This recipe offers a double explosion in the mouth, both in terms of textures and flavors. Encapsulation is a gelation technique, based on the fact that sodium alginates (long chain of polysaccharides) can bind to each other thanks to calcium (bridging agent). When the drop falls into the calcium, a thin film of gel forms and retains the fluid in the heart. Bitten in a minute, the marble pierces your mouth and explodes. The scented liquid floods the palate and the tongue. Tenderness (but hold) of the oyster, liquid and fine jelly: explosion of textures!
In the recipe proposed here, we also play on a particular association of products, whose flavors match each other. (food pairing). Indeed, spectroscopic measurements show that lychee, oyster and sake have many molecules in common. Thus, these molecules stimulate identical receptors and the brain perceives only coherent information: the marriage of flavors is perfect! Lychee contributes flowery and fresh notes that counterbalance the salty and fatty notes of the oyster. Sake, a volatile alcohol, rises in the retronasal pathways and also ensures floral persistence.
If cooking is a matter of taste … it is also a question of perfume: “Without the participation of smell, there is no complete tasting”, wrote Brillat-Savarin, gastronome and French magistrate (1755 -1826), in its Physiology of taste. But what are these aromatic molecules? Why do some evaporate while others create flavor? Where do flavorful molecules come from? How to preserve them, isolate them and tune them? Raphaël Haumont explores the chemical mechanisms of taste and reveals how to awaken our senses in the kitchen by playing on scents and associations of flavors, delivering in the process some recipes to make at home. A complex chemical score, at the heart of culinary emotion.
.
fs7