[Sca-cooks] Agar, was Almond Jello

[Christine Seelye-King]

My experience with using straight agar is that it gels just fine on it's
own.  The most surprising thing is that it will harden while still hot,
something gelatine never does.  I would say that the mixes might have less
agar in them, I can't think why they'd add the gelatine though, agar does
the job just fine.  Many companies (especially in other countries) don't
usually pay much attention to keeping ingredients lists pure just because
someone might want to use a product without certain ingredients.  I remember
finding Schwepp's sparkling lemonade in England and loving it until I
started getting gastro-intestinal distress.  Upon reading the ingredients, I
found sugar, saccharine, and aspartame all in the same drink.  (I was
reacting to the nasty aspartame.)  No little swirl on the front to let me
know it was there or anything.
Our labeling laws may seem restrictive, but at least I know that I can rely
on them for accurate information about what is in a product (most of the
time, I know not everyone is 100% on top of keeping standards in line with
Fed. regulations).
Christianna