Cream, whole milk, sugar, egg yolks, green tea powder and vanilla sticks – the ingredients for Misty green sundae.

In ice cream, all the building materials of food – fat, sugar, proteins, water and air – play their part (see e.g. Anu Hopia’s book Kemiaa keittiössä in Finnish). All the standard states of substance come together in ice cream: it is a solution (sugar dissolved in water), a suspension (mixture of solid and liquid), a foam (mixture of air and liquid) and an emulsion (mixture of fat and water). In addition, water takes three different forms in ice cream: solid (ice crystals), liquid (the part that’s left unfrozen) and vapour (steam in the air bubbles). The complexity of its structure makes ice cream a perfect research subject for molecular gastronomy, a scientific discipline that studies the physical and chemical processes that occur while cooking.

Mixing the ingredients.

While molecular gastronomy seeks to investigate and explain the chemical reasons behind the transformation of ingredients like, for example, why different cooking temperatures make different eggs, it also looks at the social, artistic and technical components of culinary phenomena at large. The term “Molecular and Physical Gastronomy” was coined in 1988 by a Hungarian physicist Nicholas Kurti and a French physical chemist Hervé This. “I think it is a sad reflection on our civilization that while we can and do measure the temperature in the atmosphere of Venus we do not know what goes on inside our soufflés,” Kurti explained his interest in molecular gastronomy. In addition to his studies in ingredients, Kurti also worked on new cooking techniques such as making meringue in a vacuum chamber or cooking sausages by connecting them across a car battery.

“It is a sad reflection on our civilization that while we can and do measure the temperature in the atmosphere of Venus we do not know what goes on inside our soufflés.” – Nicholas Kurti

While it feels natural that chefs are fascinated about things like the structure of food or new methods of approaching ingredients, the public interest towards molecular gastronomy seems to be increasing as well. “People are interested in the origins of food – in what they put in their mouth – and molecular dishes often look impressive,” restaurant Luomo’s Jouni Toivanen says. “On the other hand, I’ve heard people refuse to eat molecular food, thinking that it’s something artificial or dangerous. To them, I’ve explained that they are made out of molecules themselves.”

Cooking the mixture in a vacuum bag in 82 °C water for 12 minutes.

Toivanen got interested in molecular gastronomy by working in Spain for a year and getting to know Ferran Adrià‘s late El Bulli restaurant. “However, while Adrià draws on the food industry in new additives for dishes, I prefer Heston Blumenthal‘s [the owner of Fat Duck] approach which looks into existing ingredients and what new things can be done with them,” Toivanen explains. Blumenthal, like Pierre Gagnaire in Paris, works together with a chemist. In their case, scientific food discoveries are made in a true cross kitchen.

Sieving the cooled-down mixture for the blender.

Toivanen’s small kitchen laboratory in Kruununhaka, Helsinki, has discovered dishes such as a forest granita with spruce buds, berries, steaming dry ice and forest scent, or ‘Organic egg 64,7°C’. While Adrià defines his cooking as deconstructivist, Toivanen talks about re-creating stories with his food, like taking people mentally to the forest, while they’re actually having dinner in his restaurant.

Almost ready.

Misty green sundae

0,5 l cream
0,5 l whole milk
10 egg yolks
2,5 dl sugar
3 pcs vanilla sticks (with seeds squeezed out)
One teaspoon of green tea powder
Roasted halva crumbs

Mix everything together. Cook the mixture in a vacuum bag (or bain-marie) in 82 °C water for 12 minutes. Cool the liquid down (ideally letting it marinate over night in the fridge), sieve it and pour it into a blender. Add liquid nitrogen (-156 °C) into the mix while constantly stirring the liquid (alternatively, use an ice cream maker or put the liquid into the freezer giving it an occasional stir until frozen). Scoop the ready-made ice cream and place it on a bed of roasted halva crumbs.

Adding the liquid nitrogen for a mist.