Alcademics

Tag: garbanzo

  • Aquafaba Experiments Round 3

    In previous experiments with aquafaba to replace egg white for froth in cocktails:

    I tried chickpea/garbanzo bean water from canned beans, from uncooked and cooked beans, and from chickpea flour both cooked and uncooked. 

    I found in those experiments that canned water was best for the amount and quality of froth produced, followed by uncooked flour water, followed closely by boiled bean water.

    Though I didn't love the taste of unboiled garbanzo bean flour water, I decided to try garbanzo bean flour as a solid – by adding the flour directly to the drink before shaking. 

    I tried 1/4 teaspoon chickpea flour, 1/8 tsp, amd 1/16 tsp.

    IMG_5583

    I found that 1/16th wasn't quite enough, but 1/8 teaspoon seemed to work just fine. (note this experiment was with vodka and water plus the flour) 

    One issue with using the flour (rather than water with flour in it that's left to settle as in previous experiments) is that it settles out relatively quickly to the bottom of the glass. That's why I wanted to minimize the amount in the first place. 

     

    IMG_5586

    A second issue is the flavor: though not incredibly powerful, there are notes of raw flour and a slight tannic or metallic flavor. 

    On the plus side, if only occasionally using an egg white replacement in cocktails, chickpea flour is shelf stable compared with liquid. It might be worth testing to see if the flavor of the uncooked flour and the settling is tolerable. 

    However if you're hoping to use aquafaba more often or switch to an egg white alternative permanently, I would think you'd want something that doesn't settle in the glass and has less of a flavor impact. For that, I would return to the posts with the technique by Hannes Schmitt or Aquafaba Experiments Round 1 to see a few options. 

     

     

     

  • Aquafaba Experiments Round 2

    In my previous post I tried some ways to see what preparation method makes the best aquafaba: chickpea/garbanzo bean water used in place of egg whites to make cocktails frothy. 

    To recap, I found the best aquafaba waters were, in order: 

    1. From the can
    2. Chickpea flour boiled then letting the solids settle off.
    3. Cooking water for chickpeas.

    In the next set of experiments I wanted to see if I could produce more water in cooking and see if I could use unboiled chickpea flour. So my aquafabas were:

    1. Quick-Soaked Beans Cooked for 90 Minutes in Lots of Water: I did the quick soak method this time: I brought the beans to a boil for 3 minutes, then let them soak for 2 hours before discarding the water. This water had only a slight flour aroma. 
    2. Quick-Soaked Beans Cooked for 3 Hours in Lots of Water. This had a touch of flour aroma. 
    3. Boiled Chickpea Flour Water: The same sample from the previous experiment. Its aroma was kind of like flour. 
    4. Unboiled Chickpea Flour Water: I shook some chickpea flour with water in a jar then let it settle overnight. I used only the lightest of this water to minimize solids. It had a fairly yucky "raw" flour aroma. 
    5. Second Cook Water, from previous experiment: After cooking beans, I reboiled half of them for an additional 30 minutes and kept this water.

    For the experiments, I used a Disaronno Sour (2 parts Disaronno to 1 part lemon juice), plus 1/2 ounce aquafaba.  

    Aquafaba foam experiments round two (2)

    The winners were:

    • #4 Unboiled Chickpea Flour Water. The downside to this is that it has the most flavor – I consider it tannic but others might say metallic; plus it's greyish in color compared with the brownish ones. 
    • #5 Second Cook Water, which was sort of the control. It tasted better than the winner. 
    • #3 Boiled Chickpea Flour Water. This also tasted fine/neutral. 
    • Then 1-2, the chickpea water made from long boils with lots of water, didn't produce enough foam to count. 

    Conclusions: 

    1. My experiments in boiling less beans for a long period of time failed. 
    2. Boiled chickpea flour tastes better than unboiled, plus it looks better in the glass. It's not quite as foamy but may be worth the tradeoff. 
    3. Regular chickpea cooking water is still pretty decent. It would be worth looking at the costs between using dried chickpeas vs the flour. 

    Future Experiments:

    If this chickpea flour is working so well, maybe I should try using the smallest scoop possible I can of it. I did try this previously and found that the solids were too problematic, but it's worth another shot. 

    I've now tried it and here is the post!