http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/dining/aquafaba-vegan-egg-substitute.html 2016-09-05 19:54:03 Vegans Whip Up a Secret Weapon: Aquafaba Chickpea water has become a sensation as a frothy egg substitute in mousses, meringues and mayonnaise. === Vegans are, by necessity, a creative bunch. They grind almonds for milk and spin soy into cheese, ice cream and even some passable meat substitutes. But replacing the egg, in particular the egg white, has proved especially tricky. The egg is a natural miracle, a combination of water and proteins that has proved all but impossible to mimic without turning to a chemistry set of industrial powders. As a result, many vegans lived for years without the culinary wonders that egg whites produce. No pretty pastel macarons. No meringues. No angel food cake. Then, in 2015, came a breakthrough: One night, his wife mentioned that she had seen a Bingo. The liquid whipped up instantly into a snowy white foam. When he added sugar, it turned shiny and glossy, just like egg whites. In March, Mr. Wohlt, 41, posted his discovery to a Facebook group called “ Vegan meringues were not only possible, but a cinch. And the secret was something that cooks often pour down the drain. Mr. Wohlt named his magic ingredient aquafaba, combining the Latin words for water and bean. Since then, aquafaba has become a quiet phenomenon. A new Facebook group dedicated to open-source experimentation, “ Chefs, both vegan and omnivore, are using aquafaba in everything from pancakes to purées. This month, “It’s a home run,” said Adam Kaye, the culinary director of To understand aquafaba, first you need to examine the egg. The yolk, according to Harold McGee’s culinary-science book The white is about 90 percent water and 10 percent protein. When whipped, those proteins unfold and bond together, trapping the air bubbles created by the whisk. This is what allows for relatively long-lived foams and, ultimately, delights like meringues, soufflés and angel food cakes. Before aquafaba, the most prominent egg-foam replacers were bubble-making agents such as baking powder or a mixture of baking soda and vinegar, or thick bubble-retaining whole foods like applesauce, mashed bananas and ground chia seeds. The problem was that none of these substitutes could do everything an egg could. You can’t make a meringue out of mashed bananas. Commercial egg replacers, like How aquafaba works isn’t precisely understood. Mr. McGee said the key is its viscous mixture of protein and dissolved starch, which slows down the collapse of a foam, as well as chemicals called saponins. Saponins — the name comes from the Latin for soap — have long been known for their ability to stabilize bubbles much as emulsifiers do, gathering at the water-air interface in the bubble walls and holding them together. The Lebanese meringuelike dessert natef is made with saponaria officinalis, a saponin-rich root that is used for carpet cleaning as well as cooking. Whatever the reason, aquafaba delivers. Dump a can of chickpea water into a mixer, and it froths instantly, like bubbles in a bath, and whips into stiff, glossy peaks. It retains a slight beany aroma in the bowl, but that disappears when cooked. There is no residual flavor, and few calories. “It’s definitely cool,” said For Sir Kensington’s, aquafaba was a miracle. The market for vegan mayonnaise is booming. Sales have jumped in the last year to $34 million from $25 million, while remaining flat in the $1.8 billion traditional mayonnaise market, according to Spins, a retail sales data company. But the company couldn’t find a way to make one without resorting to protein powders, starches or gums. “Our kitchen looked more like a lab than a kitchen,” recalled Mark Ramadan, a founder. Over several months, testers worked up more than 200 formulas, but none tasted quite right. Pea proteins left a vegetal aftertaste, while a soy base tasted like emulsified edamame. About a year ago, a company intern spotted an article about aquafaba on the website “It immediately worked so much better,” Ms. Villevieille said. “It was much closer to our idea of what a mayonnaise should taste like, whether it was vegan or not vegan.” The discovery solved one problem but created another. Unlike a home cook, Sir Kensington’s couldn’t start opening cans of chickpeas. It needed an industrial supply. An executive at Whole Foods Market introduced Mr. Ramadan to the owners of With the American market for hummus reaching $800 million annually, there’s a lot of aquafaba floating around, or more precisely down the drain. Many vegans, including Mr. Wohlt, predict that it is only a matter of time before new commercial products hit the market. That could be a boon for vegans, though Mr. Wohlt said he hoped that product development continues to be an open and inclusive process, like the one that brought the world aquafaba in the first place. (No one appears to have secured patents related to aquafaba, but Sir Kensington’s has filed for three related to its mayonnaise and its methods for producing aquafaba.) Right now, Mr. Wohlt said, he and other enthusiasts are hard at work figuring out how to make an aquafaba angel food cake. “I made one the other day that separated from the pan,” he said. “With every experiment, we’re getting closer.” Recipes: