Need help making homemade "nutritional" Jello

[bonefish1]

My wife is in the late stages of Alzheimer's and has trouble eating but can eat jell-o with no problem. I am trying to make jello using nutritional powder (Chike). I plan on mixing the powder with water and using it in place of fruit juice. Here is my delimma: There are two types of jelling products: Gelatin and Agar Agar . Gelatin needs to be cooled in order to gel and will melt at room temperature. If you use Agar Agar it will gel at room temperature and stay jelled at room temperature. My question is can I mix Gelatin and Agar Agar and get the best of both worlds? I would welcome any suggestions you could make.
Thanks

[greygarious]

How about approaching the problem from the other direction? Use Ensure liquid or mix the powder into a liquid as per directions. Put 3/4 cup of water into a pan or microwavable bowl, sprinkle a packet of plain gelatin (Knox is the typical brand) over it and let it sit until bloomed. Heat and stir as per directions until the gelatin dissolves, then add 1-1/4 cup of liquid Ensure, stir to blend, and chill.

Gelatin desserts get looser if they sit at room temp for a long time but they certainly don't melt away like, for example, ice cream.

[elfcook]

Have you tried using liquid thickening agents? It wouldn't be exactly jello, but you could mix the powder with water or juice & use a thickener to bring it to a gel-like consistency. Then the temperature wouldn't matter. Thick-It is the one that immediately comes to mind, but there are various brands, used for medical purposes. (Liquids are be categorized as thin, nectar, or pudding consistency. You could experiment with how much you needed to make your powder/water into a gel). A medical supply store, dietician, or doctor should be able to give you several choices & maybe some samples.

[Jen76]

You might try Chia seeds. You should be able to find them at a natural foods store or Whole Foods. They pack a nutritional punch with some calories and fat (like any other seed) and they supposedly gel when left to soak in liquid for awhile.

[bonefish1]

Thanks for the tip. I never heard of Chia seeds. I'll check with Whole Foods this afternoon,

[wattacetti]

What exactly are you looking for? If you're looking for a soft get that can be heated and retain its shape, that would be gelatin+transglutaminase (you can microwave it). I'm a little confused because you start mentioning nutritional powder and water.

[bonefish1]

wattacetti,
I am looking for a jello with nutritional value. That's why I'm using the powder, Chike (http://www.chikenutrition.com/) which is a powder similar to Ensure, which also comes in a powder. What I am trying to do is come up with a gelatin product like jello but made with the nutritional powder instead of a fruit juice. That way I will have a "jell-o" type product that can be used as a meal replacement. I was looking at Agar Agar because it will stay in a "jello" form at room temp. If you use Knox gelatin it has to stay cool to stay jelled. Hope this isn't too confusing.
Robbie

[wattacetti]

Now I understand. Thanks. I'm not sure if you will get the right mouthfeel by just mixing gelatin and agar agar together; I have used other powders (xanthan among others) to alter agar to make it squishier while retaining shape.

I suggest that you look at the Hydrocolloids recipe book that has been collected by Martin Lersch on his Khymos blog. There are some multi-hydrocolloid recipes that might be applicable to what you're trying. http://blog.khymos.org