Tri2Cook

So much shiny...

That's awesome. Doesn't apply to me since I wasn't at the workshop (and I don't need more colored cocoa butter at this time even if I had been) but that's a really nice thing for him to do.

I've eaten a whole lot of fiddleheads foraged by my late wife and her sister over the last 20 years. We'd eat them often when in season plus there were always numerous bags of them in the freezer for later consumption... no damage to report so far. I didn't make it out to grab some this year so I suppose we can see if I'm in better health going forward and just didn't know they were damaging me all along.

While I have pretty much zero interest in recreating fried chicken from any chain, I've done more than a little bit of attempting to duplicate food from other fast food places I used to visit before I moved to a place where none exist. The difficulty in doing it, for me, is I don't want an upscale eGullet-worthy "better" version of those items. I want authentic tasting to the nastiest nitty-gritty. That's not as easy to accomplish as one might think. I've had results I could live with but none that got me where I was trying to go.

I have two SS tables that I was able to get at a good price when a local restaurant was closing and I just recently acquired a 28" x 25" x 1.25" thick slab of marble that is going to stay on one end of one of the tables once I get everything set up the way I want it. But I'm not entirely sure I needed the marble, I was just able to get it at a good price as a remnant from a local contractor so I figured I might as well have it as an option. I can't think of any reason SS wouldn't be fine but I'm certainly not an expert in the chocolate field. I did any chocolate work (which was mostly dessert and decoration related, not molded or slabbed chocolates) at a restaurant I used to work at on SS tables. It's what was there so it's what I used.

I wasn't thinking the word silly would offend anyone. I wasn't thinking anyone would actually be offended by anything said. I was just thinking the class is available to all who want to take it, not sure it's fair to expect a few to spend the money to take the course and then come here and tell the rest of us how everything's done. Not really fair to the people paying for the course or the person selling the course. No harm in asking, just don't agree that it would be silly of anybody to not want to.

I agree with you on reading all of the reviews. I read the negatives as well. I just generally try to weigh the good against the bad. When they start getting balanced or even in the general neighborhood of balanced, I really take note. But when the large majority are positive, I start considering the possibility that you can always get a lemon even if there are 100% positive reviews. I also tend to portion a certain amount of the really bad reviews, when they're surrounded by a majority of positive reviews, as potential sour grapes over something. That's just my approach, not suggesting others should shop the same way.

Sometimes it's difficult to get the intent on internet posts, are you saying it would be silly for them to not want to teach us something for free that they paid a lot of money to learn?

Not sure, I'm seeing 69% of reviews at 5 out of 5 stars plus 12% at 4 out of 5 stars. So over 80% of the reviews are above average to the good.

I've considered that idea as well. I've been into reptiles as pets for many years and have some really accurate high end temp controllers that I use to control enclosure temps. I have a couple sitting around not being used that are not as high end as the ones I'm currently using but they're still plenty accurate enough for this use so it would be an option I could try without investing in more equipment. The ones I'm using for the enclosures are proportional so they'd be even better at avoiding temperature spikes that temporarily overshoot the target but I'm not willing to remove those from my baby's homes or spend what they cost to use one for cocoa butter warming.

That's another feature of the one I'm looking at that attracted me, it adjusts in single degree increments from 29 - 70 C (84 - 158 F).

I found a dehydrator (NutriChef PKFD58) that claims to go down to 29 C (84 F). I haven't purchased it yet so I can't confirm that it's truth in advertising. I'll get around to ordering it one of these days because a warmer for cocoa butter and my airbrushes is exactly what I had in mind for it.

~2.3 kg 50% milk chocolate just out of the melanger. Looks good, smells good, tastes good... but I know better than to get too cocky with the chocolate gods. I'm not calling it a success until I have tempered bars out of the molds snapping and shining like they should. Since this started out to be dark chocolate until I discovered these particular cocoa nibs weren't going to work too well for that 48 hours into the process, my hands were somewhat tied on ratios. I didn't want to add more nibs this late in the process. So this is 750 grams cocoa nibs, 400 grams cocoa butter, 575 grams sugar and 575 grams milk powder. This was supposed to be a learning batch so I guess I don't mind that I got some additional learning in the form of having to see what the beans were giving me and adapting to it on the fly.

These. I wouldn't so much say I decided, more like got tired of searching. Not exactly what I had in mind so I only ordered 5 in case I change my mind later but they're in the size range I was looking for (though at the high end of that range). They're just not as plain and simple as I had wanted. If I decide to stick with them, I'll order a few more.

Thinking alike. I've already begun the conversion.

So the first curve ball in the learning process is, using these particular nibs, the dark chocolate is way too astringent. Unpleasantly so even after close to 48 hours in the machine. Astringent to the point of numbing the tongue and throat for several minutes after a small taste. So I've begun adding what's needed to convert it to a 50% milk chocolate. If that doesn't solve the problem, I'll start slowly reducing the cocoa percentage until it's good or a I run out of space for more ingredients in the machine.

Ok, that's pretty much what I was guessing but wasn't sure. Guess it's a good thing the no-origin/type-given nibs were just for the initial learning phase. I'm still going to do a batch of milk with them and see how that turns out. If this batch doesn't tone down a little on the astringency, it will probably be destined for uses other than a bar. Edit: or if the milk turns out better, I suppose I could melt the dark, toss it back in the machine and add the necessary stuff to turn it into milk as well. It will be getting some aging regardless of whether it helps anything or not, the bar molds I ordered haven't come in yet.

After over 40 hours in the machine (planning to stop at 48 unless somebody says I should go longer based on what I'm about to ask), the chocolate smells like chocolate and tastes like chocolate but is pretty high on the tannin scale. It's pretty astringent for a 65% chocolate. Can I safely assume at this point that it's just a characteristic of the nibs I used or is it possible I caused a problem due to improper roasting? I know for sure they weren't over-roasted but I'm less confident about them not being under-roasted since they're sold as "organic raw". I let them go in a 275 F oven, stirring them around occasionally, until they smelled like somebody baking chocolate cake or brownies. If it's likely to be just a characteristic of this particular nib, would it probably work better as a milk chocolate? I plan to do a milk chocolate batch next anyway so I'll find out for myself but it never hurts to hear from those who have already been there, done that.

I don't miss indecisive brides-to-be, best friends of indecisive brides-to-be helping the indecisive brides-to-be become even more indecisive and mothers of indecisive brides-to-be disagreeing a week after the indecisive bride-to-be and her best friend finally became decisive thus making them indecisive once again so that the fairly sketchy amount of time you had to get it done is now an almost impossibly short amount of time to get it done but you'll be the bad guy if you send them away because they now don't have time to get someone else to do it. Err... I mean... yeah! That stacking sucks! Don't know where the rest of that came from.

Sounds tasty. The nibs I'm using for this batch are just sold as "organic raw cacao nibs" with no origin given. I bought a couple kg's on amazon mainly to do my early learning and experimenting with. I have a couple kg's of nibs that I ordered with the melanger, the Sambirano from Madagascar and the Sur del Lago from Venezuela. I tasted them both and was pretty amazed at the difference between them so I'm looking forward to working with them. Just wanted to get a learning batch or two under my belt first with something a little less pricey. The nibs I'm using right now didn't taste as good to me as either of the other two even after roasting but they smelled really good while roasting so I'm holding out hope. The sharpness and sour notes coming from the batch in progress last night have already pretty much disappeared. I'm doing a 65% dark for this round and I did use added cocoa butter. When it's done, I'm going to start a batch of 50% milk using the same nibs.

I browsed through the topics and did a topic search and still couldn't decide where to stick this... so here it is stuck. Can't really say I've learned a whole lot yet because I'm just getting started with this particular aspect of chocolate work but I'm sure there will be a whole lot to learn in the early months (and probably the later months as well) so... ...these... ...have been joined by a couple friends and are all getting to know each other better... Only a couple hours in so a long way to go. Right now, it smells kinda like somebody's melting chocolate with slightly sour wine.

That sounds like a good idea. I may just do that with all of it. Not completely convinced I want to eat it again tonight.

I'm still eating leftovers from Sunday. Ate the Italian beef sandwiches Sunday and Monday, went out for dinner on Tuesday with the kid at her request, and last night decided to repurpose the still somewhat hefty amount of remaining beef. So I cooked it in a frying pan to reduce the liquid and crisp the beef a bit, stirred in homemade bbq sauce and had bbq beef sandwiches. Of course, even that didn't manage to kill it all so bbq beef it is for tonight as well. If that doesn't wipe it out, it's going in the bin... not doing another night with it. I really need to start cooking smaller amounts of things.

Yeah, the process isn't really all that difficult with the right equipment. The biggest problem (beyond someone coming up with the idea in the first place) with making your own on a regular basis is the amount of freeze dried fruit required gets real expensive real fast. With any sources for freeze dried fruit I know of, I can buy a kg of the Valrhona for about the same price it would cost me to make a kg. The Valrhona becomes cheaper per kg than homemade if you buy the 3 kg bag.

I believe it. Like I said, I don't even have a valid reason that I'm aware of for thinking that way.