Tri2Cook

If he's going to post pictures showing that beautiful scenery where he wades out and digs his own clams, his dishes damn well better look good!

I knew he'd show up at the townhouse at some point. It usually inspires me to have a visit with Eeyore myself. May not this year though, I have a lot of tiki related products sitting around that aren't going to stay good forever so I'm trying to stay in that area this summer.

I think a person's market has to be part of the equation as well. It can factor into what level constitutes "good" for the people buying it. There's nobody doing chocolate work at any level within several hours of where I live that I'm aware of. Anything I use that ranks above the bags of chocolate chips in the grocery store is great as far as the local customer base in concerned. What that means for me is, if I can charge X amount for chocolates using Callebaut, that doesn't mean I'll get away with charging Y amount if I start using Valrhona. A large part of the local customer base won't care enough to pay more. It's an area high on my list of concerns as I begin to venture into making my own chocolate... whether I'm going to be able to sell it for enough where I live to be worth doing.

Lisabeth? Just a random guess because you're where you are and she's the only one I know about there. There may be 50 of them there in actuality.

I have an electric one that was a gift from my grandmother many years ago. I don't know where it ranks in quality level but I've had it for over 20 years and it still works great. She overheard me mentioning to my sister that I was thinking about getting a juicer and got that for me. She had one just like it, her and my grandfather had a winter place in Florida and she had a couple orange trees in her yard so she used it for the oranges. I didn't have the heart to tell her that wasn't the type of juicer I meant but it has come in handy at times. I don't use it often, not worth the cleanup for one or two pieces of fruit, but it's nice when I have reason to juice a large amount of citrus in one shot.

I mentioned it in that other discussion but in the interest of compiling this stuff in one place... the first batch I made using nibs of unknown locale (that were listed as raw when purchased, so I did have to roast) was aimed at a 70% dark. 48 hours in, it was unpleasantly astringent. I have no idea if it was related to the beans or my beginner roasting skills but the end result was not going to be enjoyable. So I did exactly as you mentioned, added sugar, milk powder and additional cocoa butter in ratios to end up at a 50% milk chocolate. Those additions resulted in it spending another 12 hours in the melanger (probably didn't need that much to refine the sugar and milk powder, just how it worked out with my work schedule). The result is actually quite nice but I couldn't tell you if the conversion to a dark milk, the additional time in the machine or a combination of both solved the problem. I have lecithin on hand but haven't used it in a batch yet. I have no problems with using it. I'm not aiming for "purist" or "strict single origin" or "minimal ingredient" labeling, I just want to make things that taste good, have good texture and will do what I want them to do. So if I do a batch that I think will benefit from having lecithin added, it will be added. If eye of newt and hair of frog will help me make the best chocolate I can make... well, lets hope that doesn't come up or my customers don't read the ingredient list.

I saw the picture before I read any of the text and that's exactly what I thought... cookies! Then I read and discovered they are in fact buns... except the recipe seems awful similar to cookies. Silly Newfoundlanders calling cookies buns.

Yes it is, wasn't trying to persuade you otherwise. I was just thinking more along the lines of don't let someone telling you a chocolate is good or bad convince you it's good or bad. If it's something you were considering, maybe let being told it's bad convince you to start with a very small amount. But I'd do that even if told it's good... just in case I happen to disagree after tasting it.

Yeah, that's why I've been trying to just follow along and not ask questions. I'm not at all sure there will ever be a point when I would take the course. There are some individual lessons I'd be tempted to purchase if he ever decided to make that format available at some point in the future but the class as a whole, I'm less sure about. Not because I think it's too pricey or I wouldn't benefit greatly from it. I just know myself well enough to know that left to my own devices in the online format, I would very possibly find myself doing lessons that interested me and putting off others. Not proud to admit that but no point lying about it either.

What's good is what you like. What's bad is what you don't like. In case you think I'm being flippant, I'm not. Watch the replies (once this gets rolling some more) and see how many different chocolates are listed as good or bad and how many of the same chocolates are listed as good by one person and bad by another. Taste and use what you like. Don't worry about what someone else thinks about it unless they're giving you their money for it.

I do remember the Tepache... I also remember that you had more success with yours than I had with mine. Mine was tasty but I don't think it ever fully became what it was supposed to be based on the descriptions I'd read. I remember the vinegar idea as well but not knowing where I'd find a vinegar mother where I live, I was forced to drink the tasty, if not all that boozy and fizzy, Tepache-ish liquid instead.

Would have been pretty funny if you'd been able to whip that out and put it on the plate next to those pastries they gave you in NY.

This is my favorite effect so far.

That may be true but I sure don't make messes doing anything else food related that come anywhere close to the messes I sometimes make when doing chocolate work. It may not be messy in and of itself but it's certainly skewed towards bringing out one's inner messy.

Is there any other way?

Howdy! That's a tough one. You're basically asking for tips on all of the things that can't really be taught. Things you develop along the way and figure out because everybody has their own best way of doing those things. If you put 10 cooks in a room and ask them to work efficiently and cleanly (multi-tasking is an efficiency skill), you'll very likely see 10 variations on how they go about that... and they could all work equally well. And where you work can throw a wrench in all of that. Unless you've been recruited to be their top pastry person with free license to do your thing, they'll very likely have their own way of wanting things done, especially at the "upper-tier" level, and then you have to adapt your efficiency, multi-tasking skills and ability to work cleanly to how they insist you do things.

I tempered and molded the 50% milk I made with the no-origin-given nibs today after a couple weeks aging. The EZtemper made easy work of the tempering so it certainly is well named. Gonna have to be a little more violent with the molds next round, got a few bubble dimples in some of these, but they all popped right out of the molds with no banging or freezer assistance and, though it's not easy to see in the pictures thanks to my poor photography skills, they're quite shiny. I'm calling it a success for a first try. Three of the fifteen 80 gram bars I molded. Not selected for best appearance. There were some without bubble dimples that I could have used but this is a learning process so... warts and all.

That's the one. I'd forgotten that I replaced his combination of 1/2 cup puree and 1/2 cup water he uses to hydrate the gelatin with just straight puree. I should probably change that in the one I posted accordingly since it has his name on it. Just in the interest of accuracy.

Their loss... I'm way up here in Santa's South 40 and I'd buy them way more often than I should.

If I was doing it frequently or in varying batch sizes, I'd probably convert the measurements to weight as well. I haven't used the recipe in years but you never know when a tested recipe will be just the thing you need for a project so I held on to it.

Rather than dig for the original post, I'm going to assume this is ok since it's been posted many times... Nightscotsman Strawberry Marshmallows 4 envelopes gelatin 1/2 c strawberry puree 1 1/4 c water 3 c sugar 1-1/4 c glucose or light corn syrup 1/4 tsp salt powdered sugar and potato starch for dusting Line a sheet pan with a 1" rim with aluminum foil. coat the foil with vegetable oil or non-stick spray. Fit the mixer with the whisk attachment. Place the strawberry puree and 1/2 cup water in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the gelatin over to soften. Put the sugar, corn syrup, remaining water and salt in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook until it reaches the soft-ball stage (234-240 F). With the mixer at full speed, pour all of the hot syrup slowly down the side of the bowl. Be careful as the mixture is very liquid and hot at this point and some may splash out of the bowl - use a splash guard if you have one. whip until the mixture is very fluffy and stiff, about 8-10 minutes. pour mixture into the foil-lined pan and smooth with an oiled offset spatula so that it's level with the top of the rim (it won't completely fill the pan). Allow the mixture to sit, uncovered at room temp for 10 to 12 hours. Mix equal parts powdered sugar and potato starch and sift generously over the rested marshmallow slab. Turn it out onto a cutting board or counter, peel off foil and dust with more sugar/starch mixture. Slice with a thin-bladed oiled knife or oiled cookie cutters. Dip all cut edges in sugar/starch mixture and shake off excess. Marshmallows will keep several weeks at room temp in an air-tight container. Variation - Chocolate Marshmallows: Replace strawberry puree and initial 1/2 cup of water in mixing bowl with 1/2 cup of cocoa disolved in 1/2 cup boiling water in a separate bowl. Soften gelatine in an additional 1/4 cup cold water in mixing bowl. Add cocoa mixture to mixing bowl and procede with recipe as above. This will produce a marshmallow with a strong chocolate flavor, but somewhat denser than the strawberry version. To get a lighter texture as well as a lighter chocolate flavor, reduce cocoa to 1/4 cup. Variation - Vanilla Marshmallows: Replace strawberry puree and initial 1/2 cup of water in mixing bowl with 3/4 cup water and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract or the seeds scraped from 2 vanilla beans. Edit: I saved it to a text file on my computer a long time ago when I was doing a marshmallow marathon of flavors one year just to see what I liked and didn't like. It's a really easy recipe to make variations on. Edit again: In the interest of having this accurate to nightscotsman's recipe as given, I altered it back to original. I'd forgotten that when I put it in my notes, I used straight 1 cup puree to hydrate the gelatin instead of the 1/2 cup puree and 1/2 cup water he calls for because that's how I was doing mine.

I like that too. Of course, I wouldn't be surprised if the packaging for that set cost at least as much as the bars inside cost to produce but he's in a market and at a level where he can price accordingly. Packaging appears to be my next frustration now that the battle to find a mold I could live with has ended.

Doesn't look like it's made the website yet. Speaking of which, it's a small thing and I'll get used to it but my initial impression is that I'm not a big fan of their website redesign. It's not actually more difficult to navigate than it was before but it feels like it is. It's not as intuitive. But that could possibly just be due to me being used to the old site.

Thanks for the ideas. It was way too close to shrimp time when I posted that to be able to do even the quickest baking, the shrimp were already in the oven. I buttered the burger buns and heavily toasted them. It did the trick, really just something to soak up the sauce anyway. Edit: I'm pretty sure I haven't propagated the idea here that I'm much of a gourmet when it comes to cooking for myself at home but just in case anybody had that notion... now you know the truth.

In another moment of brilliance, it occurred to me late in the day that I didn't have intentions of baking bread today but failed to purchase something. So now my choice of bread to soak up the sauce with my shrimp falls between extra buns left from last night's burgers or a pumpernickel I got at the farmer's market. Obviously food was not at the top of my brain's priority list for today... though I have no idea what it was concentrating on instead.