We often hear about alum, a substance that is heavily used for water treatment and disinfection, especially in flood areas and is widely used in industry. As the name is quite familiar to many people, but not everyone understands what acidity is? What is the application of alum in culinary like? Let's find out to discover about this material, answer questions, curiosity about alum.
If previously you only knew alum is an industrial use, or to make in water, now you know that alum has many other uses in daily life, especially alum is also applied. much in culinary. Using a small amount of alum will be safe for health and useful for the foods you prepare. Let's find out more about what alum is and its application in cuisine.
What is alum?
Alum acid, also known as aluminum alum, is a double sulfate salt of potassium and aluminum, with the chemical formula is KAl (SO4) 2, also known as Potassium alum. Acid sulfate alum has small irregular shape, colorless or white crystals, can also be clear or slightly opaque. Alum is soluble in water, insoluble in alcohol.
Alum is not poisonous, sour taste, little soluble in cold water but very much soluble in hot water, so it is easy to purify by crystallizing in water. Because of the precipitation of Al (OH) 3, when stirred into water, the small soil particles suspended in turbid water will become larger and heavier and sink to make the water clear. So alum is often used to filter in water.
Alum has many uses. Photo: Internet
Alum is an inorganic compound, prepared from the main materials of clay (containing Al2O3), sulfuric acid and K2SO4. Alum has a sour taste, helps detoxify, low apple, antiseptic skin, cure stomach diseases, enteritis, rheumatism, used to make medicines to treat toothache, eye pain, hemostasis, coughing up blood (types of hemorrhage). Besides, alum also works to beautify the skin, treat acne, clean yellow stains on the shirt ... Acid alum is also widely used to purify water, tanning, fireproof fabric and baking powder.
Alum also has many different names in Sino-Vietnamese such as vũ nát, vũ trạch, nát thạch, minh thạch, trần phong thạch, tất phàn, minh phàn, phàn thạch…
Application of alum in cuisine
In addition to its use in water treatment, in medicine applications, alum is also applied in many cuisines. Alum has the effect of increasing the whiteness and brittle of foods like jam and pickles. If you limit the use of alum acid can replace with lime water soaked in food also helps food more crispy. These two types are allowed to use but need to ensure the residue is not too large.
Alum also makes the eggs last longer. The method is to soak the eggs in alum acid solution of 5%, 15 minutes after removing, the eggs will keep fresh longer. Alum is also used to eliminate the odor of pig's stomach, by using a spoon to crush alum into powder, rub on the pig's lap, then rinse, the pig's heart will reduce the odor.
Alum is used to make water in wells, use boiled deionized water to drink and cook. This is also a substance used by water plants as a flocculant to make in water sources.
Alum is also used to soak with vegetables, fruits to increase the whiteness, brittle for the product, so it is used in processing coconut jam, pumpkin jam to create toughness, transparency for raw materials. When cooking sour grapefruit tea is also favored to reduce the bitterness in the grapefruit peel. With the amount of acid alum according to the conventional recipe, the dish or product will not affect health.
Alum is used to soak squash to create crunchy, clear to make pumpkin jam - Photo: Internet
Acidic alum has a weak acidity, which stimulates baking soda to release carbonic gas, so it is used as baking soda in baked goods. The weak acidity of aluminum alum makes baking cakes when coming into the oven, but not rushing when kneading the dough.
Aluminum foil contains about 10% alum acid (or 0.5g aluminum / liter of water). At this level, alum is not a concern. The amount of acidity used to filter water is about 20mg / liter, but aluminum precipitates during the filtration process. Therefore the residual aluminum residue in the country is insignificant. Aluminum alum used in baking powder, must comply with the maximum level allowed by the safety agency depending on the type of cake.
So we have learned what acidity is and its application in cuisine. Thereby you can apply to use alum properly for each of your foods. Alum can be purchased at supermarkets, markets, and grocery stores. In addition, you can order online to buy alum. Current sales websites.