A number of Planters' dry roasted products (for example Planters' dry roasted sunflower kernels) use gelatin as an ingredient to help seasonings adhere. I searched for an explanation of how gelatin is used to stick seasonings but couldn't find anything. How exactly is this process done? Is it possible to do in a home kitchen? What stage of the dry roasting process is the gelatin applied?
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I don't have enough details for a full answer... but check out this video! The seasoning mixture is sprayed on as a liquid in a rotating drum before the dry roasting.– Benjamin KuykendallCommented Apr 14 at 21:29
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1 Answer
The gelatin will be spray applied and a very light coating used. Exact replication is hard as you won't have the necessary industrial sprayers etc needed, but the good news is, for home scale, you don't need these.
Incidentally, it doesn't need to be gelatin that you use for this, you could use any liquid solution of protein that you have access to. Egg white will work quite well, as might aquafaba for a vegetarian/vegan option.
You can however get close - there are a number of recipes out there for "keto" muesli that use egg white to get clusters forming (such as this one, no endorsement implied, just a recipe I found). Basically you need to apply the egg white in a thin enough layer that it doesn't form an unpalatable layer on the surface of the nut. Check the proportions on the recipes that you find, but IIRC it's about 1 kg/2 lb of nuts/seeds per egg white to make clusters, so you probably need quite a bit less for spices and salt. It will take a little working out
The egg white is applied at the same time as the roasting. For a seasoned nut (I'm assuming you mean spices etc. here, not just salt which will stick quite happily to roasted nuts), you might want to roast them a bit beforehand, cool, then apply the seasonings and egg as one mix and then roast some more, so as to prevent burning of the seasonings.
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1Thanks for the answer. I did some experimentation with gelatin and sunflower seeds. What I found worked best was applying after roasting but while the seeds are still hot. I used 1/4 tsp of gelatin (mixed with spices and some water to form a slurry) mixed with 1 cup of sunflower seeds. I'll look into egg white/aquafaba as well. Commented Apr 16 at 16:54
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@user109921 Good to know. They would need to be hot to dry the solution onto the nuts without leaving a tacky mass behind.– bob1Commented Apr 16 at 20:03