Agar Flakes vs. Agar Strands
Posted by NessaRata on Aug 15, 2008 · Member since Mar 2007 · 241 posts
I've been wanting to make my own vegan hard cheese with a "cheese" recipe that I absolutely love and I finally was able to find agar for cheap in a Chinese grocery. However, what I found was agar strands.
Now, I've seen recipes use agar flakes and powder but I was wondering what the equivalency ratios are for flakes or powder to strands so I can make the "cheese" using another recipe that makes "cheese" as a guide.
I was also wondering if I could just whiz the agar strands in my food processor and make them into flakes? Would these whizzed flakes be able to be used the same way as regular store bought agar flakes? :-\
Sorry for the long question, I just had all these thoughts racing through my head! Whew!!!
I don't know how to use the strands. If you powder them and the recipe calls for flakes only add 1/3 of the amount. You need to use 3 times more of the flakes than the powder to be equivalent (although I've also read 1:6?). Also, if you have to soak the flakes for, say, 10 minutes, you only need to soak the powder for 5 minutes.
This should be helpful: http://urbanvegan.blogspot.com/2008/02/easy-passionfruit-mousse-agar-agar.html
See: http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=21365.0
Thank you guys for all your wonderful help! I knew I could trust the vegwebbers to come up with real and reliable answers! You guys rock! ;)b
I will definitely use these tips!