Starting at the beginning:  it comes as a powder. Once dissolved in cold water, it will thicken the water, anything from lemonade syrup thickness to wall paper paste, with lots of steps in between. You can choose which thickness you want based on how much you want it to bind things together in the cold. The more binding you need, the higher the thickness (known as viscosity).

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That said, dropping the powder straight into cold water will make it lump, so don’t do that. Try one of the methods here:

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• Dry mixing with dispersing ingredients (salt, seasoning, dry powdered proteins, starches) is the commonest and most efficient method. In the featured vegan burger recipe method, I suggest adding the dry ingredients mixed together with the methylcellulose to the cold water. Best to add the dries to the water: this avoids little concentrated areas dissolving in a thick lump. THE important thing to remember here is that the dispersing ingredients must be.. well… water dispersible. So, it they lump anyway, they won't be much use. We’re not using milk powder, for instance, as that’s one example of a non-useful dispersing ingredient.

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•  If you want to make a methylcellulose/oil emulsion and include that, simply disperse the methylcellulose in the oil, mix, add very cold water and high shear. A hand held blender is sufficient if you don’t have a food processor, Silverson or bowl cutter.

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