Agar Agar

With a cartilaginous consistency, agar is a red algae forming clumps of highly branched filaments of dark red to purple color. A traditional ingredient in Japanese recipes, it also finds many uses in Western cuisine where it is most often used as a natural gelling agent. Highly sought after by the food industry for its thickening power, agar-agar, a very effective vegetarian substitute for gelatin, is extracted from this seaweed.