[578] in Vegetarian_Support_Group
agar "jello"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (chaika@MIT.EDU)
Fri May 19 14:23:41 1995
From: chaika@MIT.EDU
To: vsg@MIT.EDU
Date: Fri, 19 May 1995 14:22:20 EDT
On veggie gelatin substitutes:
In Chinatown, or in Japanese groceries, you can get agar. This is
made from a seaweed and comes in crispy sticks about a foot long that
look like crinkly cellophane, either colorless or dyed bright colors.
When hot water is added, these dissolve and can be jelled into something
very close to jello. It is a bit stiffer than jello.
Also look in the section where they have the envelopes of barbecue mix,
fried-rice seasoning mix, etc., and sometimes you will find envelopes of
powdered agar dessert mix put out by a Thai company. These are really
good and come in exotic flavors (I think I remember a flower-scented one).
If you have bad memories of agar being used as a culture medium in some
life-science class, put that aside. This stuff is great. The plain agar
(sticks) is classically flavored with almond flavoring and mixed with fruit.
Some Asian-American cookbooks have recipes for agar desserts.
Also, I seem to remember that Ko-Jel kosher jello is made from a vegetable
source, and might itself be agar.
-Carol
