Food Recipe - Bloomington

[Kathy Matthews]

Media Recipe

Bloomington Food (soft agar recipe for general use).  This recipe
originally made 2.5 liters (one tray of vials for us), but I've 
tinkered with the proportions and it now makes more.

Water                           2.66 liters (we use tap water)
Agar                           16 g 
Cornmeal                      163 g  (Quaker - yellow)
Inactive dry yeast             33 g
Molasses, unsulphured         200 ml
10% p-Hydroxy-benzoic acid     38 ml
methyl ester in 95% ethanol

Stir the agar into about 80% of the water.  Bring to a boil, boil until 
agar in dissolved.  In the meantime, dissolve the yeast in most of the 
remaining water (or save a bit for rinsing), then stir in the cornmeal
(get all the lumps out).  When the agar is dissolved, add the molasses 
to the agar/water mix, then stir in the yeast/cornmeal/water mix.  Use 
the remaining water to rinse the dregs into the cooking pot.  Return to 
a boil, simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.  Allow to cool for 5 min. or more, 
then carefully stir in p-hydroxy-benzoic acid methyl ester.  Dispense.
     This food is fairly thick - be sure your pump can handle it before 
you make a huge batch.  We cook up to 20 times this recipe in a steam 
jacketed soup kettle using a commercial food service stainless steel 
paddle to stir.  Small amounts can be cooked in the microwave in a 
plastic pitcher.  The amount of agar should be determined empirically 
for your brand of agar.  We buy 100 lb barrels from Moorhead & Co., Inc., 
6923 Woodley Ave., Van Nuys, CA 91406 ($1,295).  Yeast is from SAF 
Products Corporation, 310 Grain Exchange Building, P.O. ox 15066, 
Minneapolis, MN 55415 ($1.40/lb. in 50 lb. bags).  Grandma's (Dole) or 
Home Maid (Ingredient Technology Corp.) brands molasses work well
(don't use the cheap stuff), the latter available in 5 gal. buckets 
($60.00) from Rainbow Distributing, Chicago, IL 60614, USA, 312-929-7629. 


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Kathy Matthews			Bloomington Drosophila Stock Center
Department of Biology		MATTHEWK at FLY.BIO.INDIANA.EDU
Indiana University              MATTHEWK at INDIANA.EDU    
Bloomington, IN  47405-6801     812-855-5782