Molecular Gastronomy Courtesy of Sodium Alginate

Alginate is a natural and skin-safe mold making material that can be easily used to capture detailed molds from the live human body. However, the use of alginate is not restricted to life casting alone.

EnvironMolds offers a food grade sodium alginate that is actually a popular food additive. It does not have a discernible flavor and is entirely safe as well. The powder is regularly used to thicken and emulsify sauces, syrups, jams, salads and pie fillings. It also serves to stabilize yoghurt, ice cream, cheese and other products. It can even bind meat, improve the texture of noodles and give the desired crumb texture in baked goods.

 Apart from this, sodium alginate displays some unique properties that enable chefs to display some extraordinary modernist feats in the kitchen.

For instance, sodium alginate and calcium salts can be used to shape a liquid into spheres. The gelling can make both small and large spheres. All of them will contain liquid that literally bursts in the mouth. The taste will not be altered either.

This spherification procedure can even be reversed to produce thicker spheres that can last longer. In fact, sodium alginate can be used to make gastronomic spheres from literally any edible liquid.

You can find varied kinds of alginate, including the food grade ones on www.artmolds.com. If you are interesting in replicating living figures, the website even offers instructional books, videos and live workshops on how to make molds for body casting.