owels
Part One: Gelatin Streaking
- Step One Make a lot of gelatin! Trust me the kids will love this and go through it fast. Make a few batches of gelatin according to the package directions and pour into large Tupperware containers. They should take a few hours to overnight to set.
- Step Two Place a few paper towels down on a tray.
- Step Three Run a butter knife around the edges of the gelatin to release it then flip over and let gravity release them from the molds.
- Step Four Place the gelatin on top of the paper towels.
- Step Five Bust out the syringes and color! Place red, yellow, and blue liquid watercolor /food coloring in small plastic containers and add water. You want a strong but diluted mixture. Fill each syringe with a different color.
- Step Six Inject the gelatin with the color- Try and place the syringe as far as you can into the gelatin and press out the color SLOWLY. Resist the urge to press the color out fast- it will splatter and ooze if you do that. This is an exercise in delicacy!
Part Two: Sensory Play
Once the gelatin is nice and colorful tell your kids to have fun with it as a sensory experience. I mean who can resist wobbly gelatin! Provide some plastics knives to cut it into bits. It’s really cool to slice this Ii half and look at the color streaks. After that all bets are off, let the kids slice, dice, and squish to their heart’s content. By the end it will probably look like this.
The Science Behind Gelatin
So just what is this amazing clear jelly substance that is solid when cool and quickly turns into liquid when warmed or eaten? You might not want to know but gelatin is actually derived from animal byproducts, most often pig skin that has soaked in dilute acid for 24 hours. The skin is rich in collagen which is the main connective protein found in animals. The collagen is filtered out of the skin and then dried into granules which we use to thicken liquids.
Sam Bompas and Harry Parr It’s really hard to classify the work of Bompas and Parr. Are they chefs, culinary artists, designers, or all of the above? They first grabbed the public’s attention with their detailed designs of architecture done in gelatin AKA jellies, and have since expanded their repertoire to include amazing food projects and exhibitions including a gin and tonic vapor room and a 4-ton punch bowl you can row across! They also create unique food banquets for different companies. My favorite is the upside down banquet where they placed mirrors above the table so guests could see the entire meal from above. However you classify them, they are definitely creative individuals foraging a new field of design.
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