Tri2Cook

THIS. Or rather, this is the end result. The molds are just individual clear plastic cones. I don't actually need 100 of them but at that price I don't mind ordering that many if the shipping isn't too ridiculous so I'm going to shoot them an email and find out once I decide what else I want to order to make the $100 minimum (unless I find them elsewhere which I haven't managed to do so far).

I need some clear plastic cones for molding various cold items and chocolate, prefer in the 3.5"-4.5" range. Within Canada would be great for faster delivery and avoiding duties but I can do U.S. too. JBPrince has them but also has a minimum order amount to Canada and according to their shipping info doesn't give the shipping cost to Canada up front, just bills it to your card when they figure it out... that's scary to me.

What I'm trying to do specifically is experiment with flavoring aerated chocolates. I've got the aerating technique down now and get really nice results with white, milk and dark chocolate and want to take it another step and incorporate flavors into the chocolate. I don't temper the chocolate to be aerated, it's either used as is for plate decoration or coated in tempered chocolate after it sets so tempering isn't an issue.

That makes sense. Thanks! Soooo... if a person wanted to go the all natural route for flavoring straight chocolate with fruit flavors (raspberry for example) they'd basically be out of luck? P.S. I hope this post and my last post don't sound as critical to anyone else as they do to me. It's not intended that way, I'm sincerely trying to learn more about chocolate here.

Now I'm a little confused. Some of the folks saying here that it's best to only use natural ingredients are the same folks that told me to use flavoring oils in the other thread. Is it because I wanted to flavor straight chocolate (as opposed to a ganache) that I needed to go a different direction for adding the flavor?

No, it's snack junk food. They're little chocolate cakes rolled with a white cream filling and dipped in a chocolate shell. Ho Ho's

Hey Kerry, how much is the pistachio through Qzina? I just ordered cocoa butter and some more purees and was going to grab the pistachio paste and hazelnut paste too but l'epicerie sells both in 8 oz. containers so I decided maybe I'll just order a couple of each in that size instead. I figured it may take a while to go through the larger pails but if the price works out close (for equal weights) I may just stick with Qzina and avoid the long shipping wait and duties.

Chocolate sponges filled with sweetened hydrogenated fat and dipped in brown wax... but for some reason I remember liking them. I'm looking forward to seeing the homemade version.

I think it depends on what you're trying to do. I've always used fruit purees that I concentrate for adding fruit flavor to ganache but when I decided I wanted to flavor chocolate without adding additional liquid (puree, cream, etc.) those here who do chocolate much, much better than I do pretty much agreed that flavoring oils were the way to go. That's for fruit flavors. For herbs, zests, coffee and things of that nature I've had good results just melting the chocolate, mixing in whatever I want to use, letting it sit for a while, melting it again and pouring it through a strainer. Then I proceed as usual. It works great for the things I do but keep in mind that I'm not an expert and I do very little molding and dipping unless I need it for something specific on a plate so you may want to wait and see if the pros know of problems that may cause for molding and dipping.

Isn't that a dishwasher's jacket? If that is the case then it is either studied anti-snobism (the dishwasher being notionally lowest in the kitchen hierarchy) or actually a habit that has stuck. ← ...or possibly it's just a comfort thing. Maybe he just doesn't give a fork what anybody thinks and wears what's comfy for him. That tends to be my view on fashion. I will respect the rules of an employer but otherwise, if I'm comfy, clean and don't look like I just spent the night in a dumpster behind McDonalds, then what anybody else thinks about what I'm wearing concerns me not at all.

I just ordered THIS today and I'm looking forward to it. I loved (and still love) the first book but it was all about the sweets, this one is supposed to feature the savory side of chocolate as well.

That's a good tip for books that make use of scraps, maybe a little "reserve for use in (whatever)" note with the recipe so you know not to munch or toss the leftovers.

It doesn't mean you will but don't be too upset if it does happen. The first couple times I tempered chocolate it turned out great and I was wondering what all of the fuss was about. Then I (over)confidently dove into doing larger batches and different chocolates and got my first taste of what a pain in the arse it can be. I've got it down now to where it's always good enough for what I do (decorations for plated desserts and things of that nature) but probably wouldn't be up to the standards of the chocolate artists doing all of the beautiful dipping and molding we see posted here. I have a lot of respect for their skills. I've almost decided to invest in a small tempering machine just to make life easier. Then I can turn my attention to other things while the chocolate does it's thing. Using the double boiler method I use now, I'm too paranoid to leave alone for more than a minute or two.

You don't have to like everything to be a cook/chef, you just have to be willing to make sure it tastes good for those who do like it.

Wild Sweets: Chocolate Sweet, Savory, Bites, Drinks Has anybody checked it out yet? I was a big fan of their first book so I'll be grabbing this one as well, just wondered if anybody has taken a peek at it.

Foie gras, pate... basically any and all liver that I've had the misfortune of trying so far as well as the "gourmet" products made from it. Doesn't seem to matter if it's from beef, pork or poultry, they all taste like nasty to me.

I know a firm caramel simply warmed to melt over water with a small amount of cream will set again when cooled and be softer. As for whether it causes crystalization to happen quicker, I don't know... I've only done that for dipping apples. Definitely works though, you just have to be careful with the cream. Too much in one batch caused some droopy looking caramel on the apples. Had that wrinkly, elephant-leg thing going on.

I tried to keep an open mind but the US version is nothing like the UK version. Just in the few episodes I've caught, because I've been a fan of Chef Ramsay for a long time and wanted to like it, I've already grown completely tired of the whole "we asked you to come here but we're not going to cooperate, ok I see where you're coming from, all is warm and fuzzy and everybody is suddenly transformed from bumbling idiots to polished pros" script that every episode I've seen is following. I know north America loves drama and happy endings but just once I'd like to see Chef Ramsay look into the camera and say "F*ck these uncooperative, incompetent wankers, Im outta here".

Hmmm. Well I've never tried lemon rind smoke so that's interesting to know.

Yeah, you should see food network canada... I think they have like 6 shows and just cycle them over and over with an occasional special thrown in.

You're not serious with that right? I think your stuff you post here is awesome. That's a cool idea for squaring off a cake, I usually don't bother because my decorating skills aren't the best to start with and drop off greatly when it comes to icing cakes. I remember a demo I saw somewhere years ago where you draw whatever shape the cake is but ~1/2" bigger than the cake on parchment, tape the paper to a board, fill it in with buttercream, center a cake layer on it and chill. Build the cake up from there upside down, then cover the sides. Chill, invert and peel off the parchment and you get a perfectly flat top with square edges. I've done it and it works great but it's kinda time consuming.

I think that may be the line I'm talking about. For my personal taste and personal bank account, paying more for something a little better is worth it. But at work it's not just my bank account I'm working with so there has to be some tangible evidence that the difference in cost is worth it to the customers. It's all well and good that I can taste the 20% improvement and feel it's worth the cost but if I don't see a 20% improvement in the smiles on people's faces when they eat it then I can't justify the expense to those who help pay the bills. I'm in an area where Hershey, Nestle and Bakers are all you can buy and most places buy in their desserts from Sysco (some even try to claim they don't buy them in, which I find really funny because it's so obvious) so in-house made desserts with Callebaut and Valrhona are a significant step up in comparison. I'm just not sure that extra 20% would carry through to the customer base here, especially with the price increase that would have to come with it.

So I guess a Cluizel cake with an Amadei Porcelana mousse filling and a Patric buttercream should be pretty good then? Yeah, I'm being a smartass but I really am interested in this topic. I'm going to do some tastings in the near future. I'll let my customers and friends decide if I should be spending more on the chocolate I use. It will be an interesting test for them as well because the Callebaut and Valrhona I order in are miles above anything you can buy locally.

THIS ONE is the one I'm curious about. I've seen it elsewhere for ~$85 less, I'm just wondering if it's actually worth double the price of the usual suspects you find at department stores, etc. Temperature stability/recovery is my main concern. This is going to be a gift. My gf wants a fryer so I'll get to use it occasionally as well. I don't care about all of the "easy to clean", "auto timer", "safety lid with viewer window", etc. stuff they use to make people buy the fryers that do everything except fry well. I don't know if she cares about those features or not but I'm used to commercial fryers so I'll teach her how to deal with that type and (most likely) end up doing most of the serious cleaning and oil changing myself anyway.

So am I wrong in my thinking? I don't want to shortchange anybody so maybe I'll have to do some blind tasting experiments on some unsuspecting chocolate lovers. I'm not suggesting that there isn't a difference, just that the difference becomes less distinct the more other ingredients/flavors you pile on top of the chocolate and may not be noticed by the average person munching down their dessert and not thinking about how much I paid for the chocolate in it. I guess what I'm getting at is that I'll gladly pay double for something that tastes much better but I won't gladly pay double just to put a fancy name on the menu that nobody will notice in the final product. Looks like I have some testing to do.