Product review: Artistre Experimental Kit

As fun and exciting as molecular gastronomy and its applications in cooking can be, it is admittedly easier to dabble in if you happen to work in a kitchen with the necessary products on hand.  If you aren't in the industry and want to do things at home, it's not that the techniques are all that excessively difficult, it's more that tracking down the special ingredients can be tough, and often can only be bought in larger quantities than you need or want to make shelf space for.  Maybe you aren't sure which applications suit your style best, you might experiment with one or two things that are ok, then stop short of the one spectacular product that you would love because you didn't want any more "stuff" cluttering the kitchen.  Artistre has simplified the process for you.

This kit exposes you to a great variety of products - some used together, some on their own, but all with fun and interesting effects.  The amounts of each product are smaller, to cut down the clutter, but large enough to try each product a few times.  By the time you use up one thing, you will know if you like it and can choose to purchase a larger quantity of that one on its own.  Some experimental kits give you way too little of each product, and you would use it up in one or two applications - not much room to test if you like it if one of those attempts doesn't work out.

For reference, the Artistre set give you - for powders: Tapioca Malto-Dextrin; for spherification: Sodium Citrate, Calcium Chloride, Calcium Lactate Gluconate, Sodium Alginate and Calcium Lactate; for thickening: Xanthan Gum; for emulsification:  Soy Lecithin and Glycerin Flakes; for gelification: Agar Agar, Methocel F50 and Kappa Carrageenan.  Take my word for it, this is a pretty great selection which will allow you to try a lot of different things.  CHECK IT OUT HERE.