A plastic syringe has many uses in modernist cooking including making gel pearls and caviar. It can also be combined with food-grade plastic tubing to make gel noodles or spaghetti.
Typically the syringes used in modernist cooking range from 1.0 fluid ounce (30 ml) to 4 fluid ounces (120 ml). They are normally filled with a spherification mixture and then slowly dispensed, a drop at a time, into a setting bath to create pearls or caviar.
A second way syringes are used is make gel noodles or spaghetti. In this case the syringe is used in two different ways. Initially, it is filled with a hot flavored liquid with agar agar then injected into a length of PVC or silicon tubing. The tubing is then removed from the syringe and placed in an ice bath to cool. Once the gel has set, 2 to 5 minutes, the syringe is filled with air, reattached to the set tubing, and used push the gel out of the tubing.
Most syringes will work for creating pearls and caviar. Modernist Pantry carries three different sizes of syringes.
The easiest way to buy a plastic syringe and tubing is in a kit. Modernist Pantry has a Modernist Cuisine Gel Noodle Kit which has a syringe, 6 feet (1.8 m) of spaghetti tubing as well as the two ingredients required to make the noodles.
The tubing in the kit provides enough noodles for about one serving. For convenience it is nice to have numerous tubes on hand when creating spaghetti for your family. You can get extra tubing on Amazon
This article is by me, Jason Logsdon. I'm an adventurous home cook and professional blogger who loves to try new things, especially when it comes to cooking. I've explored everything from sous vide and whipping siphons to pressure cookers and blow torches; created foams, gels and spheres; made barrel aged cocktails and brewed beer. I have also written 10 cookbooks on modernist cooking and sous vide and I run the AmazingFoodMadeEasy.com website.
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