From salads to sushi, balsamic pearls are TikTok’s favorite food upgrade

A viral video is teaching everyday TikTok users the surprisingly easy method to class up their recipes with balsamic pearls. These little vinegar balls can make any salad look fancy while giving it a burst of flavor.

This same method could also work with other ingredients, if you’re ready for adventure.

How to make balsamic pearls

In a TikTok video that currently has over 1.6 million views, user @platingqueen demonstrates how to make these delicate culinary gems. All you need is the vinegar, agar powder, and vegetable oil.

@platingqueen Replying to @BelleMillerWill BALSAMIC PEARLS RECIPE ⬇️ Save this for your next dinner party— your guests won’t believe you made them yourself!! • Whisk about 1 cup of balsamic vinegar with 1 tablespoon of agar powder— eyeballing it is fine • Bring the mixture to a simmer to activate the agar • Let it simmer for 1–2 minutes, then remove from the heat Here’s where most people mess up: it’s all about the temp. Too hot and it’ll explode out of your squeeze bottle. Too cold and it sets into jelly! • Let it cool for 2–4 minutes until it’s warm and pourable, but not starting to set • Funnel into a squeeze bottle • Fill a glass with ice-cold vegetable oil— 30 minutes in the freezer is perfect • Drop it in slowly, one drop at a time, in a circular motion (from a little height!) • Strain over a bowl to save the oil, then rinse the pearls under running water • Serve with caprese, cheese, or whatever your heart desires ✨ ——— #foodstyling #prettyfood #moleculargastronomy #caviar #balsamic #foodpresentation ♬ sonido original – Vibes by Ley

Then follow these steps:

1. Whisk together a cup of balsamic vinegar with one tablespoon of agar powder.
2. Bring the mixture to a simmer.
3. Remove from the heat and let it cool for a few minutes.
4. Pour the mixture into a squeeze bottle.
5. Chill a glass of vegetable oil until it’s ice cold.
6. Squeeze drops of the vinegar into the cold oil and watch the balsamic pearls form instantly.

Food stylist Bri Baker recommends adding these to summer salads, caprese, or “anything that you want to make extra special.”

Other potential options for these magical little spheres include pasta dishes, oyster platters, cheese plates, and any number of hors d’oeuvres you want to appear fancy. Take a decent cracker with a slice of cheese and pile a few of these on, and your friends will think you’ve gone to culinary school.

What other pearls can you make with this method?

Viewers drooled over this recipe as the video went viral, and commenters had a lot more ideas on the topic. TikTok user @chronic_thickness says that you can use cold vegetable oil and a squeeze bottle to make pearls out of more than just balsamic vinegar.

“Hey, so you can do this with just about any kind of liquid. I used to work in a kitchen and this was one of my favorite things to experiment with,” she wrote, “my favorite was pineapple juice, I served them over mango sorbet and it was phenomenal.”

“Could you do this with soy or teriyaki sauce??” asked @inkiwitch. “I’m thinking this on top of sushi would be divine.”

Baker replied that you could definitely try that.

Other commenters dreamed of trying this on avocado toast, in a tomato martini, with deviled eggs, and one user even said they had it on a chocolate lava cake and loved it.

Then the chaos agents arrived. User @kita_raito has already dreamed up an “insane boba prank idea.” Be careful out there, food lovers.

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