Fuction of Carrageenan in Jelly Making

Carrageenan can be used instead of agar powder, gelatin and pectin as a good coagulator. Jelly made by agar is not elastic enough when it is also expensive, Jelly made by gelatin must be be stored at low temperature, because the solidification and melting point of gelatin is too low. Pectin can’t gel without high degree of soluble sugar and suitable PH value, It is the shortcoming of pectin. But carrageenan has no these kind of disadvantages, Jelly made by carrageenan has appropriate toughness and strong water retention property.

Of course, There are many points we should be attention when making jelly by carrageenan.

Firstly, carrageenan belongs to konjac gel system, it has relatively high solubility, so it should make thermal insulation after boil. If the time of thermal insulation is not long enough or dissolved incompletely, the jelly will not have a good taste, It also can make the jelly too soft to shape if it is serious. On the other hand, if the thermal insulation time is too long when the carrageenan is also partial alkali, or adding buffering agent such as sodium citrate, the jelly can’t shape either.

So about the time of making thermal insulation, the suggestion is not make thermal insulation after boil in summer, the time should be ten minutes in winter, and the time should fall in between summer and winter when making jelly in spring or autumn.

Secondly, carrageenan can not resist acid, the temperature is the low the better when adding acid, 70℃-80℃ is the suggested temperature to add acid before filling or add it according to the actual process conditions. Or the the higher the temperature is, the more easily jelly be damaged and also affect the taste. Then citric acid is suggested to be added after dissolved in water, or it will lead local acidic. The PH value should be lower than 4, Other gels can be used as assistant if you need much acidic taste. The temperature of  pasteurize can also affect the taste, so it should be adjusted according to actural process conditions.

Thirdly, filter is also important, filter the liquid after boil to remove the powder of konjac can’t be dissolved. Then you can get a relatively transparent jelly, It can also achieve the transparency effect of some high-grade jelly.