sulfated polysaccharides which are extracted from red seaweeds. (WARNING: nerdiness ahead)
Carrageenans are large, highly flexible molecules which curl forming helical structures. This gives them the ability to form a variety of different gels at room temperature. They are widely used in the food and other industries as thickening and stabilizing agents. A particular advantage is that they are pseudoplastic—they thin under shear stress and recover their viscosity once the stress is removed. This means that they are easy to pump but stiffen again afterwards.
USED AS/OR IN/OR SOMETHING:
EMULSIFIERS!
BEER!
ICE CREAM/SHAKES!/SAUCES!!
PATE! PET FOOD!
ALIENS THE MOVIE SALIVA!
CONDOMS!
AND A WHOLE LOT MORE!
Thank you seaweed for your many ways. Wish you actually were involved in cheesemaking. Peut-etre pate grilled cheese, oui?
