Art

I too have a Chocovision X-series that I regularly use. I've been very happy with it. It tempers consistantly and accurately. Of course, there are a few quirks that you have to work out to find what works best for you. This is always the case BTW as each brand is going to be different and more than likely, each individual machine is going to be slightly different since electronic temperature controls are extremely hard to manufacture accurately. What most people don't know is that most electronic temperature controls have an accuracy of +/- several degrees and if you want more accurate then it costs big $$$ even wholesale. Generally however, the temperature curve is repeatable so once a machine is dialed in and you know how it behaves, then you are set. (I don't know either way the accuracy of the temperature probe in ChocoVision's machines but I do know what settings give me the best temper and that is good enough for me.) I've found ChocoVisions customer service to be more than satisfactory. I'm sorry Robert didn't have a good experience with them, I can only speak for my experience and that it has been very good. -Art

Definitely an A+ for creativity ... Too bad you can't pass flavors around the internet. -Art

I think that there is an easier way to go about this. Take the appropriate amount of sugar to make your ganache meet the sweetness you desire and then disolve that in your hot cream before you add it to your chocolate. In this way, your sugar should be totally disolved and you should not have any grainyness. You This avoids having to deal with trying to make your own fondant / caster / superfine sugar as well. Since I haven't tried this, your mileage may vary but IMHO it should work. After all if you used regular chocolate, the sugar in your chocolate is going to disolve in your cream anyway. -Art

[Deleted since my network connection crashed causing it to be submitted twice.] -Art

Personally, my favorite apple is the Black Arkansas. It is the most dense of all the apples giving it a particularly long shelf life. It is both sweet and tart allowing it to be used in both types of recipes and it holds up to baking. It is a heritage variety so it can be a bit difficult to find (that is why I planted my own tree this year). On NPR the other day, they had an interview with someone from the University of Minnesota. He helped develop a relatively new variety called the Honey Crisp (not to be confused with Golden Crisp). About a day after the interview, I found some and it is very nice as well. He also mentioned a variety called Sweet Sixteen that I'd love to try. It is supposed to have the flavor of a cherry Life Saver. As far as apple pies are concerned, I've always felt the trick to the best apple pie is to substitute a quince for a single apple. The quince infuses the pie with its floral flavor and just makes it incredible. As it works out, I made a tart tatin using quince just yesterday and here's a picture. Hope this helps, -Art

I'm in the process of getting my molds made for a 10oz bar. The prototype arrived on Friday and it looks sharp. It will be the same size as that made by Scharffen Berger and Guittard. Initially, I'll probably make a handful of baking bars for chefs and see how they sell provided simply in plastic sleeves before getting boxes made since the boxes are expensive and I don't know what the demand will be and as you can imagine, we have spent a HUGE amount of money getting this far. I'd be happy to show any eG'ers around the factory once things get going. Probably nothing formal and so a lot would depend on my time availability. We won't be giving public tours since we aren't set up for it so it would be something special and handled on a case by case basis. Needless to say, if it is someone from EG, they'd get bumped up in the priority list. -Art

Thanks. I see you are out of Silver City -- I hear it is beautiful there and is similar to Los Alamos where I grew up. I really miss the incredible food found in New Mexico. (I also had green chili stew for breakfast. ) -Art

Glad you like it. Well, a lot depends on the winnower. Since I built it, I'm not sure as to its capacity. I fired it up for the first time on Thursday. However, the hopper door that the roasted beans fall through was wide open so the classification screens that sort all the nibs by size became clogged. I imagine it is going to take a few days of solid work on it to get it in some sort of running order. Initially, all our chocolate will be 70% dark. The first few chocolates we will do will be single origin so it will be clear what beans we are using. I'm not going to say right now exactly what beans we are using but simply say they are fabulous and the test batches I've done have come out wonderful. Right now, I'm thinking of giving them a fairly light roast. In this case, the "chocolate" flavor isn't quite as intense but the light roast allows the fruity flavors of the bean to remain intact. A good example of a chocolate of this type would be Michel Cuizel's Mangaro (Madagascar) bar. I'm doing a custom milk chocolate for someone -- that will be the only milk that I'm doing initially. I can't say too much about it other than it will be quite unique though I've asked her not to, my wife can't stop eating the test batch. I'm looking forward to that time too. I thrive on challenges but I think the time has come to move to new challenges -- the actual making of the chocolate instead of spending my time putting a factory together. The FDA came and did their first inspection so we can get signed off. I have to change a bit of pumbing around to make them happy -- I'm hopeful that it can be done next week. It is coming along slowly. I'm trying to make it fairly comprehensive and so it is taking time to research and write. I'm up to about nine pages right now and anticipate I still have a reasonable amount left to go. It is hard to find as much time as I would like since so much of my day (and night) is already spent on working on the various machines getting them working how I want them and running various tests. -Art

Well, my little project is still in progress. There are still bugs to be worked out and hurdles to be overcome though the end is in sight. I snapped these pictures in the last couple of days so this is about as good a time as any to share them. Here are some beans that I'm using to test our machinery. Even though they are "test beans", they can turn out an incredible chocolate given the proper roast. The beans are loaded into the roaster. Roasting helps bring out the "chocolate" flavor in chocolate though it is only a single step in a long series of steps. This roaster was made in Portugal and dates to 1962. Interestingly, I have an engraving of the same roaster from 1915. The beans are roasted to bring out peak flavor. Getting this down is a bit difficult since the window between under-roasted and over-roasted is extremely narrow. After the beans are roasted, they are crushed and then winnowed to remove the papery husk that is around each bean. When this operation is complete, you have cocoa nibs that are great on salads, in cookies and all around baking. Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of the winnowing process yet and I just finished taking apart the winnowing machine (again! ) this evening. The winnowing machine is of my own design so I'm still adjusting things to get it running optimally. Once the cocoa beans are winnowed leaving only the nibs, the nibs are placed in a melangeur to grind them until they are smooth. Our melangeur was made in Italy in the 1930's and has a 300lb grainite roller to grind with. The bowl rotates under the roller and is heated via a water bath. As the beans are ground, sugar and vanilla are added and the entire mass is finely ground. I don't yet have pictures of our other refiner in operation yet, nor the conche. Hopefully, I can get some nice pictures of these machines in operation in the not too distant future. So, while my little project isn't yet reaching a final stage (in this case chocolate bars), hopefully this will be interesting to fellow EGers.... -Art

Scott : Good point, you're right. I'm right in the middle of writing an article on tempering and so I've had "tempering on my mind" lately. -Art

I agree. I think the practice of using vegetable fats in or along with chocolate is horrid. Thank goodness you don't have to put up with it to the same degree as we do here in the US. It is that same careful attention to detail that makes the Italian chocolate is some of the world's best. -Art

One issue that you need to be aware of when it comes to lecithin is that if it is added to chocolate in too high a quantity (i.e., greater than point-five percent), it thickens the chocolate rather than thins it. Furthermore, it disrupts the crystalization of the cocoa butter. This means that during the cooling phase during tempering, the temperature must be dropped sometimes as low as 70 degrees F in order to get the cocoa butter to crystalize. Most chocolate already has point-three percent soy lecithin in it so the margin where additional lecithin may be added is small. Since truffles are made adding things too chocolate, you can probably get away with adding a bit of lecithin to it. However since the margins are small, be careful and be aware that if you run into problems it still will temper but the temperture must be dropped down during tempering considerably in order to get it to crystalize properly. On the fat front, many manufacturers use various vegetable fats to make "truffles" which by definition should be vegan. That is how those Lindt balls are made for example. I may have info from a Swedish manufacturer around somewhere that supplies these vegetable oils and I'm sure there is a US manufacturer as well. In regards to sugar, at least according to Wikipedia about one half of all cane sugar is processed with bone char, the rest is generally processed with activated charcoal. -Art

This brought back memories for me. I spent some time living in South Carolina where country food reigns supreme. I doubt there was more than several weeks that went by where somebody that I knew wasn't holding a "pig picking" where a whole hog would be roasted up over 24 hours. It would often be served with collard greens, butter beans (cooked with bacon or fatback), sweet potato pie, and of course, slaw. In a little town called Marion just outside of Florence, the food was particularly good -- and it is no wonder why it is the heart attack capitol of the US. They ate like kings and when it came time to meet their maker, they died with a smile of satisfaction on their face. Ah, the memories of good southern food it brings back. I've always swore that someday, I'll build a big bbq in our back yard so that we can have pig pickings for our neighbors as mine did for me... Thanks for the story, -Art

Great suggestion. It looks like I would really miss out if I did not visit the White House. I really hate visiting a place then come home and find on eGullet or elsewhere that I was only two blocks from really fantastic food and an incredible food experience. -Art

Well, I'm always into a good dining experience. Typically, these tend to be higher end restaurants of the type that have tasting menus and similar. However, I grant that this is often because with the prices that you have to pay, they had better be good. On the other hand, there are always the holes in the wall that have superb food at a great price. Of course, these are harder to find but are out there. I'm flying into Philadelphia on Saturday and my wife suggested Morimoto's restaurant which may be a good possibility. In the end, this is my first trip to Atlantic City and for some reason, it seems hard to find what is particularly good in the area and what should not be missed be it a four fork restaurant or some hole in the wall with a line out the door. Thanks, -Art

OK, I'm going to be going to Atlantic City from Saturday-Monday so I checked eGullet for what not to miss while I am there. Interestingly, I could not find any really good info on fine dining in Atlantic City. So, I throw it out there. If you had to choose one restaurant in Atlantic City, what would it be? Thanks, -Art

I'm wondering if anyone has eaten at the Salsh Lodge in Snoqualimie Washington. I used to live in Snoqualmie and am returning for a high school reunion. The menu (http://www.salishlodge.com/diningroom.php) looks nice but of course, it is the quality of the food that is all important. If anyone has any experiences here, I'd appreciate it since I probably only have one evening where I can go out for fine food. Right now, I'm considering Union but this looks interesting as well. Comparisons? Comments ??? Thanks, -Art

Yes, there are some guidelines that you can use. Semisweet is approximately 50-55% sugar typically. Bittersweet typically has a bit less sugar but there is no hard and fast guideline as to what "bittersweet" is so it can technically be anywhere on the map. When a chocolate says that it is say ... 70%, that means that there are 70% cocao solids. The rest is sugar, vanilla, and an emulsifier (usually lecithin). The amounts of vanilla and emulsifier are less than 1% so effectively the other 30% is sugar. This is all calculated by weight. So for example, if you are working with semi-sweet and you recipe calls for 8oz unsweetened, you would use 16oz semi-sweet then subtract 8oz of sugar from your recipe. This isn't a full 100% conversion however. Typically, with chocolate, about 10% by weight is added cocoa butter and a semi-sweet might have even more to deal with the added viscosity from so much sugar being added. Baking chocolate on the other hand typically has no additional cocoa butter. So, you will have a bit extra cocoa butter to contend with which will increase the fat content of your brownies slightly. You may want to consider cutting down on your butter or similar but even that won't be a 100% solution since cocoa butter has a higher melting point. I'd give it a try first without adjusting your recipe's oil/fat content and then keep this in mind for any further adjustments you might make. One final note that is worth pointing out. Typically, the baking chocolate that is sold on the stores is made with the lowest quality beans that are available. The thinking by the chocolate makers is that the baking chocolate will be used for baking and that people will not notice the lower quality ingredients that are used. They will keep their better quality beans for their bars etc. where people will taste the chocolate more carefully. Because of this, by using semi-sweet chocolate you may end up with better tasting brownies than you would otherwise. Hope this helps, -Art

I agree. I had the Revolation for awhile and enjoyed it so much, I purchased their larger "X" size (holds up to 10 lbs). I now use it extensively for making test batches of chocolate bars and other little projects around our shop. They do take a little playing with to find the optimal temperature for your chocolate to get the perfect temper. However, this is is easily achived with their controls. Every chocolate is a bit different so they can't be faulted for the playing around bit. They also have a new machine that they are coming out with sometime in the next couple months, that can keep the chocolate in temper almost indefinitely by fluctuating the temperature. Also, as I recall, it allows you to make programs for different chocolate types and projects. The target price, was around $2000 or so. (Please forgive me if I have any of these details wrong, I'm doing this from memory since they don't have any brochures for it yet.) As of two weeks ago, they were just getting their prototype in and hopefully, they will work through any issues quickly. I'll probably pick one up as soon as it is available. -Art

Of course, another option is simply to invite a neighbor over to your house. The reason doesn't really matter. Serve him or her up a really good cup of coffee. The more neighbors you invite over and more good cups of coffee that they are served, the better educated they will be as to what makes a good cup of coffee. Who knows, maybe a little competition will cause your local shop to improve their ingredients or technique. In the least, it will allow you to vent your feelings and your neighbors will know not only what real coffee is but that you know what you are talking about. -Art

I enjoy seeing what I can do out in the middle of no-where. I've always thought that just because you happen to be 100 miles from the nearest road, let alone small town, that doesn't mean you can not eat well. Since I live in Utah where the weather can get quite hot, ice and/or dry ice play a major role in allowing me to eat well on the trail. As an example, a little over a year ago, I went 4 wheeling on the "Hole in the Rock" trail. This is a trail through the Utah desert near Lake Powell. You 4-wheel 30 miles in over some incredibly rough terrain and camp since you can not make it back that same day. Desolate would be perhaps about as descriptive a term as you can make for this trail. Here are a couple links that I found on the web for some other group's trip on the trail : http://www.4x4now.com/hole.htm http://www.off-road.com/4x4web/travels/hole.html Temperatures are routinely over 100F. What I did on this trail was before I left, I made a big stack of crepes and orange butter and candied orange peel. I packed it all up in my cooler along with dry ice. That night my friend who I was taveling with made chicken and dumplings from scratch. Needless to say, it was incredible since his culinary skills are top-notch. The next morning I cranked out the cast iron skillet and cooked up a batch of crepe suzette. Needless to say, the other people in our group who were having pancakes or eggs were a bit amazed when they saw what we did for dinner. They were totally floored when they saw the crepes suzette the next morning. Just because you are out in the middle of no-where, doesn't mean you can't eat well. In fact, it can be more fun since it is definitely more challenging than making a nice dish at home. Finally, in the end, not only do you have a nice dish to eat, you end up with a great story to tell which makes it more fun after the event is over. -Art

The other day, I stewed up some rhubarb w/sugar and lots of water. When done, I strained it all and then froze it to make a rhubarb granita. It was incredible ! I finished it up yesterday and am already looking forward to going back to the store so I can make some more. The perfect thing for a warm spring / summer afternoon. -Art

There was an episode on the food network (Unwrapped?) where they showed a water jet being used to cut petit fours. A large sheet cake would go in and the machine would use the water jet to slice it and dice it until there were literally hundreds of little cakes. They used it because it would make a nice clean cut and would not tear the cake apart as a blade might do. I would imagine that something that can make a nice clean cut through steel would also stand a good chance of being able to do it for cake as well. I thought it was a very creative idea. -Art

Of course, the other thing you could do which has some great potential -- though no ideas jump out at me at the moment is "cooking with liquid oxygen". If you have liquid nitrogen, you can have liquid oxygen anytime you need / want it. Liquid oxygen has a higher boiling temperature than LN2 (liquid nitrogen). This means that oxygen turns liquid at a higher temperature than LN2. So, the liquid nitrogen is capable of literally freezing the oxygen out of the surrounding air. Of course, you don't have enough LN2 to do this typically. However, it does not mean that you can't make it happen on demand. We used to make a liquid oxygen "still" where we would make our own liquid oxygen. All we did was set up a styrofoam container and run some copper pipe around it it in a vertical coil with the coil coming out the bottom. We'd blow compressed air (slowly) through the copper tube and out the bottom would come air -- along with drops liquid oxygen that we'd catch in another container. Needless to say, we had lots of fun with it. Probably the best was liquid oxygen plus steel wool plus a match. Molten steel goes flying everywhere. Of course, perhaps molten steel wool does not go well with food but I can see some real potential for charring something on demand. (Putting perhaps a new meaning on Blackened Steak.) -Art

Well, Thalidamide was actually safe in one of its forms. However, like many molecules, it has both a Left handed and Right handed form. I.e., it is exactly the same molecule just that they are built as mirror images of each other. This is usually not a problem (about 3% of regular table sugar is Left handed -- and is totally undigestible and is the ultimate sugar substitute (@ $1,000/lb)). However, in the case of Thalidamide, one form stopped morning sickness while the other form is teratogenic (causing birth defects). The root of the problem is that the Thalidomide syrum had both left and right handed forms in it. So, while it was approved by the FDA, the problem was more related to contamination rather than the morning-sickness reducing form Thalidomide itself. -Art