Stop Wasting $$$ on Fancy Running Gels: Make Your Own at Home!
While grabbing the thumbnail for this post (since Lemmy doesn't do it for you on YouTube), I also noticed that he has a follow-up about flavoured gels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7LKSXegvc4
He notes in that video that he prefers not to have electrolites in his gels, instead taking that with his hydration.
For flavouring, your options include:
Keeping in mind, if you use lemon juice or squash, that the quantity of flavouring you use needs to be subtracted from the amount of water. And the caffeine option might even entirely include the necessary water.
Comments under this video point out that normal home sugar (sucrose) is 50/50 glucose & sucrose, so you can in theory alter it to a 2:1 ratio of white sugar:maltodextrin and have the same caloric value and digestivity. However, others note that this makes the taste a lot sweeter, and may not be comfortable with the aftertaste.
One other user had their own variation:
Differences for me:
- I don't add any pectin. I found the syrup consistency was okay for me and quite enjoyable plus it allowed me to use a standard cheap soft flask with a bite valve. I think that we have commercial gels solely for the convenience of sucking it out of a packet!
- I use 80g of water per 100g carbs so slightly more watery which again aids with the bite valve on soft flasks
- I use citric acid to reduce the pH to make it a little safer for longer storage and also to impart a lemony flavour. Need microscales for this as I only add 0.2g per 100g of carbs - it's strong stuff!
Squash is indeed what you'd probably call cordial. Technically there is probably a difference between the two but where I am from they are used pretty much interchangeably. Cordial is seen as the "posh" version I guess.
Thanks for actually writing out details and the recipe rather than just posting the video, it is much appreciated from someone who generally won't follow video links but is interested in the subject.
Thanks for actually writing out details and the recipe rather than just posting the video
Haha yeah no problem. I figure...it's a recipe. I'm a big fan of video content. I'd much rather watch a video essay than read a written one. But a recipe is almost the perfect example of something that is at its best in a simple text list. When a 4 minute video can be summarised into a 6 point numbered list, why not offer that? Plus the video gave a bunch of less important details, like where to source the ingredients, and how much it cost (on the order of 1/10th commercial gels).
It's like that classic problem of recipe websites telling you their life story before getting to the recipe itself.
Why put explicit weights and volume on the other ingredients and let people basically guess how much this is?
A teaspoon is a specific amount. Courtesy of Wikipedia:
So half a teaspoon would be 2.5 mL.
The "level" instruction is just a way of making sure that's precise, because sometimes people will give instructions like "a heaped teaspoon", which is vague, except in as much as it's "definitely more than 1 tsp", and "probably not more than about 50% above exactly 1 tsp."
But more importantly, I think it's because the pectin is not there for nutritional value. It's a thickening agent. Add more of it, you get a thicker gel, add less and it's runnier. (At least I think that's how it works. I've not tried this recipe, let alone tried it while playing around with the quantities, and I'm not a cook or baker.)
Using volumetric units for solids is the fucking worst!...weight for solids, volume for fluids.