Xanthan gum 'seeds' in sauce
Update: I managed to properly incorporate the gum without any clumping. I used an immersion blendsr (blade attachment) and mixed it with sugar this time, and it helped.
To thicken a home made tomato sauce, I tried added xanthan gum. While the sauce did thicken (too much in fact, it was mucus like), it resulted in little white 'seeds' floating in the sauce, which was visually unappealing.
First, I placed the sauce in a tall metal cup. I placed my immersion blender (with whisk attachment) inside and turned it on.
With the high speed immersion blender whirring inside, I sprinkled xanthan gum inside, bit by bit.
The xanthan gum powder did not mix well and white 'seeds' could be seen floating in the sauce.
Are the 'seeds' a result of the xanthan gum clumping together? What should I do differently to mix it well to avoid this from happening
I should note that the sauce was quite hot (between 160F- 180F) when I added the gum. The sauce also consisted of mainly vinegar, and some sugar.
Best Answer
Kevin's answer is close: a slurry is best, but the mechanism and technique are different than starch based thickeners. With starches, the cells explode when heated, but xanthan gum simply needs to be hydrated, and it can be hydrated at any temperature.
Mix a smaller amount of xanthan gum in water in your metal cup, add water, and blend it with your immersion blender. For your slurry, you're looking for a consistency which is much thicker than your sauce, but still thin enough to be able to stir in fairly easily. Like you said, add too much and you'll end up with a pan of tomato snot. A one percent mixture (1 gram of xanthan gum per 100 grams of liquid, by weight) will be pretty thick, even if the starting liquid is water. A little dab will do ya!
Good luck!
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How do you use xanthan gum in sauce?
Using Xanthan Gum as a Thickening Agent To thicken up your recipes, blend the xanthan gum into the liquid that you'd like to thicken, then stir it around, and it will thicken instantly. When used to thicken soups, sauces and creams, the amount of xanthan gum needed will vary depending on the desired consistency.Can you add xanthan gum to sauce?
For sauces, blending the xanthan gum first with a bit of oil before adding the soy milk or rice milk produces the best taste and texture, as this gives the sauce richness and depth that would normally be achieved by cream, butter or eggs. The more xanthan gum is used in a liquid the thicker it will become.How do you mix xanthan gum without lumps?
Slurry the gum with oil: Mix one part gum in five parts of your organic solvent (soybean oil, propylene glycol, etc.). This coats the gum particles and prevents them from lumping when added to your production tank.How do you add xanthan gum to hot sauce?
In general, use 1/8 teaspoon per cup of hot sauce to thicken the sauce. Use 1/4 teaspoon or more for a thicker hot sauce. Again, you don't need to heat the sauce for thickening, particularly when making fermented hot sauces, where you don't want to lose the probiotic benefits. Also, Xanthan gum is a vegan product.ChefSteps Nerd Alert: All About Xanthan Gum
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Answer 2
Flour or cornstarch are added to broth to make gravy. The recommended practice here is to mix the thickener with the cold broth and allow the entire mixture to heat together. Adding cornstarch to hot broth will cause clumping because the outside of a clump will gel, trapping any unhydrated starch inside, where it will slowly gel as well into a ball. One way to avoid this when making gravy is to remove some of the thin gravy and allow it to cool. Add the thickener, mix well and incorporate the hydrated starch into the hot mixture.
Your xanthan gum likely behaves in the same manner. If you feel you need to use this procedure in the future, add the thickener to cold liquid and incorporate the slurry into the hot liquid.
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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