Gelatin

I’ve been really wanting to make some coffee panna cotta for a long time but haven’t gotten around to it. I do have some Great Lakes gelatin at home – not the gelatin but the hydrosylated stuff or whatever that just mixes instantly. Put it in smoothies and stuff from time to time.

@saisrice – The easiest way to do it is to just mix the gelatin with the juice and add a bit of salt. This approach, however, yields a smoothie-like texture that is drinkable, and it really never turns into a Jello-like consistency. In any case, for this approach I mix two tablespoons of gelatin (I use great lakes beef gelatin) per pint of juice. (We have a juicer, so we make the watermelon juice that way. I don’t know of any commercial watermelon juice. Without a juicer I suppose you could just squeeze the juice manually, but that would probably be very messy.) When mixing gelatin with cool liquids you have to “bloom” it if you want it to mix evenly and not clump. To do this you sprinkle the gelatin over the surface of the juice a little at a time to avoid clumps.

For a Jello-like consistency you need to heat the juice after you’ve dissolved the gelatin in it or add heated liquid to the liquid in which the gelatin is dissolved. The latter is easier usually. It is important to dissolve the gelatin in cool juice first. Add gelatin to 1/4 of total liquid, and dissolve completely. Then, after 5 minutes or so, add remaining 3/4 liquid that has been heated so that it is hot to touch. It doesn’t need to be boiling, but should be hot. Mix well and then pour into mold and chill in refrigerator until firm. Generally at least two tablespoons gelatin per pint of total liquid is necessary to make it firm, and more gelatin will make it firmer. You can also add additional sugars if you want, but I find that using fruit juice for the liquid instead of diluting it with water tends to be sweet enough and it retains the fruit juice flavor that I am after (plus I eat a lot of other sugars throughout the day.) I haven’t tried adding salt to Jello-style gelatin, and I expect it would make it less firm.

I eat so much (lately I’ve been eating 4000+ calories a day at least) and routinely eat salt straight that I don’t personally worry about foods being heating or cooling. With that said, I find that fruit juice gelatin is perhaps slightly cooling, though less so when I make it smoothie-style with salt. It is a great refreshing snack on hot summer days, and I probably wouldn’t eat so much of it while outside during the winter. I find that Jello-style can be a nice addition to a meal that includes salty, cheesy potatoes fried in butter, for example, and in that context it wouldn’t be too cooling.

Gelatin is also great for making homemade marshmallows! For irony’s sake I found a recipe that is paleo/scd/gaps-friendly. http://www.mommypotamus.com/homemade-marshmallow-recipe-gaps-paleo-scd/