Gelatin dessert
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The most popular culinary use for gelatin is as a main ingredient in a variety of gelatin desserts. In the United Kingdom, Ireland, and much of the Commonwealth gelatin desserts are referred to as jelly (In the United States and Canada, "jelly" refers to an unrelated product - a pectin thickened clear fruit preserve, known as 'jam' in the UK).
Unprepared gelatin for desserts is often marketed as a flavoured powder. Prepared gelatin desserts are marketed in a variety of forms. Popular brands include Jell-O from Kraft Foods in North America, Rowntree's Jelly in the United Kingdom and Aeroplane Jelly in Australia.
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[edit] Production
The production of gelatin typically starts with the boiling of cattle bones or pig skins; contrary to popular conception, horns and hooves are not used. This material is then soaked with acid or alkali in large vats to extract and hydrolyse the protein collagen. The extract is then dried and ground to form a powder.
To make gelatin desserts, typically powdered gelatin is mixed with sugar, and additives such as adipic acid, fumaric acid, sodium citrate, and artificial flavourings and food colors. Very hot water is added to swell the powdered gelatin and gel the liquid. The dessert gels slowly as it cools.
Because the collagen is processed extensively, the final product is not categorized as a meat or animal product by the US federal government.
[edit] Safety
Eating tainted beef may have led to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) in humans, but there are no known cases of variant CJD transmitted through collagen products such as gelatin.
[edit] Gelatin shots
A gelatin shot or jello shot (often known as a vodka jelly in the United Kingdom) is a party food where some sort of alcohol, usually rum, vodka, tequila or sometimes even grain alcohol replaces some of the water or fruit juice used to congeal the gel.
The American satirist and mathematician Tom Lehrer has been rumoured to have been the first to invent the gelatin shot in the 1950s while working for the National Security Agency, where he developed vodka gelatin as a way to circumvent a restriction of alcoholic beverages on base[1], but this claim has not been substantiated.
[edit] Alternatives
Some gelatinous desserts can be made with agar instead of gelatin, allowing them to congeal more quickly and at higher temperatures. Agar, a vegetable product made from seaweed, is used especially in quick jelly powder mix and Asian jelly desserts, but also as an alternative that is acceptable to vegetarians. Agar is more closely related to pectin and other gelling plant carbohydrates than to gelatin.
Another vegan or vegetarian alternative to gelatin is carageenan. This alternative sets more firmly than agar, and is often used in kosher cooking. Though it, too, is a type of seaweed, it tends not to have an unpleasant smell during cooking as agar sometimes does.
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