tapioca, part 2

Brian Christiansen said:

I will incorporate some of the ideas (letting the
tapioca soak overnight rather than 1 hour, etc.)
next time I try making tapioca.

As for salvaging this batch, what I did was to
seperate another egg, whip the egg yolk a bit,
then add it to the sugar-milk-etc mixture. Then I
cooked it again, this time cooking (still on the
double boiler) it until it was lightly bubbling
and then 10 minutes beyond that. Perhaps that is
what was intended in the first place and whoever
edited the web page just missed that before
posting it.

I'd have cooked it still longer, but if it worked, enough said.

Quoted message said:

After cooking the tapioca, I let it cool a bit
then added the beaten egg whites. It is now in the
refrigerator to completely cool and thicken
(hopefully). I tried a spoonful, and if it
thickens correctly this time, I think it will
taste pretty good.

One thing that I do when making the instant is
substitute half (or approximately half) of the
milk for fruit juice.

Be careful you don't curdle the milk doing that. Most fruit juices are
acidic enough to cause that, especially when heated. The instant will
already have a good bit of tapioca starch free to combine with any
liquids. That minimizes curdling, as any starch would. The kind you're
working with likely won't be liberating enough starch early enough to
prevent the curdling. I'd be cautious doing that.

Quoted message said:

Strawberry is real good, what I use is the frozen,
but not the ones that are frozen individually, but
rather then pieces that are frozen as one big
clump of ice containing juice and pieces. The
solids really don't bother me so much, so I just
leave them in, but I suppose one could strain them
out as well. Orange juice (with or without pulp,
it is up to you, tastes pretty good as well.
Believe it or not, once I tried it with cranberry
juice and it was pretty good, or at least I liked
it. I also tried it with grape juice, and I didn't
like that so well because it tasted like I was
eating a big bowl of grape jelly.

Well anyway, I was wondering if the same sort of
substitution would work with the tapioca from
scratch like it does for the instant.

It might, but I'd be reluctant to do it with this recipe. Here's a
thought: soak the tapioca in the juice, drain well and then finish as
you've done with this batch. Long soak, and a cook time of at least 40
minutes or so. Might create something brand new.

Or it might become a curdly mess. But in either case, you've advanced
the store of human knowledge and I bet the Nobel committee will hear of it.

No, seriously...

Pastorio