10% or more, to have real weight. But at that
concentration, the sauce is quick to congeal on
a cooling plate, and it can also cause the teeth
to stick together (gelatin makes an excellent
glue!).
Gelatin Comes from Collagen Free gelatin
molecules don’t exist in meat and fish.
They’re woven tightly together to form the
fibrous connective-tissue protein called
collagen (p. 130), which gives mechanical
strength to muscles, tendons, skin, and bones.
Single gelatin molecules are chains of around
1,000 amino acids. Thanks to the repeating
pattern of their amino acids, three gelatin
molecules naturally fit alongside each other
and form weak, reversible bonds that arrange
the three molecules in the form of a triple
helix. Many triple helixes then become cross-
linked to each other to form the strong, rope-
like fibers of collagen.
Cooks generate gelatin from collagen by