Kitchen Mysteries is a weekly exploration of oddities surrounding cooking and food. They could be recipes that fail when they shouldn’t, conflicting advice from different sources, or just plain weirdness. If it happens in a kitchen, and you’re not sure why, send a发推文给食品极客找出正在发生的事情。

Friend of The Food Geek, Steve, asks via twitter:

嗨，史蒂夫，

I know you asked me this question in December, but I’ll hope you’ll understand that I waited until the从四月开始回答。有些问题需要适当的上下文才能正确探索。

这是一个可怕的想法，不是吗？在这里，您正在享受一个周末的娱乐活动，也许可以制作出漂亮的明胶甜点。但是，空气中有太多石灰味的灰尘。您也许会无意中吸气，然后想法就跨越了您的想法：如果明胶冻结在那里怎么办？如果它使我的肺部完全令人恶心的模具形成了一个完美的形成怎么办？我的马拉松比赛计划下周末破灭了吗？我应该打电话给救护车吗？我应该做一个更安全的甜点，例如一个漂亮的奶油布丁吗？

Before I answer, let’s look at what a gelatin is. When exploring sauces and foams, we’ve noticed that there are several clever ways of trapping water and air in meshes of molecules such as蛋白质or脂肪。有时，结构形成是因为您正在搅动分子，并且它们相互逐渐流逝，它们会融合在一起，不要放手。面筋这样做。

有时，夹杂分子对温度有反应。淀粉通常会在等待中，直到他们达到高温，然后它们出现并在整个液体中散布。如果有机会再次冷却，而不是恢复原始形状，而只是将其分组在一起。

明胶的作用就像淀粉一样，尽管它是一组蛋白质，而不是淀粉。明胶通常源自胶原蛋白，胶原蛋白是动物中的结缔组织之一。好吧，植物，但也不是在动​​物中发现的集中度。胶原蛋白是使炖肉正确煮熟的原因。当然，如果经过适当的处理，它就不会味道肉，但这就是为什么明胶和许多棉花糖不是素食的原因。

当明胶在热水中时，它们的蛋白质分子会松散且自由浮动，就像您在温泉中一样。但是，当温度下降时，所有张力都会返回胶原蛋白。他们最终变成了三螺旋（有点像DNA，但更多），这给了他们更大的力量。当它们在温暖时散布在整个液体中时，当它们堆积时，它们会将水捕获在线圈之间。水无处可去，所以最终只能留在原地。因此形成了结构。如果您再次将明胶加热，它会放松并让水变成液体。

您正在寻找的关键事实是，明胶仍然变成100°F左右的液体。这对人们来说尤其美味，因为尽管它在凉爽的室温下固体，但它会在身体热量下融化。因此，您不太可能在体内制作明胶霉菌，我想我们可以说这是个好消息。

This doesn’t mean you should take up gelatin sniffing as a hobby. First of all, I don’t believe medical science has adequately answered what would happen to a lung that is overwhelmed by gelatin, and I’d imagine that they’d rather not have to.

Second, depending on how fine the gelatin is processed, it might not dissolve evenly in your moist, lungy environment. Coarse gelatin, which is usually what you get with the non-flavored types or sometimes the off brands, acts like flour in an improperly prepared gravy: if you dump a bunch into hot water, it’ll clump. If you inhale something that turns into a big clump, you can be sure that you’re going to at least be coughing for a while. If it gets stuck in your throat, which is also plenty damp and warm, then you may have other problems. At the very least, you will disappoint your doctor, and you don’t want that.

For this reason, if you’re using an unflavored gelatin to make something such as panna cotta, which is basically a milk gelatin, you’ll want to bloom the gelatin first. Blooming, named for Oscar Bloom, is letting the gelatin sit in cold liquid for a while, which gives it a chance to hydrate and prepare itself for the upcoming hot bath. Given this preparation, you won’t end up with clumps in your panna cotta.