Modern technology is developing at a super-fast pace. Scientists have already realized many of the ideas of science fiction writers. Very soon, the world will see interactive television, and everyone can go on a space tour for the weekend. Edible paper has become the latest technology development. Read more about this miracle in the article.
What it is
Standard edible paper is very similar to a plain paper sheet. The texture is transparent or more dense. It can be pure white or have a yellowish or grayish tint, depending on the components. The most common formats are 0.4-0.7 mm thick, width or diameter depending on whether the shape of the sheet is rectangular or round, 22 cm or 33 cm. It is fresh or slightly sweet in taste, practically without calories and odorless.
A bit of history
The first edible paper (nori) appeared in Japan almost four hundred years ago. Modern rice, waffle, sugar and other food paper appeared recently - at the end of the twentieth century.
In 2003, the American chemist Tara McHugh introduced to the world her new invention - edible packaging paper, in which you can wrap sandwiches, hamburgers and anything else, and then eat along with the contents.
Other inventors immediately picked up the idea and began to create edible business cards, books, advertisements.
What edible paper is made of
Traditionally, the basis for the preparation of this product is rice flour, water and salt. Often they use tapioca - a starchy product, which is obtained from the roots of cassava edible - a valuable tropical plant.
Wafer paper is made from potato or rice starch, vegetable oil and water.
Edible sugar paper incorporates ingredients such as sugar or other sweeteners, edible dry molasses, sorbitol syrup, water, potassium sorbate, palm oil, food additives, emulsifiers and stabilizers, modified cellulose.
Recently, inventors have been experimenting with components, using specially prepared vegetable or fruit and berry purees to prepare the product, adding flavorings and food colors. As a result, edible paper turns pink with strawberry flavor, greenish with broccoli, orange with mango flavor.
Nori is a unique food paper from some types of red algae. Asian cuisine has been using this original Japanese product for over three hundred years.
Types of Edible Paper
Today there are such types of edible paper:
- waffle;
- rice;
- sugar
- glazed;
- shock transfer;
- vegetable;
- fruit and berry;
- nori.
Where to use the product
Edible paper is very widely used in cooking:
- for the preparation of rolls, rolls, pancakes, chips;
- edible photo printing for cake decorating ;
- for a decor of various dishes;
- as packaging material;
- for the production of brochures, business cards, even books.
Next, we consider in more detail how edible paper is used.
Delicious food paper dishes
Rice paper is used to make spring rolls with a very light taste. The Vietnamese prepare from it nemes - pancakes or spring rolls with filling. The filling for rice paper can be very different, but traditionally used pork minced meat, dried mushrooms, beans, carrots with herbs, hard pasta.
Before use, the rice paper is moistened, then it is easily curled, taking the desired shape. Then the pancakes are either fried (best with sesame oil) or eat without heat treatment (then the filling should be ready for use).
Japanese dishes are prepared from nori: mochi rice cakes, onigiri balls, classic rolls. Nori, decorated with laser drawings, is gaining more and more popularity. Wonderful chips are also made from nori.
Photo printing
Printing on edible paper is gaining more and more fans. To do this, use waffle, rice or sugar paper. It is refilled in a special inkjet printer for food printing, which uses food-grade inks from dyes that are safe for health.
Most often, edible paper with printed images decorates the top of the cake, previously moistened with sweet syrup and lubricated with vegetable cream, sugar glue, marzipan or mastic. To give the picture a crispness, confectioners advise glazing the food sheet itself with glaze. It will also help to avoid peeling during storage or transportation.
Sugar edible paper for cakes allows you to get the most vivid, clear and high-quality picture.
After printing, the edible sheet must necessarily dry well at room temperature, or it is placed for ten seconds in the freezer. Only after drying with food paper with photo printing can you decorate the cake.
Glazed paper is best suited for hand-painted art.
Artistic decoration of dishes
Food paper is used not only to decorate the top of confectionery, but also to decorate the sides. At the same time, food gel, jelly glaze or mastic are used for fixation.
Wafer paper is best for decoration. Confectioners do not recommend decorating the sides of the cake with sugar paper, as it gives an unwanted wave or ugly bubbles.
Also from edible paper you can make any jewelry with scissors - Christmas trees, snowflakes, hearts and other holiday tinsel. Only food paper needs to be handled more carefully than regular paper, try not to bend it.
Decorated sweets should not be kept in the freezer to avoid condensation, or in a humid room. In general, high humidity is extremely undesirable for edible paper decorations, including for food photo printing.
Food packaging
Edible packaging paper is the latest innovation. The author of the idea is the American chemist Tara McHugh. She offered the world packaging that can be eaten along with the contents. At the same time, they can be tasteless, so as not to disrupt the composition of the main dish, or have the taste of seasoning, milk sauce, ketchup, mashed potatoes, strawberries, mangoes and more.
Tara McHugh is sure that her invention is the future, it will help get rid of the world of polyethylene, plastic and foil. However, there are a lot of things: packaging is designed to preserve the product from contamination, to extend its shelf life. And who will monitor the expiration date of the food packaging itself? How to overcome the habit of buyers to touch the product with their hands? After all, then they will leave millions of germs and elementary dirt on food packaging.
In this regard, Ivan Zakharov, a student from Kazan, went much further, who suggested using not edible packaging, but water-soluble, environmentally friendly materials. Its revolutionary discovery is still at the experimental stage, but the future lies behind it. It takes four hundred years to decompose a simple plastic bag, and Zakharov’s film turns into jelly under the influence of water in a few hours, and disappears without a trace in a day.
Range and prices of products
For serial and professional production of cakes, pastries and other sweets, printers for food printing, food ink, edible paper are offered. The price of all these accessories is quite high:
- food printer costs from 10,000 rubles;
- food ink - from 3500 rubles per liter;
- 25 sheets of sugar paper - from 2500 rubles;
- 25 sheets of shock-transfer paper - from 3000 rubles;
- 25 sheets of wafer paper - from 700 rubles.
To decorate a home product, you can buy ready-made pictures on food paper. You can buy an edible photo quite inexpensively. Depending on the size, it can cost only 150 rubles. If desired, you can order an edible print according to your own sketch.
How to make edible paper
This is a painstaking and complex process. In Asia, only women who are specially trained in difficult craft are allowed to do this business. Making food paper by hand consists of four steps:
- First, you should soak the rice in cold water for eight hours. After the rice is washed very carefully and again soaked in cold water, slightly salted.
- After a few hours, the rice will swell, after which they proceed to the second stage. Rice is finely chopped with a special knife, after which the resulting crumb is poured onto a clean cloth stretched over a large container with boiling water (for example, a pan).
- Rice crumbs are kept over hot steam for 5-7 minutes, then they are transferred to a bamboo grid. Today, Asian women are less scrupulous and use wooden and even plastic grilles.
- The grill with rice crumbs is taken out to fresh air, where the mixture is carefully leveled with a thin layer and dried well. The result is a rice sheet.
Asian cuisine has many recipes, according to which a variety of seasonings are added to the rice section. It turns rice paper with a sharp or spicy taste.
Today, the food industry has fully mastered the production of edible paper. All stages are automated, and using special equipment the process takes very little time.