Food emulsifiers, such as egg yolks, lecithin, monoglycerides, and polyglycerides, are used to combine oil and water-based ingredients in dishes. Chemical emulsifiers are commonly used in processed foods, while mustard and honey are natural alternatives.
Food emulsifiers have been used for hundreds of years to keep oil and water-based ingredients from separating in a dish. While there are several cooking techniques that can be used to help the oil and water combine, using an emulsifier gives the finished product more stability than it otherwise would have. Traditionally, one of the most commonly used types of food emulsifiers has been chicken eggs, which are often used to bind ingredients together in baked goods. Chemical emulsifiers, which are made up of some of the same molecular chains that give natural emulsifying properties, are most frequently used in processed foods.
One of the most commonly used food emulsifiers is egg. The yolk of a chicken egg contains a large amount of a phospholipid compound known as lecithin, which binds easily to water. Lecithin also occurs naturally in canola oils, soybeans, and other common oil-producing plants. Scientists have also been able to extract pure lecithin from these products in order to create a powder or paste that can be added to foods to emulsify them without adding oil or eggs to the dish.
Monoglycerides are food emulsifiers commonly used in food processing plants. Many different fatty acids can be extracted from plant or animal sources for use as monoglycerides. These food emulsifiers are among the most commonly used because they can have a number of different properties, including the ability to keep a substance from becoming too sticky, to prevent foaming or foaming. These differences occur because these chemicals can be made from different fatty acids.
Fatty acids can also be combined into polyglycerides for use as food emulsifiers. As with monoglycerides, the behavior of a polyglyceric compound will change based on the type of fatty acid used to create it. Many of these compounds are attracted to both water and oil, making them useful in dishes where these two ingredients need to be separated.
Mustard and honey can also be used as food emulsifiers. These foods work in the same way as chemical emulsifiers and contain many of the same types of molecules that allow emulsifiers to bind water and oil together. While infrequently used in food processing plants, these emulsifiers are frequently used by individuals and by companies that specialize in natural foods.
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