Please help me understand "hydrolyzed"

digitS'

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It is some kind of processing of a food.

I tried to see what Wikipedia had to say about it but it quickly turned into a Chemistry lesson about atoms & molecules. What about food?

What I am curious about is if I'm making a mistake by continuing to use Maggi sauce because I like it and not going back to the Asian market to find Golden Mountain sauce. (I like it, too!) They are similar but one is "naturally fermented" and one is hydrolyzed. How did they do that and what does it mean?

Steve
 

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I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that hydrolysed may be a chemical way of doing something that happens naturally during fermentation. In chemistry it has to do with splitting a molecule down into smaller parts, so i'm betting that they use some chemical, maybe an acid, to speed up the fermentation process. Maybe i could compare it to making decaf coffee - there's a quick chemical way, and a slower more natural way that doesnt add any weird chemicals. But the result is both decaf coffee.
 

digitS'

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Okay. That simplifies the chemistry, Heather. Thank You!

After reading about 4 Wikipedia paragraphs, I had no what they were talking about

shock.gif
!



Steve
 

897tgigvib

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Digit, during my college days, the early bronze age, I worked in a few restaurants and cafes. scrubbing pots or peeling taters. One of the things I did was add ice to vegetable oil and put it in the big slow blender for an hour or so. That was hydrolyzing it to shortening. When I turned it off after an hour, the cook would come back and add things to it.

The ice always broke up completely and melted while mixing with the vegetable oil. It also picked up air while blending. Sure enough, it turns into very fresh shortening, much better than store bought shortening, plus it was made with the amount of ice to oil the cook wanted. The cook, I recall his name was Dan, told me that molecules break up and reform. I always just believed it, but thinking on it, it is probably bonds that are static or easily broken that are changing. Very little energy is added, so major bonds can't be breaking. (Bonds in chemistry describe for example how 2 H's are attached to one O). There are different kinds of chemistry "bonds". Some are temporary and fleeting, just electrons switching where they are attached, other bonds are powerful and require lots of work to break. This ice and oil blending, just stirring it up for awhile breaking bonds, well, they are probably just little tail ends of oil molecules breaking off.

So, probably fermentation can do similar things.
 

digitS'

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digitS' said:
. . . I had no what they were talking about. . .
I guess I really did have no "idea."

Starting to pick up some ideas :). Thank You.

Steve
 

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In the world of food purists, hydrolyzed = bad for you. The fermented stuff is probably a healthier choice.
 

digitS'

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I used to think that Maggi sauce and Golden Mountain were soy sauces that were somehow different from other soy sauces.

Well, I still think that Golden Mountain is a soy sauce that is different from others. I'm not quite sure how but it is a better choice in soups - to my way of thinking/tasting. I don't need to reach for salt every time we want salt. There are flavorful alternatives.

What happened was that I was looking at the ingredients on the Maggi sauce bottle quite some time ago. It is a wheat-based sauce! Where did I get the idea it was made from soy? Well, that's okay - I'm fine with wheat. I live in wheat country ;). But now, DD's doctor said that she should avoid gluten because of allergies.

So, I'm reading about the history of Maggi sauce (a Nestles product). Turns out that up until about 10 or 15 years ago, it was made with soy . . . oh! Also, that it is "hydrolyzed." About.com says that Golden Mountain sauce is not "hydrolyzed" and it isn't made out of wheat so I guess I'd better find my way to an Asian market before the winter soup season really descends upon us and . . . DD stops by for lunch :p.

Picked up that Jaques Pepin cookbook, "Fast Food My Way!" "Instant" fresh veggie soup in 10 minutes!! Yes!

Steve
 

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