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Methylcellulose

Appears in
top 1000How Baking Works
How Baking Works

By Paula Figoni

Published 2003

  • About

Methylcellulose, also called modified vegetable gum, is one of several gums derived from cellulose. Cellulose makes up the cell walls of all plants and is the most plentiful polysaccharide on earth. Modified vegetable gum is made commercially by chemically modifying wood or cotton cellulose fibers. It is not considered a natural gum because of these chemical modifications.

Modified vegetable gum has a unique property, however, that makes it useful in bakery fillings. While most gels thin out at oven temperatures and thicken as they cool, modified vegetable gum gels at oven temperatures and thins out as it cools. Instead of bleeding and running as it is baked in Danish pastries, a bakery filling made with modified vegetable gum holds its shape. Methylcellulose has also been used by pastry chefs to create “hot ice cream,” that is, crème anglaise that holds its shape when hot but melts as it cools.

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