Gus Jae wrote: > Isn't alginate made from agar, the stuff we refer to as snow tree mushroom > (snow ear)?
"Snow ear" is a fungus. Agar is from seaweed. In Shanghainese (and Chinese in general?) we call it "big vegetable cake". Alginate, judging from the word itself, may have more to do with algae... google... ahh it's made from brown seaweed or brown algae (depending on wiki's accuracy). But it's a different compound than agar. Agar is a sugar polymer. Alginate is a copolymer of mannuronate and guluronate. Bottomline is agar is no good for mold making, and alginate doesn't look promising as a food. (I'm perhaps biased because the dentist alginate looks like... hmm "concrete jelly"). In case someone ask... Jell-o (jelly in English) is made from gelatin, a protein (as opposed to agar's being sugar) from animal skin, tendon and bone. -- Dr. Core -------------------------------------------------- The Gundam Mailing List MK-II [email protected] Archives: http://www.gundam.com/gml Help: Email [EMAIL PROTECTED] with this in the BODY: help list
