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Edward J

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Everything posted by Edward J

  1. You don't really need a temperer, a good melter, 6kg is too small for any prodction work, bigger is better. A microwave is a must, but the cheapest trick up your sleeve is electric heating blankets. You can buy these cheeeep at drug stores, and you can easily set a 1/2 or2/3 hotel pan on these overnight, or to keep "ready" at temps around 37-38c.
  2. To the original question, "why not simply pre ferment the whole thing"? Space constraints. For the home baker or someone who's only doing a few loaves, sure, why not?! You have space in your fridge. For the baker who is doing dozens of loaves, there is no space, as many bread only bakeries have very limited refrigeration, and no walk ins. Also, yeast gasses are very harsh on refrigeration components and will corrode the coils. This happens frequently with pizza places.
  3. Regarding clamps for molds, it depends. For seasonal figures ( santas, bunnies) 4-6 per mold. If the mold is warped you may need more. I've got a few huge molds ( 22 inch high santa) where I use a different type of clamp. Packing tape. I start at the bottom of the mold and wrap tightly, working my up to the top.
  4. Edward J

    Mycryo

    If you read my post on this thread, I explained how mycryo is made and the differences betweeb mycryo and regular cocoa butter. How then can you endorse "tempering" by merely grating a bit of regular cocoa butter--which may be, or may not be, in temper itself?
  5. The flip side of this is, can you think of any other country that expects 20% tip for its servers? Europe isn't just one country, its many countries, as is S. America or Asia. We N. americans have the expression" the squeaky wheel is the one that gets oil" the Japanese equivelent is " the nail that sticks out is the one that gets pounded". Again, how many other countries in the world expect its serves to get a 20% tip?
  6. In response to Jaymes rather lenghty post, "why don't servers take it to the streets, raise awareness etc.?" The simple fact is that no one really takes serving seriously. Jaymes writes that neither himself or any of his family is currently serving, but have in the past. In other words serving is a Mc job, an excuse to earn money in a tranition phase ( going to school, inbetween jobs, quick way to save up for traveling, etc.) but not to be taken seriously. And it isn't. What body of knowledge should a server posses? What skills should a server posses? Then how can you base a salary on a job with no qualifications? The hospitality and tourisim industry is one of the largest in any country. Many countries have the foresight to provide infrastructure to this industry with Gov't qualifications for workers. I.e. qulifications for cooks, bakers, butchers, servers, restaurant owners. With this in place, a salary ladder can be constructed. If anyone has information on how many foreign visitors come to the U.S. per year and what they spend on meals, and if they are comfortable with the current tipping "system" , it would be welcome information to this thread.
  7. Not really, before I go home, I turn up the melters to 45, when I come in the mornings I turn them down to 35-ish, do something for twenty minutes, come back, toss in a few handfulls of pellets, give it a stir , do something for five minutes, dip a piece of paper in each melter for a probe, and see where I'm at. I have the wheel in the dark, so this almost always tempers quicker than the milk or white. After a while this just becomes second nature.
  8. I've got 3 of the D&R melters, two are 20kg size and one 10 kg size, and one wheel. I go through 60-70 kgs couverture per month, mostly bars. I'm in Vancouver, B.C.
  9. Edward J

    Mycryo

    [quote name="Jie. Eddy Van Damme suggests microplaning a block of cocoa butter, producing a finer-grained product (and less money spent for Mycryo). .
  10. Edward J

    Mycryo

    That's exactly my point. How do you get the couverture to precisely 35 C? It takes the same amount of effort and time to get the couverture to any precise temperature--31 C or 35 C. I dunno... I've been seeding 20 kgs of each variety (dark, milk, and white) every day with excellent results for almost 8 years now. If there are lumps, I just fish them out with a dipping fork I've got issues with stick blenders too. It's not a ruber spatula or a ladle that can been cleaned off, or let harden and then chip off excess cuverture. The stick blender needs to be washed off, and at least 100 grams of chocolate will go down the drain.
  11. Edward J

    Mycryo

    Yes it works well, and the temper holds if you keep it in the temp zone. But for me, it doesn't make sense. Why? To properly use it, you need to get your choc. at a very specific temp, which escapes me at the moment and then seed it with mycryo. To temper choc without mycryo, you need to to get the couverture to a very specific temp (31 c) and then seed it with virgin couverture. So why bother with mycro? The stuff is expensive and not necessary. What it is, is 100% cocoa butter that has gone through temperature changes. Once you melt it, all the magical tempering qualities have gone. You can deepfry with regular cocoa butter..
  12. I've dealt with Chef rubber for about 5 years now, but I've never had "split" deliveries before. A few weeks ago I ordered a handfull of items: 1 Red fat soluable colour, 1 glitter powder, 1 can freeze spray, 2 replacement Matfer thermometers, and 3 chocolate molds. I ordered by phone and the service was polite and professional. I asked if there was any issues with shipping the freeze spray, no none. I chose regular ground shipping, and my Mastercard was debited. Tuesday I get a package from Chefrubber and right away I noticed two things. The first was that the package was sent from Fredicksberg Texas, and the second was that the package contained only the colour and freeze spray. No invoice was included, and no information other than US customs information. Today I get another package from Chef Rubber, from Las Vegas, This contained the other items and the invoice plus a label on the box declaring it a "split shipment". The box was large enough to cantain all the items, but was stuffed with paper. Without knowing CHefrubber had a warehouse in Texas, I couldn't know that the shipment would be split, and I couldn't request for NO split shipments. This information--or the possibility of split shipments was never offered in my phone conversation when I ordered. The thing that peeves me off is that I got dinged twice for shipping, and when that package goes over the border, the cost goes up dramatically. Has anyone else ever experienced this?
  13. Oops looked at the wrong picture! My apologies....
  14. Uh-huh.... And which end do we blow into, and which end is immersed into the liquid you want to atomize? The solid wood end, or the solid pointy steel end? Don't get me wrong, I use a mouth atomizer almost every day at work to spray coloured cocoa butter, the hinge looks the same, but it is made of two hollow tubes....
  15. Regarding the p.o.s., and tipping, it's very simple: Customer purchases say, $10.00 worth of goods, and selects either, say, 15% or $1.50 for a tipping amount. (you can chose any % or amount, but 15% is the first prompt....) The system debits the customer $11.50. Around here "They" (p.o.s systems) take 2% for their cut. That's 2% from the $11.50, not from the $10.00 No one says you have to tip when you use the key pad, but the system is programmed to p[rompt you to tip before you can complete the transaction. You can bypass the tipping, on the keypad, but it takes a bit of effort......
  16. Mmmm.... Counter service to me is queing up in a line, giving your order to the counterperson, paying for the food/beverage before you receive it, taking it back to your table, and clearing off your own table when you leave. Thing is, most places like I described in our city--other than the fast food chains--Will ask for tips, but only if you pay by c.card. The p.o.s device is programmed to ask for tips before you can pay-before you get your food, and will ask you if you want to pay the tip by percentage of the bill or by $ amount. What most servers don't know is that the p.o.s company will take a percentage of the tip for themselves--they (p.o.s. co.) take a percentage of every transaction. There's been a lively re-interest and debate in the past week or so on this topic, but we only seem to get either the server's point of view or the customers. I would like to offer the cook's point of view: I've worked in many high end places, the majority of which never wanted to speak of tip sharing. A lot of the customers demand high end service, which includes modifying dishes or creating dishes for themselves. For this, the customers tip the server heavily, but it's the kitchen that does all the scrambling. One memorable experience was with Mr & Mrs. "X" a wealthy businessman who wanted a chateaubriand for himself an his wife on their wedding anniversary. "X" was smart and called a few days ahead with his request, as he knew it wasn't on the menu. I got a day's notice to get in whole tenderloin, took the time to trim and tie it, made a custom bernaise, etc. etc. Needless to say this or many of the meal's components were not on the menu. "X" was happy and tipped heavily, I asked the server what he thought a fair cut was for the kitchen. To cut to the chase, the server replied (among many, many other things) that what the customer put on the table was for the server only, no one had a right to that money, not even the owner. After work, the crew decided to find the stickiest dessert sauce in the fridge, "Decorated" the server's windshield in the parking lot, and then we all plastered the sauce with 100's and 1000's from an old monopoly game. Special requests happen very frequently, and while the server does ensure that requests are carried out, it's the kitchen that does the scrambling and is not compensated. To those who argue that it is the cook's job to fulfill such requests, I say, that it is the cook's job to cook what ever is on the menu. Extra is extra.
  17. You can "Cheat" a bit when chopping nuts with a food processor. Here's how:Toss in a about a cupful of nuts, blitz for a few seconds then pour into a bowl. Repeat. Now shake the bowl and all the finer chopped nuts will settle to the bottom, scoop off all the once-chopped nuts and toss back in the processor, blitz again. Not saying it will be perfect, but it will even things out a bit. Works well when I have to process 10-15 lbs of hazelnuts at a time......
  18. I use the robot-coupe for large amounts, anything under 500 gr (1/2 Lb ) goes into a zip lock bag and gets crushed with a rolling pin. No fuss, no mess....
  19. Hi AlaMoi My first question is, where are you located? I ask this because the city I live in, (Vancouver, CDN) has gone "green", and there is no such thing anymore as "trash". There is "recyclables" (paper products, food containers, glass), and there are "Compostables" (food scraps, soiled food related paper products, yard trimmings. The city has issued each household with containers for these and has weekly pick ups, and a bi-monthly pick up for "garbage" that doesn't fall into the above mentioned categories. Commercial businesses--including restaurants have to separate compostables as well, even though they pay out of their own pocket for garbage pick up from private firms. What this generally means is that garbage cans are getting smaller, and that newspaper lined "compost" bins in the kitchen get emptied daily---smaller is generally better.
  20. I've got # 2 and#3. The content and information is great and well written, but after spending the money on #3. I decided I would never use recipies that had all those "wierd sugars" in them. I also feel I paid way too much for double page spreads of food porn. The pics are nice, but really not neccesary, you could have concentrated the information into about na qurter of the book.
  21. The symptoms for overtempered chocolate would be an extremely thick shell and very poor release from the mold. The picture shows only slight sticking at the very "peak " of the mold, this would be the very bottom of the mold when shelling.
  22. Eh... No. If the mold, room, or couveture was too warm you would have streaking, greying, and/or fat bloom on the outside. The breaks are clean with no crumbling. Don,t want to toot my own horn, but I am going through 50-80 kgs of couverture per week, and will probably go up to 100kgs/week leading up to christmas as I have in the past. While most of this is with filled bars and figurines, I still do a fair amount of bon bons.
  23. Your temper is fine, you have clean breaks with no streaking or greying anywhere. Your shells are a nice even thickness, so your couverture was not too cold either. It looks like you had choc. crumbs in the mold or possibly undissolved choc crumbs in your couverture. Hope this helps Hope this helps
  24. This post is not directed at Gfron, but rather at those who suggest C.L. or a broker...... O.K., so C.L.: Advertising on C.L. means everyone knows that the business is for sale. When this happens, I can guarantee 4 things happening: 1) Customers are reluctant to come. Many associate a business for sale with a sinking ship, and this means a drop in quality of food/ service, regardless if this is true or not. Expect a drop in sales from regular clientelle. 2) Staff start looking for new jobs. No one can guarantee staff that they will still have thier job in the next 6 mths or that they will still have the same position or salary. It's just simpler to quit and find a new gig. 3) Suppliers are reluctant to take orders or demand c.o.d. for deliveries. 4) The vultures come.... The used food eqpt. dealers smell a deal when they see businesses for sale on social media. They will come, un-announced, during service, and offer $100 for this piece of ($4000.00) of equipment or that one. These guys regularily make 250% mark up on every item they buy (unless it's at an auction, in which case they will outbid each other....) Believe me, you don't want these guys in your restaurant. In other words, C.L. is great for getting rid of that old coffee table, but not for a business. The broker..... I can't speak for the U.S., but around here (Vancouver, B.C) a business broker is just that, a broker. He is not a real estate agent, does not have a realator's license, does not enjoy the backing of the real estate board or it's laws. What they do around here is copy and paste businesses from real estate agent's websites, put it on their own website (or C.L. as the case may be), and when they have an interested party, make a deal with the agent for X% of the commission, or X % of the sales price. In other words, they represent the buyer, not the seller. The joker in the deck... Is the landlord of course! Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, the L.L. decides who signs the lease, and thus indirectly decides who buys the business. Many experienced restauranteurs do acknowledge this however, and by-pass the seller and the realator and go direct to the L.L.. It's pretty easy to figure out why they do this: 1) They have a proven restaurant model, and don't need the goodwill of the previous owner. 2) They are only interested in the infrastructure: The kitchen with it's ventilation and fire supression systems, plumbing and electrical; the restaurant license, the liquor license, the parking lot, and the lease. The landlord can supply all of these items. So, my question to gfron is: Why scratch your head? Your realator should be earning his/her commission, let them figure it out. Why do you think they are asking you about selling?
  25. Firmer? Add a whole egg instead of just yolks, it's the egg white, that provides the firmness. In regards to crème brulee, there's not much difference between S.V. and poaching in a waterbath, really not much difference at all....
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