I used the recipe for mango ravioli on page 56 of the Khymos blog Hydrocolloid Recipe Collection.
Ingredients
380 g water
380 g mango pulp
2 g sodium citrate - source Willpowder
2.8 g sodium alginate - source Willpowder
Setting Bath
1000g water
5g calcium chloride - source Portland Homebrew Exchange
Procedure
- Dissolve sodium citrate in water
- Dissolve sodium alginate in water
- Boil water
- Cool water
- Add mango pulp
- Pour (spheres) or inject (beads) mango mixture into setting bath
- Soak spheres in setting bath two minutes or more
- Rinse spheres
- Test texture and flavor
- Sodium alginate did not dissolve readily in water. Flake-like portions up to 2 cm in diameter aggregated and did not dissolve on stirring with stir rod or immersion blender.
- Sodium alginate dissolved dissolved almost completely on boiling
- Aliquots of mango pulp greater than 1/2 Tbsp volume did not retain a spherical shape in the setting bath.
Soak Time
2 minutes - Spheres broke and dissociated. Beads had solid skin and liquid interior
3 minutes - Spheres had consistency of soft-boiled egg yolks and did not fully keep their shape. Beads had solid skin and liquid interior
4 minutes - Spheres partially kept their shape and had liquid interior. Beads had solid skin and small liquid interior
5 minutes - Spheres kept their shape and had liquid interior. Beads were completely solid.
Taste
Mango taste present but definitely dilute to the point where experimental subjects complained about blandness.
Conclusion
The experiment was a qualified success. Future batches should be made with something more strongly flavored or employ the reverse spherification technique which does not require dilution of the material.
