Fruit pearls are tiny, caviar-sized balls that are made from fruit juice. The small balls are either flash-frozen to create a hard texture, or made through a process called molecular gastronomy. With molecular gastronomy, drops of juice are dripped into liquid nitrogen or mixed with edible chemicals and dropped in a calcium chloride solution to form chewy pearls with juicy centers. Although it sounds like an advanced project, making your own fruit pearls is easy with a few simple chemical ingredients that are widely available through the Internet.
Making Fruit Pearls
Weigh 200 grams of juice using the kitchen scale. Pour it into a small bowl and set aside.
Measure 2 grams of sodium alginate and add it to the juice.
Mix the alginate and the juice with a handheld immersion blender for one minute to combine the ingredients.
Fill a plastic syringe with the mixture and set aside.
Measure 100 grams of water and 1 gram of calcium chloride. Stir them together in a large, stainless-steel bowl.
Use the syringe to drip small drops of the juice mixture into the bowl with the calcium chloride solution. Let the pearls sit in the solution for two minutes, then remove with a ladle or spoon.