Xanthan gum.
You've probably heard of it, you may have even already used it, but do you
know all the tips and tricks on how do you use this product correctly?
So today on WTF, we're going to go over all the various uses of xanthan gum.
Hello and welcome to WTF where we transform food here in the
Modernist Pantry test kitchen.
I'm chef Scott Guerin, and I'm Janie Wang, the owner of Modernist Pantry.
So today, Scott and I have an ingredient for you that you may have already
heard of, it's called xanthan gum.
I would say xanthan gum is easily the most mainstream of
our many specialty ingredients.
And Scott, you know, what exactly is xanthan gum in a few words
and what are its main functions?
So, xanthan gum is an ingredient that is grown on fungus and it
takes its name from the bacteria that actually grows on the fungus.
And before you say, whoa, it's grown on a fungus, mushrooms are a
fungus and mushrooms are delicious.
But that is taken, and then it's used in many different ways, either in thickening
or stabilization or even suspension in sauces to soups to many different things.
Right.
And you've probably already had xanthan gum many times in your life.
Anytime you've gone out to eat something, the chances are there's
xanthan gum in a lot of stuff.
So, you know, what exactly when, when someone wants to go and use xanthan
gum, what are some of its ratios?
What are some of the, you know, how do you incorporate it and what
are some things to look out for?
So xanthan gum, it's using such a small amount to what you are making and I want
to show a little bit of a demonstration here, because if you add the correct
amount of xanthan gum, you can get a really full-bodied experience with
such a small amount of an ingredient.
So here we have, this is brine from pickles.
This has no xanthan gum, so you can see it flows easily.
Just like water.
Yep, it's just like water.
If you have the correct amount of xanthan gum, you get a nice bead off of it and
it will give a good mouth texture, but if you overdo it with xanthan gum, because
you use it in such a small quantity, people think you have to add a teaspoon
or tablespoon of these ingredients, but this, you need to add such a small amount
because if you do add a teaspoon or tablespoon, you end up with this gloopy
mess, which some people call snotty, and I don't think that's delicious for anyone.
It certainly isn't, yeah.
So another part of our demonstration here, this is one liter of water measured
out, and with these ingredients, we absolutely suggest getting a, you know,
a small capacity measuring tool, a scale, to measure these out because this right
here is the correct amount to start measuring with and that is 0.05% of
the weight of this one liter of water.
Right.
So it is less than an 8th of a teaspoon and they don't really make 16th of a
teaspoon, 32nd of a teaspoon because no one's really measuring, you know, and
thickening one liter of water at home.
And sometimes not even in restaurants, because if you're making relish,
you're not going to be having that much liquid in it, so you're not
going to be able to measure this with a teaspoon or tablespoon.
So I would absolutely suggest getting a scale and measuring it in there
because this right here is the correct amount to start with and
there is something in this container, it's not just an empty container.
Yep.
And just so for reference, you know, about a thousand grams of water, you're
getting half a gram of xanthan in order to get the correct textures and when
you go beyond that, it just becomes the snotty mess that you see here.
So, you know, if you have like the right ratio you're using at that 0.05% and you
get this nice coating, what are some of the applications that you can use it for?
And I know we have something on the table here to show people, you
know what exactly, how can people incorporate that into their restaurant?
Yeah, so right here, we'll start with the recipe that we have out here.
This is from the pickle recipe that we have at blog.modernistpantry.com.
We took it, we diced them up and then we make a relish out of it.
And generally at home you'll make a relish and it will drip, and all the
liquid will just sink to the bottom.
And there's a lot of plopping.
But with this, yeah, you can't see any liquid coming off this, even
if I tilt the, you know, the spoon, no liquid is coming off, because
it's helping with that suspension.
It's keeping those, you know, those little diced up cubes in with the liquid
so when you spread it on something, it goes on evenly, just like you would,
if you had it at, you know, if you bought it at a grocery store, it's
always in that beautiful consistency.
That's xanthan gum for you.
So you've had xanthan gum if you've had a real commercial relish.
It's also used in many other things.
Xanthan gum loves working well with other ingredients.
It's a team player, right?
Yeah, it's just a great team player.
So if you mix it with methylcellulose, you can make beautiful stable foams.
If you mix it with locust bean gum, you have a great jelling agent because now
they're working together to make more than what they initially are, because
those are two thickening agents that now make a gel, and then you can put it into
ice cream to soften up those crystals so you get a nice, smooth ice cream.
People love to use it in gluten-free baking.
Now you can use it in gluten-free baking.
A lot of people do.
There's tons of recipes out there for it.
Is it the best?
I wouldn't say it's the best.
I don't know if it, I don't think you would say it's the best either,
because we have some really great ingredients for that, but people love
to use this cause it's just ease of use and getting it in there, but we would
suggest going with something else.
Well, I think it was the first ingredient that was available for gluten-free
baking, but it doesn't provide any of the structure or lift that you really want.
So definitely use it for thickening, use it for stabilization.
In our opinion, skip it for the gluten-free baking.
And then over here, we actually have two different types of xanthan
gum that we carry at the store.
What are the two, you know, what's the main difference between the
regular and our perfected version.
All right.
So the regular is the one that you're most commonly going to find.
When you're using xanthan gum, you always want to use either a blender,
an emergent blender, something high-powered so you can really kind of
get it in there and get it to hydrate.
Right, so the spoon is not going to do it.
No, it's not sugar.
It's not going to dissolve right in there.
It needs to be sheared into it, that just means a blended at a high rate of speed.
With the perfected, which is really great, it's pre-hydrated, so it mixes
in beautifully, easily, and you don't get all these extra air bubbles.
Cause, remember I mentioned suspension earlier, this is suspension.
I made this two days ago and it's holding onto all those air bubbles and
that comes directly from the blender.
When you're using it at such a high amount like this too, you're just gonna, you
know, hold onto all that air and it's not going to make a really beautiful product.
The perfected helps you get away from that because you put it
in, in about a minute it's done.
It's ready to go.
Yeah.
So just to kind of recap real quick.
So xanthan gum goes great in a lot of things where you want to have
that stability and you want to have that thickening and you want to
have a little bit of suspension.
Use it in teeny, teeny tiny amounts.
Start at what, like 0.05, 0.10?
Yeah 0.05 is probably where you want to start, 0.10 if you're making a relish, to
0.20, but don't go above 0.35, that's the biggest takeaway you can have from this.
Don't go above that.
You don't want this texture and neither do your customers or
your friends or your family.
Yeah.
If you have any questions about xanthan gum, definitely, you know,
email in or leave it in the comments below and we will get back to you.
So from the Modernist Pantry test kitchen, I am Janie Wang.
And I'm Scott Guerin.
We hope you enjoyed today's episode.
And if you want these great recipes and these awesome ingredients, first,
you're going to have to like, comment and subscribe, and then you're going
to go to blog.modernistpantry.com, where you can find those awesome
recipes, and you can ask a chef.
And to get these great ingredients, go to modernistpantry.com.
And until next time, we'll be here in the Modernist Pantry test
kitchen, helping you transform food.