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What’s this
Agar agar is a vegetable gelling agent used in cooking and in the food industry as an alternative to gelatine of animal origin. Agar agar is extracted from different types and species of red algae belonging to the Rhodophyceae class, which contain varying amounts of agar based on the conditions of the marine environment. The algae they are usually harvested by hand by fishermen at sea, but in some cases they can be cultivated. After harvesting, they are then dried and processed to obtain agar in powder, flakes or other formats. Algae harvesting and agar production is widespread in several countries including Japan, Morocco, Spain and Portugal. From a chemical point of view it is a hydrocolloid present in the cell walls of algae and is a complex mixture of polysaccharides composed of two main fractions, agarose and agaropectin. Agarose is represented to a greater extent and is the fraction responsible for the gelling properties.
Property
Agar is a natural gelling agent, very powerful and useful in the kitchen. It is normally sold in powder form and its use allows you to gel liquids at a dosage between 0.5 and 1%. Agar powder is insoluble in cold water, but dissolves easily in hot water, forming clear gels when cooling. His gelling power it exceeds that of animal gelatin by eight times.
In addition to creating stable gels, agar agar is also a good source of nutrients. Agar-agar in fact, like many other algae, is rich in calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium, as well as zinc, copper, selenium and iodine. Moreover, thanks to its property of swelling in contact with water (the agar is able to absorb water up to twenty times its weight), agar agar can increase the feeling of satiety and contribute to maintaining the ideal weight. , reducing the amount of food introduced. This substance then provides negligible quantities of calories – about three per gram – and helps to slow down the absorption of fats, cholesterol and sugars, reducing blood levels of triglycerides and cholesterol and blood sugar. The gelling power of agar agar also helps to counteract gastroesophageal reflux, forming a barrier between the stomach and esophagus that prevents food from rising.
Uses
Agar agar is mainly used in the kitchen and in the food industry to replace animal gelatin. It is therefore used to prepare puddings, spoon desserts, jellies, gummy candies in some sauces and to gel the covering of some cakes. It is a product on sale in health food stores and in shops specialized in natural food, often used in the vegetarian and vegan variants of some desserts, for example the veg alternative of cheesecake, in addition to the preparations already listed. In commercial products agar agar is used as a food additive and its presence can be detected in the list of ingredients, where it is marked with the initials E406.
Since agar agar has about eight times the gelling power of animal gelatin or isinglass, the quantity to be used are much lower. So, even if the price of an agar-agar package may seem high, in reality it is a fairly inexpensive product. Indicatively, for half a liter of liquid, two grams of agar-agar powder are sufficient, corresponding to a teaspoon. The agar-agar powder must be added to the cold liquid or at room temperature, avoiding to concentrate the powder in a single point but making it rain on the liquid. Then it is brought to a boil for about a minute, stirring, to completely dissolve the powder. The preparation will begin to gel around 30 ° C. Agar-agar can be added to cow’s milk, vegetable alternative milk drinks, soft tofu, water, in recipes where it is possible heat the liquid. Be careful to add agar-agar to acidic liquids – for example added with lemon juice – or sweetened: an acid pH in fact weakens the strength of the gel, while the presence of sugar makes the gel harder but less cohesive. the gelling power of agar-agar is exploited in analysis laboratories and in the cosmetic industry.
The agar-agar can then be used as adjuvant in diets slimming, to induce a sense of satiety and introduce fewer calories at lunch or dinner agar-agar. In this case it is necessary to dissolve one gram of agar-agar powder in a hot drink, such as a herbal tea, at least twenty minutes before the meal. If, on the other hand, you want to prevent the reflux symptoms gastroesophageal, agar-agar should be consumed after the meal.
Contraindications
The agar-agar has no particular contraindications. However, its use is not recommended in case of allergies and care should be taken if you follow oral therapies, because a continued consumption of agar-agar could interfere with the absorption of drugs. At dosages above three grams per day it has laxative action, therefore it is good not to exceed in the doses.
