Kerry Beal

I'm in discussion with the Marriott - apparently it's a rather busy weekend with graduations and some sort of sporting event in Rochester. So we won't be getting the rate we had last time and they are looking at other properties than the Canalside to find a better rate. I'll let you know when I know.

Kerry Beal lironp tandemchocoPC YetiChocolates curls chocolot patris Audrey Brown +1 (Melanie) alleguede tikidoc +1 (maybe Maddie) Sue and Jane

The boy does love his chicken!

I went out looking for baskets - I've got to put together a chocolate basket for fund raising. Value Village has gotten ridiculous - they want $5.49 for one but the re-Source thrift store charges between $1 and $2 for any basket. Found a nice collection of older stainless bowls - really heavy - I couldn't leave them behind - even though I need more stainless bowls like a need a hole in my head. Four have rings on them - $1.50 to $3 for the biggest.

Nope - talking about maintaining the melter when there is tempered chocolate in it. When it gets too thick you can heat it to maximums (34.5 for dark) or you can add untempered chocolate to 'dilute' out the crystals.

Can everyone who wants to come PM me their contact information - name, address, cell number Oops - make it e-mail address

Kerry Beal lironp tandemchocoPC YetiChocolates curls chocolot patris Audrey Brown +1 (Melanie) alleguede tikidoc +1 (maybe Maddie)

Starts in a couple of hours or sooner typically - especially if you are dumping tempered chocolate back into the melter. There is a fine art to managing tempered chocolate in a melter - once it gets over tempered - heating up the maximum tolerated temperature, adding fresh melted untempered chocolate...

In that case you might want to skip the melter for now and just use the microwave to melt the chocolate in the bowl. Only time I use melters are for trade shows where I use a small one that I travel with - or something like the Luxury Chocolate Show that I used to attend in Toronto where I would have 6 kg melters of milk and dark and a 3 kg melter of white which I would transfer to a bowl and temper al la minute for demos.

Sorry I missed this earlier - You can keep your melter at 33.5 after mixing in the silk - you will notice that once it is added that the temperature of the mass of chocolate tends to drop by about 1º C due to the latent heat of crystallization but you can certain then reheat to 33.5. Over time the chocolate will over temper in the melter and become thicker. I usually suggest that depending on how quickly you will use up the melter full of chocolate that instead of tempering the whole melter - you take out as much as you want to work with into a bowl, temper that and when you have used that up - add more untempered chocolate to the bowl and add the silk. I generally keep the melter at about 34º C - by the time you move to the bowl and let sit for a few minutes it drops to 33.5. You want to be sure your thermometers are truly accurate - if the chocolate is too hot - the form V crystals will melt and you won’t achieve temper.

I've just spent a while down the prata rabbit hole. Now I want to make them.

Good to know! Thanks

Do I read that as the Unexpected Cheddar is no longer?

Kerry Beal lironp tandemchocoPC YetiChocolates curls chocolot patris Audrey Brown +1 (Melanie)

Ok - lets get this list started Kerry Beal lironp tandemchocoPC YetiChocolates curls chocolot patris (I'm making an assumption here)

It's taken me a while to decide and I'm still a little hesitant - however we have reserved Tomric in Buffalo for May 19, 20 and 21 so I guess I should get over it and start planning. At least for me it's not going to be the same as previous years as I am still not prepared to go unmasked inside with a bunch of people - so any meals I'll be eating with the group will have to be outside and I'm not sure how we can organize that - but it's something to work on. May can be warm or cold as we have learned in previous years in Niagara. I'm going to start with a head count before I start looking at hotel reservations. And perhaps suggestions of what topics we might want to consider. I'm not going to be able to bring my entire chocolate room with me as I have in the past in Niagara because I'll have to come across the border but Tomric is pretty well equipped and their new learning center is a joy to behold. No idea what cost will be this time around - things have gone up so much since our last kick at the cat. So let's start with a head count and start planning from there.

Questioning whether they are the only Parsi restaurant in NA - The Copper Chimney

I grew up with Fancy molasses in the cupboard - much more rare was blackstrap - can't even recall what we would have gone looking to buy that for.

Just a thought related to hardwood charcoal in the Big Green Egg - because you are cooking in an enclosed vessel essentially - it's important to let the charcoal burn off the volatile organic compounds before you put things on the grill - wait until the smoke doesn't really smell anymore. Learned the hard way that if you don't your food tastes like gasoline. Some charcoals seem to take more time to burn off the VOCs and some burn hotter and some less hot. The charcoal I liked the most on my mini egg was a coconut charcoal that you can't seem to get in Canada anymore. Burned hot, VOCs burned off almost immediately so it was ready to cook almost as soon as it was fired up. But I never found any charcoal to impart its own flavor into the cook - only the smoking woods that you might throw in along with the charcoal.

Plumbing thing - check home depot plumbing section Consider one of these instead - theragun

Steamed a couple of flan yesterday in my CSO. Never going back to water bath! I use the little silicone cup covers to keep the steam out of each of the little cups. Much cheaper than these of course

Yup - steam for 25 minutes.

I’ll bet you did! Nice score.

The ones I know use a Bravo here

Remember too, that butter is 85% flat and 15% water. When you are substituting do you need to substitute for both components