I recently wrote about purchasing the Experimental Texturas Kit from For the Gourmet (via Amazon.com). I decided to break it out this afternoon for an experiment. My brother and I are catering a 90th birthday party next weekend, and I want to come up with a special drink for the guest of honor, so I thought I’d use that as a starting point. The kit came with a few recipes, including one for White Sangria in Suspension. Instead of white sangria I decided to concoct a modified bellini with peach puree, white wine, and rosemary simple syrup (which I fell in love with last weekend).

Before I even got started I noticed a flaw in the recipe (and by flaw I mean the lack of professional kitchen equipment available to me in my home kitchen). The recipe recommends vacuum packing the beverage, once it’s blended with Xatnana (which I am assuming is the Adria‘s brand name for xanthan gum) in order to eliminate bubbles from the cocktail. Well, I don’t have enough in my piggy bank yet for a professional vacuum packer, so I channelled my inner Sarah Palin and went  rogue. This was the result:

Peach Goo: Perfect for Sliming an Unsuspecting Friend

The texture was both frothy and gelatinous. Not unpleasant by any means, but my mom noted “it looks like mucous,” which is now an unfortunate association that I can’t strike from my memory. I bet xanthan gum is used in the green Nickolodeon slime. But it’s also used in ice creams to create a pleasant mouth feel and and in processed salad dressings to stabilize emulsions. For now, I need to mull over possible applications in my own cooking. The most logical use for me would be to add it to the mix the next time I make gelato.

Has anyone out there incorporated xanthan gum into their culinary repetoire? I’d love to know what you are using it for.

Photos © StellaCadente*

–StellaCadente*