Gelatine

Message sent by: Giovanna

Hi, I am writing to ask for a nutritional evaluation of the gelatin "gelatin" sheets, which I use very frequently to prepare puddings and creams.

Hi Giovanna,

I waited a while to answer you because I wanted to check the ingredients of the product first.

I examined two different packages of isinglass and on the label they both had very vague words, such as "food gelatin of animal origin".

In one package the nutritional values were indicated that I have noted and reported in the following table

GELATINE

Energy value 338 Kcal Proteins 86 g Carbohydrates 0 g Fat 0 g

As you can see it is a highly protein product, in fact proteins have a high bonding power. In particular, casein, a protein present in milk and cheese, is used in the industrial field as a universal glue. The jelly found in canned meat is also an animal protein, which however derives from collagen, a protein found in the connective tissue of animals.

There are so many foods that exploit the thickening power of proteins, just read the food labels to see that "whey proteins" appear almost everywhere.

The gelatin itself is used in many processed foods on supermarket shelves.

But let's get back to our isinglass. The high protein content and the reduced lipid and carbohydrate content make it particularly suitable for low-calorie diets. If added to sweets it increases the protein content of the dish, balancing it from a nutritional point of view.

Also thanks to its strong thickening power, isinglass can partially replace butter and margarine by lowering the lipid content of the food.

The only drawback of this food derives from the quality of the product of origin. In fact, although today the controls are very strict, in the past bovine parts at risk of BSE (the so-called mad cow disease) were used. Today, however, the glue of fish is mostly of fish origin.

Furthermore, on the market there are also jellies of vegetable origin (agar-agar), fish (hence the name "isinglass") or swine, in which the TSE / BSE problem does not arise.

Below are links to some video recipes that will help you make the most of these thickening ingredients: