SC - Isenglass: clairfier and thickener

Mon Oct 26 10:03:09 PST 1998

> "the swimming bladder of certain fish".
Thanks! That really puzzled me! Swimming bladder of fish is the
"isenglas",
right? would this be a thickener?
<<<<<<<<

No, I don't think so, Brandu.  In mead-making, isenglass is the clarifying agent, which carries the cloudiness and impurities to the bottom, so that when you move all the mead and leave the dregs in the bottom of the vessel, you have a crystal-clear drink. 
Tyrca
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It turns out that insenglass can be used as a clarifier in brewing as well as a thinckener in cooking.

The prepared swim bladder of certain fish has similar ionic propeties as, of all things, gelatin.  Both are effective clarifiers by attracting the floaty charged particles of gunk together and sinking from the weight of the mass.

Both will also be effective thickeners in cooking.  Isenglass is used in one of our oft-quoted sources the title of which I cannot recall.  It is the one with perfume recipes, rosewater and herbal stuff and cooking.... late period IIRC (not Goodman of Paris).  I don't have any readily available references for gelatin as thickener.

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