What ingredients will allow me to make a foam with a whipped cream charger?
So I have an iSi whipped cream charger. There are a series of recipes that sound really interesting, but I don't quite understand what ingredients you need in order to make a stable foam / mousse. Some common ingredients seem to be cheese, cream, and gelatin. But I've also seen recipes with chocolate and water (melted and combined), lecithin, or even scrambled eggs with sous vide eggs, skim milk, and butter.
So what ingredients are a must for making a foam? How do they work?
I must admit, I'm more interested in the "how" than the "what". The what seems to be pretty well defined in the list or recipes, but I want to be able to create my own culinary treats and understanding the process is invaluable in making things up.
Best Answer
A foam is just a liquid with plenty of air incorporated into it. You can incorporate air into any liquid; in order to be able to create an actual foam, however, you need to be able to incorporate the air faster than it escapes.
What makes a liquid able to hold the air you're incorporating (and hence form a foam) is a foam stabilizer, also commonly called an emulsifier1. I know of no specific taxonomy of stabilizers, but the vast majority are hydrocolloids AKA gelling agents and belong to some family of protein.
- Agar, carrageenan, alginate, xanthan, and pectin are all types of polysaccharide;
- Lecithin is mostly a random collection of phospholipids;
- Gelatin is denatured collagen, i.e. animal protein;
- Whey protein is the prevalent protein in dairy products;
And so on. Really almost any emulsifier will do. Basically everything in your list either is, or contains, one of the the additives mentioned above:
- Chocolate is almost always emulsified with soy lecithin;
- Eggs contain high amounts of lecithin;
- Milk and cream contain whey protein;
- Most "supermarket cream" also has emulsifiers like carrageenan already in it.
...you get the picture, I hope. The most basic answer I can give to this is that if you want to make a foam, you need to either use something that's already an emulsion (milk, butter, chocolate, etc.) or use an emulsifier/stabilizer additive (such as gelatin, lecithin, etc.)
If you want a relatively complete list of all of the food additives that qualify, you'll want to look at the E number, and specifically E400-499 (thickeners, stabilizers, emulsifiers).
1. As commenter Erik very correctly points out, an emulsifier is not the same thing as a foam stabilizer. However, by convention, the terms seem to be used interchangeably all over the place, to the extent that I get blank looks when I refer to a "stabilizer" as opposed to "emulsifier". So, know the difference, but don't get too hung up on it.
Pictures about "What ingredients will allow me to make a foam with a whipped cream charger?"
How do you make foam in a whipped cream dispenser?
To dispense your foam, invert the cream-whipper over your drink and squeeze the discharge lever. This forces the liquid under pressure from the dissolved gas out of the whipper through the narrow nozzle. As it leaves the nozzle it expands forming a foam.What are whip cream chargers filled with?
1. Why might this patient be abusing whipped cream chargers? Whipped cream chargers, colloquially known as \u201cwhippits,\u201d \u201cwhippets,\u201d or \u201chippie crack,\u201d is a steel cartridge filled with nitrous oxide (N2O) gas.What liquids can you whip?
Besides cream, you can whip that way a few other things such as ganache or mayonnaise (although mayonnaise is a bit more complicated, since it also has protein).How To Use A Whipped Cream Dispenser
More answers regarding what ingredients will allow me to make a foam with a whipped cream charger?
Answer 2
There are many, many methods to making a mousse. From simply folding melted chocolate into cream, to making a ganache and then folding that in, to making italian meringue and folding that in.......Normally, it is always something folded into a whipped cream.
My favourite way to make a supple, nice, flavourful mousse is to prepare a bombe, and fold that in.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Katerina Holmes, Charlotte May, Ketut Subiyanto, Ketut Subiyanto