amylose, pectin, carrageenans

Amylose.  Alpha one four glucose linked chain.

The same night my little cousins made the pumpkin cupcakes, I tried my hand at Taiwanese pineapple cakes (Fenglisu) after reminiscing about the twelve or so I devoured during the first week here before I had a bank account set up - those were rough times and thank god for insistent parents.

Hemicellulose.  Beta one four xylose main chain with alpha L arabinofuranose branches.

 I prepared the pineapple filling ahead of time by boiling and mashing (I do a lot of that here, it seems - definitely taking this potato masher home with me) canned pineapple and adding sugar and a bit of flour to thicken.

Pectin.  Alpha one four galactouronic acid sometimes interspersed with alpha one two L rhamnose units.

 I figured I couldn't go wrong with an Asian dessert, knowing the only dietary restriction is sugar content (don't overdo the sugar when cooking for Asian parents), which is why we had a good laugh when there was an opened package of fenglisu on the counter.

Gums.  Beta one four mannose linked chain with single alpha one six galactose branches.

Cooking and baking here is all about substitutions and making do and praying for the best.  I used the easiest recipe I could find (here), one that didn't involve fancy flours (cake flour) or unnecessary add-ins (milk powder), and divided the recipe in half.  It... short of worked.

Carrageenans.  Beta one four galactose dissacharides joined by alpha one three linkages.

The dough turned out quite sticky before it became terribly oily and forming the cakes into perfect rectangles was a bit of a task.  We had to encourage Rebecca multiple times to get her off the iPhone to help me stuff and shape the oily boxes.  Kids these days.  Yesterday we relived the days when cell phones were as big as our faces.

Chitin.  Beta one four acetylated glucosamine chain.

Poor things went in the oven plump and three dimensional and came out flat and deflated.  Pineapple cakes became pineapple cookies.

Chondroitin sulfate.  Beta one four linked beta one three linked glucuronic acid and acetyl galactosamine with variable C4 and C6 sulphation.

Comparison of the packaged version and my sad little flattened version.  This is what happens when I get side-tracked from life.

Back to studying carbohydrates, vitamins, and polyphenols...