Cookbook
49
Oil and water don’t mix.
Or do they?
The best sauces and dressings have smooth, creamy
textures made by mixing oils and water based liquids to
form an emulsion. Emulsions can be made in one of two
ways: either by suspending tiny droplets of fat throughout
a water base (like mayonnaise), or conversely, by
suspending tiny water droplets throughout a fat base (like
vinaigrette). Either way, emulsifying ingredients together
creates a new flavour and texture profile that is more than
the sum of its parts.
But oil and water don’t like to be combined. So how do
you combine liquids that usually float in separate layers?
The surface tension that causes layering needs to be
broken down by literally breaking the liquids down into
tiny droplets. This can be done by shaking, whisking or
blending. Hand shaking a mixture will create droplets
about one ,th of a millimetre. While this may sound
small, droplets this size will separate soon after having
been combined.
The Boss™’ high speed blending action can create
droplets as tiny as one ,th of a millimetre.
This is about four times smaller than whisking, and ten
times smaller than shaking.
And the size of the droplets is the key to a stable
emulsion. Smaller droplets reduce surface tension,
meaning the oil and water components are less able to
pool back together. Using the Boss™, it’s possible to make
stable emulsions, without adding chemical surfactants or
stabilisers. The curved bowl, blades and blade tips help
whip the ingredients while they’re blending, meaning
emulsions which have traditionally been dicult to make
in a blender without splitting, can combine and aerate
properly before too much heat is transferred.
Droplets
1
⁄
1 000 mm
Droplets
1
⁄
10 000 mm
Hand shaken emulsion Blended emulsion