Our 3D printing company in Seattle has seen 3D printing enter the culinary realm to produce printable chocolates, candies, and other confections. However, few could ever have anticipated that 3D printers would one day be able to produce their own artificial fruits. This is exactly what is being done by Cambridge firm, Dovetailed, with their remarkable new molecular gastronomical 3D printer.
Molecular gastronomy is a fancy word for cooking, most commonly used to describe a sophisticated scientific approach to manipulating food-based chemicals. Dovetailed’s new printer makes use of a molecular gastronomy technique known as “spherification”, wherein a liquid is combined with a sodium-rich gel and dripped into a cold solution to create tiny, caviar-like spheres. These spheres maintain a liquid center within a gelatinous shell of the same material, releasing a burst of flavor when eaten.
The 3D printer spherifies fruit juices and uses them to build artificial fruits. In this way, the company was able to create a raspberry-like object out of strawberry juice. This represents a relatively simple application of the technology, to be sure, but the future possibilities are exciting to contemplate.
