I have a recipe that calls for 1 OZ. of powdered gelatin but only have the sheets. What would the conversion be?

By quartet on Monday, July 17, 2000 - 12:12 pm: Edit

The standard conversion is 3 sheets per packet, but I can't remember off the top of my head how much is in the packet.

By Mikeh (Mikeh) on Monday, July 17, 2000 - 05:28 pm: Edit

Technically the packets hold 2 1/4 teaspoons, although one article I read in a magazine said that they varied considerably. The conversion for standard 225 bloom gelatin is 1 sheet per teaspoon of powdered gelatin.

By tj on Tuesday, July 18, 2000 - 03:31 pm: Edit

1 oz.powdered gelatin=1 oz. gelatin sheets. use always the same amount.the diference is in the amount of liquid used in the recipe for softening the powder gelatin.since sheet gelatin always absorbs the same amount of liquid ,which is always 5 times it weight, you need to see in the original recipe how much water was needed to soften the powder gelatine and add this amount of water to the sheet gelatin after soaking and draining them.if you are not sure how much water is required for powdered gelatin ,always use as much as for sheet gelatin, that is 5 times its weight.

By tj on Tuesday, July 18, 2000 - 03:37 pm: Edit

as prinsiple, always scale your ingredients.no tea spoons, no cups, no volume mesurments.
if you have a recipe with 1 oz. powder gelatin, use 1 oz. gelatin sheets and soak them completly in cold water so they are covered.then drain the water.you now have a gelatin mass that weighs 6 oz.
(1 oz.+ 5 oz.).look at the original recipe and see if it specify the amount of liquid to soften the powder gelatin.if it comes to more than 5 oz. then add the missing liquid to the softened gelatin sheets.

By quartet on Tuesday, July 18, 2000 - 07:03 pm: Edit

That's a lot of good info. I've used sheets for a bit now, for home stuff. What is the advantage over powder? I'm following advice that hasn't been fully explained. Thanks.

By Mikeh (Mikeh) on Wednesday, July 19, 2000 - 02:16 am: Edit

I can think of two advantages with sheets. First, they only soak up as much water as necessary, so there is no need to measure out a specific amount of water in which to bloom them. Second, if you dump a bunch of powdered gelatin into cold water without stirring there is chance that some of the kernels won't dissolve and lumps will end up in your product. I've never personally had this problem, but I could see it happening with employees and sheet gelatin would prevent it.

By W.DeBord on Wednesday, July 19, 2000 - 07:36 am: Edit

I always pitch any left over soaked sheets at the end of the day. I often think this is stupid, why not save them in the cooler. Do any of you save them? Is there any problem in doing so, I can't see why not?

By d. on Wednesday, July 19, 2000 - 03:38 pm: Edit

Why do you have left-over soaked sheets? Don't recipes specify how many sheets or exactly how much gelatin to use? I don't see a problem in saving them for next day use but I really don't know how long they can be kept soaked.

By tj on Wednesday, July 19, 2000 - 03:57 pm: Edit

w.
when i worked at Lenotre, we used to see what the work schedual is for the next day, and take all the gelatin sheets needed for all the preperations
an soak it all in a large tub of water and put it in the cooler.all the recipes where using an adjusted amount that have the weight of water+gelatin after soaking (1 part + 5 parts) so it was super easy and very fast to use the gelatin without delay in the work for scaling and soaking.just scale the amount needed of presoaked gelatin and melt imediatly.
by the way, you should`nt have such a thing as gelatin left over.
(it does`nt make sense to me...)

By bakeshpdan on Friday, July 21, 2000 - 10:21 pm: Edit

another advantage to using sheets over powder, powder tendes to have a offensive odor to it. I have used it in chocolate glaze and the odor was very obvious, when using sheets the odor isnt there.

By Quartet (Quartet) on Saturday, July 22, 2000 - 12:17 am: Edit

My understanding is that the ability to thoroughly rinse the sheets after soaking helps really reduce if not completely eliminate the odor problem.

By W.DeBord on Sunday, July 23, 2000 - 06:45 pm: Edit

Reasons for leftover gelatin sheets...in a country club setting there are many. The party wants to eat earily/ shelf what your doing NOW. "Oh didn't I mention we need a birthday cake tonight for fifty?" mentioned an hour before your planned end of the day with no cakes hiding in the freezer. "Oh, the party for three hundred just dropped to twenty people" and they want icecream instead. "Lemon mousse, oops I meant to say they wanted chocolate mousse"......


Count your blessings if you can't understand why there would be left over sheets at the end of the day. Or you've stayed way too late to finish every project intended for the day and you have no life to rush home to.

So seriously, holding over night is fine? For how long have you held sheets with-out a problem detected?

By tj on Monday, July 24, 2000 - 01:24 pm: Edit

as long as they are in cold water they will not break down.that meens a cooler temp.not room temp water.but if you can`t plan your work ahead as you just mentioned ,this might not work for you.in any case ,don`t discard of unused softened gelatin,just put it in a container with cold water and keep refrigerated until you need it, and just use the 1:5 ratio to figure out the weight of gelatin you need.

By W.DeBord on Tuesday, July 25, 2000 - 09:40 pm: Edit

tj or anyone I have a quick question...I'm working out of Hermes book and he calls for 8g of gelatine leaves (unsoaked) and I still haven't bought a gram scale. I've paged thru a couple of books looking at their converstion charts and can't find the answer. Can you help me please? How many sheets does 8g equal?

By Mikeh (Mikeh) on Wednesday, July 26, 2000 - 02:15 am: Edit

I was told that gelatin is 10 to 11 sheets per ounce, which would be approximately 2.8 grams per sheet.

By tj on Wednesday, July 26, 2000 - 03:58 pm: Edit

i have seen two brands in the usa ,one is gelita which are about 3 grams each, the other i dont remember the name but they are 2 grams each like is comon in france.i used to get the gelita only cause thats what my suppliers had and its about 3.5 grams each.the box should tell you what is the weight of the gelatin inside and how meny sheets.
they usualy pack it 1 kg (1000 grams).so you will have 500 sheets of the french type (2gr each) or about 300 sheets with gelita (i could never tell what it was 3 or 3.5 grams).but you should get a good gram scale anyway.

By tj on Wednesday, July 26, 2000 - 04:00 pm: Edit

the type that is 2 grams per leaf of gelatin is easier to use cause you dont need a scale you just count the leaves to the corect weight you need.i would try to get this brand over gelita.

By W.DeBord on Wednesday, July 26, 2000 - 07:29 pm: Edit

Thank-you!!!!

By tj on Wednesday, July 26, 2000 - 08:46 pm: Edit

w.
have you made anything from herme`s book so far, that you like ?
was it easy to make?

By tj on Wednesday, July 26, 2000 - 08:52 pm: Edit

by the way,
try to get the new bellouet book.it has some very good recipes in it that i used befor.some very creative cakes in it!this book almost looks to me like a new collection out of thuries magazin...very nice work...

By W.DeBord on Friday, July 28, 2000 - 08:22 am: Edit

Yes I've made several items that I like from Hermes' book. His cigerette paste and joconde are the nicest I've worked with. I also like his macaroons, his addition of powdered egg whites to the recipe help raise the dome height. I've made several other items, all are good, nothing else has really been mentionably better than something I'm currently using.

His recipes are not more diffucult to work except that I still don't own a gram scale and I'm not use to working with grams (but that's been a good learning experience).

Unforunately he uses alot of ingred. I don't have on hand and I can't see buying them for one cake. The small additions like adding lavender are what makes his combinations unique and I'm omitting them. So I may make his torte but not totally his way, so it's kind of the doing the same old thing (when I'd really like to taste his thoughts exactly as printed). His most interesting cakes can't be cut with-out ruining the look and my job requires me to preslice.

By W.DeBord on Friday, July 28, 2000 - 08:32 am: Edit

I've wanted to to tell you I've made your chocolate mirror and I "LOVE IT" thank-you so much for sharing it!!!!

I did have to almost double the chocolate quantity to get the right consistancy (unless I made a math mistake converting, but I don't think so). At first I was worried that I had to make such a big adjustment but it works just great!

I am not familar at all with Belouet (I know his name but not his work). I think he must only be written in French and I only know English. Same with Thuries magazine...I would greatly like to study both but have no English access and I really don't know where to find them.?

By tj on Saturday, July 29, 2000 - 07:44 pm: Edit

the new bellouet books are all done in french and english together in the same book,like herme`s book. i was reading mine very carefuly in the english text and found it to be very accurate ,very little gramar mistakes and sometimes minor mistakes in sentense compositions, but the text is clear and no mistakes are made in the recipes.the only draw back i see is the prices of those books,even though i have them all for years, but ,if i would have written them i think i would like to make some bucks $$$$... ;-)

By W.DeBord on Sunday, July 30, 2000 - 11:38 am: Edit

Tj do you know where I can purchase them? Can you give me any titles of his books and/or the publishers name so I can look them up, please?

By tj on Sunday, July 30, 2000 - 04:41 pm: Edit

c.h.i.p.s. have them ,www.chipsbooks.com.
i would recomend his first book on cakes "french pastry tradition and evolution", and his book on show pieces "apprenez l`art du decor et des pieces montees", and the latest book "art of french dessert entremets".i wish you could read french cause his book on chocolate is realy great!
but its only in french so far....his books on pulled and blown sugar are good but if you dont do the work you would`nt need them.also his book on plated desserts is not nessesary ...

By Quartet (Quartet) on Sunday, July 30, 2000 - 11:24 pm: Edit

I think the CHIPS people are right, that as long as you have a good F/E dictionary, the chocolate book is worth having. So much of the vocab repeats itself that you can work with the book, providing you have the time and patience. Since that's a prereq for working with chocolate, it shouldn't be a problem. On the subject of mistakes in the English half of the Bellouet book (Art of French Desserts), I find that there are a few and that it is always a good idea to read over the French recipe, to the best of your ability, to make sure you're not leaving something out. I wish I had the book in front of me to give examples -- I don't but I know they are there. Another nice book, esp. if you do a lot of chocolate work is Frederic Bau's Au Couer des Saveurs. If only we could get the prices down.

By W.DeBord on Thursday, August 10, 2000 - 07:52 am: Edit

I made Hermes' fraisier yesterday...the pistachio filling was one of those components where you could sit down and eat the whole bowl your-self and fight off anyone else who wanted a little taste!


It also cut much cleaner (really perfect) than any other fillings I had been using in similar applications!:)

If his sex life is like his recipes the mystic about french lovers might be true. HA!

By Doucefrance (Doucefrance) on Thursday, August 10, 2000 - 06:32 pm: Edit

W., I love that final remark!
Helene