Tri2Cook

I'm not an expert on all things syrup but, at least for the purposes of sorbets, granitas and things of that nature, the degrees and percentages work out just fine when converting a formula or recipe. If a recipe calls for a syrup at 30° and you plug in a syrup at 30% there will be no problems.

Or college breakfast style. Stumble out bleary-eyed in the morning, spot the pizza box on the table, lift the lid without much hope and... Yes! There is some left! Now where did I leave that beer I was working on when I fell asleep?

The °B is the percentage of sugar in the syrup, a 50°B syrup would be equal parts sugar and water.

That line is the one that stood out more than anything else to me. If you really think any exec. chef worth their pay is going to just leave you alone and let you make the desserts independent of their input, opinions and decisions then you still have some things to learn that school didn't teach you.

It doesn't need to be too warm. Temperature precision isn't really an issue in this case. Just put some body temp or so water in a container, put the can in the container and let it sit for a few minutes. When it sounds fluid if you shake it and it will spray evenly you're good to go. Tempering isn't an option so you don't have to worry about that. The only potential danger would be heating it enough to explode the can which won't happen in a glass of warm water but very possibly might in a microwave.

If I'm reading your post correctly and you're talking about the canned ready-to-spray stuff, don't microwave it. That could get ugly real fast. Just set it in a container of warm water. The colored cocoa butter that's not sprayable in the plastic bottles can be microwaved in short bursts. Edit: Not that you asked but, if you're buying the canned cocoa butter "velveting spray" to spray into chocolate molds, you're spending way too much money. There are much less expensive ways to go about doing that.

Thank you for the offer but I'll have a tough enough time with French (which is the main reason it took me so long to decide to get it), I wouldn't stand a chance with Japanese. Jumanggy: I'll look into that, thanks!

There is no atomized glucose, dextrose or trimoline in any of the gelato recipes in the book. There are actually only 6 recipes in the gelato section but he prefaces the section by saying that any custard-based ice cream recipe can be a gelato recipe simply by controlling the overrun (which he says is the only real difference between the two).

Thanks Kerry but I don't know anybody in France... unless Quebec counts.

Looks like I waffled over this one for too long. I finally decided I want it and now I can't find it anywhere.

Some of the savory sorbets suggest the Paco Jet due to a lower than optimal solids content and the sugar being at the low end of the range. That said, I don't have a Paco Jet and they've worked fine for me.

I've never made one and I'm pretty sure I've never tasted one so I can't help with that question. Just out of curiosity, I searched the recipe after reading your post and Gale Gands version came up as well and it sounded pretty good to me. I may be biased because it's Gale Gand vs. Paula Deen in a pastry shootout but Gale's contained cream and milk vs. just milk, more egg yolk and a little more cornstarch instead of flour, more butter, a little less sugar, a little Scotch whiskey and no butterscotch chips which just sounded better to me. Kinda unfair since I've tasted neither.

Thanks for the information everybody, that gives me some directions to check out.

Weight with the corresponding percentages listed so it's really easy to scale (which is nice because the recipes are based on 5kg/11lb. batch size).

I think the viewpoint comes down to personal lines on this one. If you get something unpleasant from your eggs or chicken or produce it was probably there when you bought it. So it kinda is a question of banning something that's potentially hazardous to our health or not banning it. The question, in my opinion, is do they pick and choose what to regulate based on popularity or do they go with a blanket all-or-nothing policy? Ideally, they solve the problem... but providing the necessary information to insure your safety if you choose to buy it is better than nothing. It doesn't fix the problem but it puts the choice of whether or not to risk it in the consumers hands. If enough people say "yeah, we know you told us how to make it safe but we're not going to buy it until you fix it", it will suddenly become beneficial in the eyes of their number crunchers to solve the problem.

I'm gonna have to side with JeanneCake and Matt R. on this one. I realize it's very common and I don't worry over it when I'm eating somewhere but I don't do it and it's not allowed in my kitchen. I don't have the patience of JeanneCake though, one warning is sufficient.

But by telling you in writing "for your safety, always cook to xxx degrees" you have been given the information. Maybe not the whole story behind it, which I agree the consumer does deserve, but the information necessary to insure your safety and to decide if you want to risk eating something that may be unsafe if not heated as directed. That's more handling/cooking information than you get on a carton of eggs or package of chicken or fresh fruits and vegetables. I'm not being argumentative, just trying to figure out if it's a straight line or a curve that should govern various food products.

I've read that as well. It's a bit on the expensive side to serve as a general purpose stabilizer but it may be worth looking into. It also made me wonder if simply working some cocoa butter into the formula may help.

Gelatin is very prone to syneresis, especially after freezing. It holds up well enough in higher concentrations (in the 1% or higher range) to not usually be a problem unless it needs to have a longer shelf life (which is not an issue for what I do) or it needs to spend more than a short time out of it's cold environment (which is sometimes an issue for what I do and the main reason behind my question). Agar can help with temp stability but I was hoping to find some less gelatinous options.

I don't know, I have this pet thing about personal responsibility. You have risks with chicken (just to pick one example from a long list) if it's not cooked properly, nobody says quit selling chicken until it can be cooked to below recommended temps with 0% worry that it's safe. They're telling people that in order to be sure it's safe, cook it to xxx degrees. If you choose to go bounce a ball in the road despite your parents warning, don't look all shocked when the car hits you. The fact that a car shouldn't have been there in the first place because it was a private road won't make you any less hit. No, I am not suggesting there should be no rules and regs for food safety, and yes, I do agree that they should take a better shot at the problem than "not our fault, our stuff comes from all over". I'm just saying that the cupboards would be pretty bare (and boring) if they banned anything that is potentially hazardous.

If I wanted to formulate a mousse base mainly for encasing and filling cakes that will have a firmer texture than traditional mousse (yeah, gelatin... I know) that has increased stability once out of the cooler (for situations where the cake may have to sit out for a bit) with reduced risk of syneresis due to the freeze/thaw cycle during production (the last two being the reasons the obvious, gelatin, isn't the perfect solution) but still maintains good mouthfeel, what would be a good hydrocolloid/stabilizer/etc. to look into? I've ordered a sample of Stabilizer CT-D100 (a blend of carrageenan and tara gum) from GumTech because it sounds like it might be perfect for the job but I'm always on the lookout for backup plans and interesting solutions to problems (and I don't have a good track record of getting responses from U.S. based companies despite being an industry customer). I don't need this for my normal day-to-day work but I get the occasional situation where I need the qualities stated above. I had a glazed mousse-encased cake slip part of the glaze due to syneresis in the mousse underneath with a cake that had to spend some time at room temp, fortunately not for a paying customer but I was still very unhappy about it.

I don't have the chestnut puree aversion but I was thinking the same thing about the caramel. Those look mighty tasty as is though.

Don't I feel dumb, celery is last year and I didn't even know.

He didn't change the name for his "pickled deviled egg with a black truffle pop tart" but I agree, sounds like something he might do.

Ok Rob, I'm waiting for it. I almost attempted it myself to continue where we left off a while back when we were trading riffs on the theme (with you one up on me as I recall) but this is your baby so... where's the celery pop tart?