tan319

Thanks! I'm saying I'll try all these because I seem to have lots of opportunity lately. The veins you mention are very prevalent. We do pour all directly on top of the chocolate. Another instructor said little at a time. The pastry chef I work with melts the chocolate, boils the cream and pours all the chocolate into the cream. That was actually the first and third batches. First was fine, third almost as bad as second. How will that "screw everything up" -- not doubting, just looking for scientific explanations so I can perhaps find the part(s) that are doing me in. I must have a crap stick blender, cuz that did nothing to the crap batch. Once I turned the blender off, you could actually see it start to break again. I haven't tried it yet to do the initial emulsion -- only to do the fixes. ← I haven't tried the melting chocolate/pouring it into the cream thing. Adding the room temp/dry choc to the just of the boil dairy schocks the hell out of it, I guess It does it no good, that's for sure. Unless I was stick blending I would do the little by little method, as mentioned above. That's the Frederic Bau method, who is the main man at valrhona. No ones saying your ganache will never be crappy again but he has a lot of good tips on the subject. I'm surprised the stick blending didn't straighten your mix right out. I've fixed batches that were microwaved a bit too much, where it separates a bit ( but no burn) and it came back together pretty damned nice. I HAVE seen a few not very powerful immersion blenders. Some of the peiople I've worked with have ran out and gotten something other then the Braun (obviously we're talking the more affordable end of stick blenders here) and the results haven't been as good. I think it's just the speed/power/etc. You could always try a Vita Prep blender or something too? Good Luck! PS: I've used many different percentages of cream and never encountered problems. % specific recipes? Yes! PSS: Humidity and heat screw up everything we work with, no???

Best way to beat the grainy stuff is good emulsification, for one thing. Try using an immersion blender ( like a Braun or a CuisineArt) after pouring your wet on top of the chocolate. Let it sit for a few minutes (five) then buzz it, it will look like a great emulsion. If no immersion blender ( which I can't recommend highly enough) add your hot mix slowly, in bits, using your spatula from the middle out to the edge, slowly, adding a bit more of the hot as you go until you get it all emulsified. When I've had an assistant "break" my ganache (grainy, when it cools you see the white cocoa butter veined thruout) it was usually because they poured the boiling hot liquid on all at once, didn't emulsify it right or added the chocolate to the hot dairy, which will really screw everything up. Oh, and burr mixing or stick blending a crap batch should fix it just fine.

The Rational Combi Oven is the most impressive convection I've worked with yet! Used the steam option a bit but since we were in Miami and wanted to keep the heat down, we would turn it on as needed. No long warm-up, in fact, would hit real heat pronto. I still dream about it. The only other one I've been curious about is the Arpin, which is th oven of choice (supossedly) 9in the Pieere herme shop. I used to have a webpage link, seems to have gone missing. Can't go wrong with the Rational though. Goo0d Luck!

Try this:Re: Olive OilSorbet: ____________________________ 250 gr water 105 gr trimoline or invert sugar Make a syrup with these ing. You could infuse with herbs or lemon zest, etc. 60 gr gran sugar 70 gr lemon or lime juice Strain__________________________________________________________ Put 400 gr of syrup into bowl working into a sabayon-ish mix with 120 gr egg yolk 80 gr Glucose cool to toom temp in ice bath _______________________________ 600 gr Fromage Blanc 200 gr EVO Incorporate this into your egg/syrup mix. rest Spin _________________________ I've been using a recipe similar to this minus the eggs and cheese for a creme fraiche ice cream. It's still a bit fragile. Good Luck

Yes, stabilizer or not, those high fat guys like to turn into a mess after that one service of beauty. My Bacon ice cream does that to me. Paco or not. Yes! That's exactly what happened to me. I spun it once in a Paco and it was beautiful. I took it out the next day for service, spun it, and it was separated. ←

Dextrose seems to be the favored sweetener of the El Bulli boys in their ice creams abd sorbets also, more so then atomized glucose. If it's breaking then you have to take it out of the machine before you normally would, just a bit looser.

make the recipe first, using the full tsp of Xanthan ( usually added to a bit of sugar kept out, to lighten the eggs with.) Make the recipe first then see what you like/dislike about it. Next time you use the preserves, strain them out. You can (digressing again, sorry) use half and half or Heavy cream for half the milk for more fat, creaminess, etc. This is why many use dry matter, such as dry milk in their formulas, to combat iciness, less water, etc. better Luck next time!

As usual. doc, great report and pix!!! Thank you for sharing.

Good tips about the adding after. In the book "The Way To Cook" ,Pierre Herme suggests using rose preserves also. The tip about going lighter rather then heavier concerning flowers in general is true. Lavender is cool but just a tad too much throws it into soapland!

Be careful of the Rose water. When you get to where it's just a bit underflavored add a pinch ( good sized) of salt then adjust. Also, letting your mix rest overnight will let you test how much the rose effect is coming thru. I did a milk chocolate rosewater creme brulee awhile back and went just a bit past what i would consider ok on the rose. I also concur about the egg yolks. It neuters your flavor a bit, beware.. Do you have an outline for the Xanthan gum addition? Any stabilizer will "slime up" your ice cream if you use too much. Maybe you can look up pastry suppliers or if you are working in a restaurant ask your purveyor. I use Cremoden. Good Luck!

Trimoline (Invert Sugar) This is an oldie but goodie thread from way back in 'Gullet land. Sometimes it's called Nuevoline also. You can find small containers in specialty stores that sell supplies for wedding cake makers, etc. Good Luck!

So it's a vac-packed cold infusion very interesting! Thanks for that info, much appreciated

Ok, mind is blown once again... The desserts for 2005 are 'freakin me out. I need these books!!!! Beautiful! PS: I keep seeing desserts with 'CRU' in the title. Are these inspired by CRU, the restaurant or something else all together? Thanks in advance!

Maybe a bit of baking powder?

Thanks for the tip on this. but be aware, right before the publication of '98/02', they had a similiar galaria which didn't stay around all that long. Nice ctuff , thanks a bunch for it!

Yes, that's the kind of abbrieviated one.

When you get it, the expense will drain away ... It's a truly remarkable book! The size of it alone will make you laugh! Quite a few esoteric ingredients, especially savory, to source out though. I don't know if you came about this...eGullet discussion on the Spoon book It's pretty funny, informative, as far as purchasing. We were going to do one of those 'cooking from...' threads but everybody was too busy. Enjoy it!

This is the ltd. edition, 11 lb. one, 5,000 in print. The Spoon CookBook you want, I think? 143 euros, one of a kind. The one at J.B. is a very abbrievated one that came out before the monolith.

pizza cutter, maybe scissors? Have to wear a couple sets of gloves A trick I've heard is used is to roll out your sugar as thin as possible with the silpats, break it down, pulverize it in a robocoupe/cuisineart processor. Strain it back onto a clean silpat thru a seive like a sifted powder, rewarm in a low oven quickly ( it can be covered with the other silpat also) and this time it will roll out VERY thin, should be on the thinnish side anyways. After you cut your squares, have your quail egg on there, use a blow torch to melt the caramel around it and over it, instead of a salamander It will happen quickly, you can seal the edges with your fingers (gloved, of course) and it should be a bit easier. Hope that helps.

It's looking look, X!

Was it Cocoa Berry Tanzania?

Those symbols are in the very expensive book, in a folder that holds the CDROM with all of the recipes.

My vote goes to Amazon.fr I got my copy in 4 days via chronopost. was cheaper then buying it from Canada or even from ADNY. It was 180 USD or so, all in. I believe there a soft cover version now too. A lot of us got it via France. Best of luck.

I hope you got out of there before more hell breaks lose. Best wishes and may God speed!

I just watched 'DFA' and am pretty speechless. The thing that blew me away even more then the food was seeing Bourdains mind blown. But, anyone who has their doubts, I think the Carame quote in the end by AB sums it up. Beautiful work, Mssr. Bourdain and crew!!! And Thank You!