Sea Power MAX Home » What is Agar? » Agar Frequently Asked Questions
In this page, we answer agar related questions.
A1. Agar is made from agar (seaweed) and gracilaria (ogonori). More than 70% of agar is dietary fiber and it has 350 years history.
A2. There are several different types of agars such as, powder type, bar type, string type, flake type, and solid type. String agar is used mainly for Japanese traditional sweets, salad, and noodle.
A3. Agar starts to coagulate lower 40 degree C and starts to melt above 85 degree C.
A4. You may be wondering if agar looks similar to the jelly you find in local stores. Most jelly you find stores use animal gelatin. Agar is vegetable (seaweed) gelatin and therefore it is different. Agar coagulates at room temperature but animal geletin is required to be stored in fridge to coagulate. Therefore, it is important to treat them differently.
| Item | Seaweed Gelatin (Agar or Kanten) | Animal Gelatin (Jelly you normally eat) |
| Raw Material | Agar-Agar, Gracilaria | Bovine Hide Collagen |
| Principal Ingredients | Agarose, Agaropectin | Collagen |
| Calorie (per 100g) | Less than 5kcal | 340kcal |
| Coagulation Temperature | 35-40 degree C | 15-20 degree C |
| Melting Temperature | 85-95 degree C | 20-30 degree C |
A5. Agar, which is made from seaweed does contains lots of dietary fiber. 74.1g out of 100g is dietary fiber. The rest is water and minerals.
A6. Yes, it is correct. There are three major causes for constipation. First is a lack of exercise. Second is not taking enough water. Third is not taking enough dietary fiber. The required dietary fiber per day for normal people is around 20g-27g. However, it is hard for normal people to take that much amount from meals. Kanten is ideal food to supplement this shortage. Furthermore, you do not have to worry about calories.
A7. Yes, you can use other types of agar to make same recipes. For example, 4g of powder agar (ie. 1 sachet) is equivalent to 8g of bar type (ie. one bar). And, 8g of bar agar is equivalent to around 25 string type (ie. 8g of string kanten).
A8. If you store agar in non-humid place, it is possible to keep it about 2-3 years.
A9. String type is the freeze-dried version of tokoroten. Tokoroten and string type have quite different texture and are used differently. It is important to note that even though you soak string agar in water, you cannot make tokoroten. Therefore, if you would like to make tokoroten, use tokoroten powder instead of string type.
A1. When you add water and agar into a saucepan, make sure it boils and leave it for a few minutes. Without it, the agar does not coagulate.
A2. Yes, agar is weak to acid. If you boil lemon or orange juice with agar, it may not coagulate. To avoid this, after agar is completely melted and boiled in water for few minutes, stop the stove and then add acid juice. It is important that you don’t add acid juice while heating.
A3. Yes, you can eat any type of agar directly. Agar has been eaten for 350 years in Japan and is completely safe. For example, if you are busy and do not have time to cook kanten, then you can eat like the following.
For powder type
Rice: Add kanten before cooking rice. At first, try adding a small amount of kanten to see the result.
Bread: Add kanten before cooking bread.
Soup: Add kanten while cooking soup.
For string or bar type
Noodle: Add string agar to the soup.
Salad: Soak string or bar agar in water to soften for 20-30 minutes and then mix with salad.
A4: You can normally keep up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
