Tri2Cook

I'm glad that counts... that's what I had for lunch. Otherwise, Pi Day would have to be happy without my participation. I don't foresee me making or purchasing a pie tonight.

The machine makes some nice powdered sugar though, doesn't it?

So that lines up with what I remember from the ML lesson/recipe. They're saying optimal for curdling at 70 C in the link. I remember reading that above that temp, the protease that causes the curdling begins to rapidly be destroyed. I also remember reading that the curdling effect is increased when using juice instead of the whole pieces of ginger. So maybe manipulating temp and ingredient state is the secret.

There's a Michael Laiskonis recipe where he does a blend. It involves cream cold infused with slices of fresh ginger for 24 hours and cream hot infused with slices of fresh ginger. I'd have to dig up the recipe from my backup hard drive to be sure, it's been a long time since I used it, but I think I remember the ginger being pre-blanched. At least for the cold infusion, anyway. I definitely remember that the cream was heated to boiling before the ginger was added for the hot infusion. Apparently temps above 70 C quickly destroy the thing in ginger that causes the curdling. The recipe was a panna cotta, the sugar and gelatin were dissolved in the hot infusion then the cold infusion was added. The flavor was amazing but I've never attempted to figure out a way to use the hot and cold infusion combination in a ganache. I'd actually forgotten about it until I saw this discussion.

This is awesome... you just made my life easier as well.

Nope, it does not mean that. Anything you do with chocolate or cocoa butter that requires tempering will be done more easily via the EZtemper with at least equally good results. The silk from the EZtemper may seed the same way as using callets but there's no waiting for it to melt or fishing out what doesn't melt. It saves time, it's foolproof (unless somebody can convince me otherwise, I've never experienced a tempering failure using it and I've become so confident with it that I quite often don't even bother with a temper check anymore) and you always have silk ready to work with so last minute projects are easy. Having one isn't essential to doing chocolate work (very few of the tools we use are actually essential, the point of having them is they make the job easier or give better results) but I'd argue that, once you have one and start using it on a regular basis, it will become essential to you. You won't want to go back to working without one.

Most places that sell the extracts for making root beer and other sodas usually carry a cola extract as well. Not sweetened at all and very concentrated (a 2 oz, bottle is used with 4 lbs. of sugar and 4 gallons of water). I've never tried the cola extracts but some of the root beer extracts are good so maybe there's a cola version that is too.

I'm thinking no new air getting in is the key here. Things last a pretty long time without issue in the freezer even when not vacuum sealed. Not as long as things that are vacuum sealed but Jim was talking about a no more than 2 month freezer time in his example and I'm pretty sure Melissa Coppel has sufficient turnover for things to not spend too much time in storage. I've had things in the freezer for a lot longer than 2 months where I took no extra care at all in packaging (personal stuff at home, not at work or for my chocolate work) that held up perfectly fine so I suspect as long as they're closed up well enough to not let the freezer air in during storage, they're probably gonna be just fine for a pretty good amount of time.

It took me a while to dig up the post but this is the result I got from mixing the luster dust with melted cocoa butter and painting it in the molds. The somewhat muted look is not due to the method, it's due to the only colors I had on hand at the time being old gold and satin white, neither of which have a lot of pop to them. They were leftovers from a cake I had to do so I decided to play around with the technique before deciding to invest in more vibrant colors. But you can still see the basic idea of how it worked.

Yes I am. Scoop in some silk and pour vs. table and cleanup is a non-decision every time.

Kerry was my good supplier of my last cocoa butter purchase but I think that was a one-time thing where she found a good deal and offered it to anybody interested, not something she does on a regular basis. Other than that, I get it from chocolat-chocolat.

I meant the molds you posted above with the tools. Fill those to the depth you want with something that will set strong enough to use as a plug. I know that wouldn't be efficient long-term but it would be a quick way to test the partial depth molds to see if you like the result better.

Fill the mold you just made to the depth you want with some material you can use as a plug? I'm generally looking for the easiest way to do things that will still get the good result so I'll have to think on this one a bit. It's not a task I've ever had need to find an easier way to do.

Could you embed items in some kind of material that will take an imprint to the depth you want then make plugs from some kind of material you can pour in the cavities and let harden?

Just what I was hoping to hear. Thanks! Not too late at all. I couldn't find something I was completely happy with so I pushed it to the back burner. Shipping to Canada is a little on the steep side from them but I did a little google time and it looks like dr.ca carries them (I don't remember them having those when I was looking before, that's a site I always check for things like that) so that solves that problem. Thanks again!

The little things that will make the job easier and the result better is just details to be worked out along the way, looks like that thing does a great job of the basic purpose it was designed for.

Can meltaways be re-melted and re-tempered? I want to try something in some silicone molds I have sitting around that were purchased for a different purpose but I don't have enough of them to hold a full batch in one round. Just wondering if I'd be better off doing separate smaller batches... and hoping not.

That was before he knew all the cool kids are doing it.

I only use sous vide because I usually use lean cuts to make my corned beef and don't want it dry. If I was working with brisket based corned beef, "low brow", as you put it, methods would be fine with me.

Not that it's really any of my business, but you're not going to risk an oops batch on somebody's wedding cake, are you? Unless you baked enough to be able to sacrifice a layer for tasting, there's no way I'd take that risk even knowing that it will probably be fine. Or maybe I just have some residual paranoia from my catering days caused by dealing with brides, best friends of brides and mothers of brides. But I'm guessing it turned out fine since you caught the mistake pre-oven.

Then I'll definitely have to get an order together soon. The temptation to order from the other site came from wanting, even though I'm a bit behind the curve on it, to try the Peru Ucayali River nibs. But Bhavhani has enough variety to keep me entertained.

I have no problem with taking the same lunch to work every day from home. As mentioned already, it's generally a matter of convenience and preparing in advance. What's strange to me is the people who go to the same restaurant and order the exact same meal for lunch every day. We have some of those where I work. I mean, yay for regulars and yay that they enjoy something we serve enough to eat it every day but I can't think of any meal at any restaurant that I would want to eat for lunch every single day Monday - Friday every week. Well, maybe a good taco place...

Your skills are plenty up to it. I know there are still a lot of tricks I can learn for getting even better results but to be honest, the basic task of making chocolate from nibs using the melanger is really simple. I've learned a few things along the way just through trial and error but the first batch I made turned out great... and it required some thinking and adjusting on the fly to achieve it. The cheap generic nibs I used as my first test run because I didn't want to risk the better ones at that point turned out to not produce a very pleasant tasting dark chocolate so I turned it into a high percentage milk instead by figuring out what I needed to work into the batch with what was already in there to reach that goal. I had zero experience whatsoever with making chocolate at that point and the result was very nice. I even managed to do it without having to pester Kerry with 10 billion questions like I often do. You'd be able to handle it just fine.

Very happy and I'll be getting more from him probably in the not too distant future. I see he has the Morogoro back in stock which is the only one I haven't tried, it was sold out when I ordered. There were just a couple specific varieties I wanted to try that I found at the other place. Bhavhani's stuff is awesome quality but there are only 6 varieties to choose from, the other place has 34 so I felt kinda like a kid on Christmas morning looking at that site.

Hmmm... not that it necessarily automatically translates but I was considering ordering some cocoa nibs from him in a couple varieties I'd like to try making chocolate with. Rancid cocoa butter could suggest not a lot of turnover which could also prove to be the case with the nibs. That would be a shame, I haven't had a lot of luck finding sources for nibs in a wide range of varieties outside of his site and I'm not really set up (with equipment or desire) right now to start working with whole beans.