This is a blog post about gelatin. Why? Well the BBC doesn’t seem to understand what it is yet, and if that glorious institution doesn’t know what’s about, what hope is there for the rest of us? Let me explain. A couple of weeks ago, on the Great British Bake-Off, Mel (she is the less awesome one off of Mel and Sue, I thought she was dead for years, true fact) was learning about the history of jelly. She was flabbergasted to learn that calves feet were one of the main components. “I don’t like the thought of cow in my jelly,” she complained and later, “oooh it doesn’t taste too meaty though, does it?” when she tried some. Which is weird when you consider she’d spent all that morning trying out different types of trifle filled with, yes, jelly. And what’s in jelly Mel? Cows feet, that’s what.
This isn’t the first time the BBC have been a bit confused about gelatin though, oh no. A few years ago I went looking for a panna cotta recipe from Masterchef on the BBC website. The recipe was marked with a big green “V” to show it was vegetarian, despite the fact one of the main ingredients was gelatin! I (politely) emailed the BBC to point out their mistake. The e-mail I got back pointed out that as gelatin could easily be replaced with a veggie alternative, the recipe was considered vegetarian. What.
1) That’s like calling a beef chow mein vegetarian because you could replace the beef with asparagus. I think the BBC sort of missed the point of a vegetarian recipe there, like that all its ingredients have to be meat free.
2) Gelatin is a very different substance to most veggie substitutes and cannot be easily replaced. It’s not like swapping chicken pieces with quorn, or parmesan with a rennet-free cheese. In a lot of cases the recipe (including the panna cotta one in question) has to be completely changed.
3) Let’s say you don’t know what gelatin is. You’re a new veggie convert or a meat eater wanting to cook for veggie friends. Hell, you might even be allergic to bovine gelatin (I know someone who is) or unable to eat porcine gelatin for religious reasons. Mark a gelatinous recipe as vegetarian and you’re leaving yourself open to all sorts of unhilarious misunderstandings.
I told the BBC all this of course, in a slightly less polite e-mail. They didn’t reply, and they certainly didn’t change the recipe’s listing. Sigh. There go my chances of appearing on QI.
Of course you may be reading this and wondering what the dilly-oh I’m going on about, so now we’re going to have GELATIN! A brief introduction….
Technically, technically gelatin is hydrolysed form of collagen (I got that from Wikipedia) which is used in photographic film, glues, cosmetic products and foodstuffs including jellies, marshmallows, gummy and boiled sweets, and occasionally in yogurts, wine and ice lollies. It’s also found in the shells of pharmaceutical capsules (tablets) to make them easier to swallow and used as a carrier for some food colourings. And this is where it comes from:
Yes, BBC, that’s why there’s a cow in your jelly. Oops. Fear not my chums, all is not lost. Your humble blog lady is at hand with a quick guide to living life gelatin free!
Jelly
Let’s start with the biggie. If you’re looking to make a trifle or fancy some jelly and ice-cream you’re going to need, well…jelly! I’m yet to find a packet o’ vegetarian jelly at the super-market, so instead I go for this:
Jelly crystals by Just Wholefoods! They come in lemon, raspberry, strawberry and tropical fruit varieties and are available via the Just website http://www.justwholefoods.co.uk/ or at many health food stores. And here’s a fun fact for you, veggie jelly is actually cooler than gelatin jelly. Why? You can put pineapple in it. Pineapple contains an enzyme that breaks down the gelatinous properties in gelatin so the jelly won’t set. Not so with this stuff. You go right on ahead and put pineapple in there. I normally do. If I owned a jelly mold and it wasn’t almost midnight I’d do that right now.
If you’re looking for a straight up gelatin alternative, why not try one of these:
VegeSet, also by Just Wholefoods, is on the left there and Vege-Gel by Dr Oetker on the right. Both are mostly carrageenan which is a red seaweed extract. I bought the VegeSet in an independent whole food shop and the Vege-Gel was a birthday present. They work in a similar way to gelatin but being powder, not solid, you will have to be a bit creative when it comes to recipes. Vege-Gel has handy instructions on the packet on how to substitute it for gelatin, but I’ve not had the chance to use it yet so I can’t comment on how effective it is. VegeSet works for me about 80-90% of the time, and that’s me just sprinkling some in and hoping for the best :p.
Marshmallows
Oh man, let me just wax on for a moment about how good the marshmallows from the good people at Need Sweets are… No wait, actually I already did that here —> https://facon500.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/veg-fest-uk-bristol/ They are. Delicious. Want to try them for yourself? Order through their website http://www.needsweets.co.uk/marshmallow-menu.html
I also love Ananda Foods’ vegan marshmallows 🙂 And according to their website they’ve just started doing veggie wagon wheels as well! Be still my beating heart! I used to get these from Beanies in Sheffield, but you can order online http://www.anandafoods.co.uk/buy-marshmallows.html
If you have a quick marshmallow craving that the web cannot satisfy, Tesco do gluten free vegetarian Rocky Road bars as part of their Free From range. It has tiny little marshmallows in it. And it is lovely. Although I do hate promoting Tesco urgh… http://palantirqueen.deviantart.com/art/Ode-to-Tesco-292103888
I’ve only tried making marshmallows once. And it went terribly. I think it was because I tried to be clever and make white chocolate ones with raspberry centres. Oooops…..
Sweets
So many gummy sweets, so little veggie! Actually that’s a complete lie, and the market is much, much better than it was even a decade ago. There are plenty of gelatin free treats available on the high-street, but here are some of my faves.
Organic VegeBear’s Fruit Jellies by Just Wholefoods. Gummy bears in four fruity flavours, and the range includes Cola Koalas and sour fruits as well! Find in a Holland Barrett or via the Just Wholefoods website.
Goody Good Stuff Sour Mix & Match. Super sour and super chewy! And their mascot is a cute koala, what’s not to love? Available in Holland and Barrett and Amazon apparently, via their website http://www.goodygoodstuff.com/
Chewits! Chewits are veggie, thank the hypothetical gods because I love the blackcurrant ones! They’re quite hard to find this far south but when I lived in Sheffield I used to get ’em all the time :p :p Available pretty much everywhere. Except the blackcurrant ones. For some reason.
Mike and Ike are another veggie favourite of mine. They used to be hard to find except in American candy stores, but nowadays you can sometimes find them in 99p stores of all places and newsagents. And speaking of American candy stores…
Swedish Fish! These were a birthday present from my Mum who got them from an American candy store in Brighton. I just tried a few, for research purpose you understand, and I conclude they are both delicious and adorable. Some of them are tiny puffer-fish! Woop!
Jelly Tots are also veggie, but whether or not you want to be caught eating a Nestle product is up to you. Similarly with Skittles and Starburst, produced by the animal testing Mars corporation. Marks and Sparks do a range of veggie Percy Pigs (they have green ears to set them apart) but to be honest, I wasn’t that impressed by the taste or the texture.
Finally, the big daddies of the chewy sweet world, the mighty Haribo!
Vegetarian Haribo sweets first started appearing a few years ago and I was at first reluctant to try them. For one thing a lot of my friends said the texture was awful and for another I didn’t like the writing on the back of the packet. “We know that vegetarians love Haribo too, so we’ve created a bag just for you!” Yeah. Well. Nice rhyming Haribo, you cretins, why not make all your sweets veggie, instead of graciously giving us our own special widdle bag? Eh? EH? Rant over. They taste grand, especially the strawberry ones. The cola bottles, not so much. I hate cola. And the texture is a little stodgy but as I’ve never eaten normal Haribo I’ve nothing to compare it to. *Does a Gregg Wallace voice* It’s fruity, it’s chewy, I like it!
Turkish Delight does not, traditionally, contain gelatin as it’s made from corn starch, but some cheap varieties do use it. Some boiled sweets also contain gelatin, for some weird reason. Always best to check the packet, or jar if you’re in an olde fashionede sweete shoppe. All Swizzels Matlow mini-products are now gelatin free too, so you can enjoy Drumsticks, Refreshers and Love Hearts knowing no animals were harmed.
Miscellaneous
I said yogurts and ice lollies up the top there didn’t I? Well nine times out of ten you’ll be fine, but it never hurts to check the label! Wine can contain gelatin, especially if it’s magical box wine. If in doubt, go without. I tend to stick with a nice veggie cider from Weston’s Organic 🙂 Gelatin can also rear its ugly head as a colour carrier, most notably in yellow and orange fizzy drinks. Lilt, Lilt Zero, Kia-Ora Orange Squash No Added Sugar, Schweppes Orange Squash and Five Alive Apple Five Fruit Blend are all off the menu, but then Coca-Cola are a horrible company who do horrible things to nice people, so who wants to give them any money? Okay, regular coke is fine. If you must. Grrr. Holland and Barrett do veggie and vegan alternatives to most of their tablets containing gelatin. It took me a long time to find veggie migraine tablets though, thankfully Sainsbury’s do a cheap, effective and veggie own brand alternative to the popular Migraleve. In case anyone reading this suffers from head aches like I do.
Hmm, I think that might be all for now. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading and I’ll be back soon with some yummy recipes and even more rambling bloggery 🙂 Now, where did I put the rest of those Swedish Fish….
If you want any advice on where to buy the best veggie products, cooking tips or just to rant at me that you burnt your facon, feel free to drop me a line at facon500@gmail.com or via facebook.com/500thingstodowithfacon and @500faconthings on Twitter.
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