Edward J
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Posts posted by Edward J
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Which book?
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Chocolate, Cocoa, and Confectionery by Bernanrd Minifie, which looks at the science behind chocolate.
Took that one out more than a few times from the library. Lots of good information there about chocolate in general, but not for small batch chocolate making.
I've got a series of books form the FACHSCHULE RICHMOND, in Luzern (Lucerne) Switzerland, one of the books is dedicated to chocolate and confections, one to pastries, one to bread, and one solely dedicated to mistakes--that is pictures of the same recipie with descriptions of what went wrong and how to fix it.....
The Richmond chocolates and confections book is a very solid book, written back in the '80's I think. Lots of good information on ingredients (Warenkunde..) basic recipies and how to formulate them, and fairly typical Swiss stuff--heavy on the nuts and cream. Good recipies for butter ganache and caramels.
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MMMmmm...
Check the fish counter in your local stores. Don't ask me why or how, but just check out the fish dept......
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You can always make your own. Ethnic Indians call this "Ghee" and it has a verry long shelf life since virtually no water is present.
Most 4 and 5 star restaurants make their own too, for Hollandaise sauce.
Put your butter in a pot and melt it completely. Let it cool, then refrigerate. Melt the container slightly so the whole thing comes out like a popsicle. The water is all on the bottom and some of the milk solids are still clinging on to the butter surface.
The above method gives a mild flavour but you can boost the butter flavour by cooking the butter a bit after it's melted. Basically boiling the water--driving off the moisture by heat rather than chilling it and physically removing it. This gives a deeper butter-y flavour, which the French like and call "Beurre Noisette"
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I work pretty much exclusively with Lindt couvetures, and to the best of my knowledge, Lindt does not produce any couvetures with any cocoa butter replacements.
Both milk and white couvetures contain milk fat which is part of milk powder, obviously the dark couvetures don't contain any milk fat. Milk fat has a lower melting point than cocoa butter, and this is reflected in virtually every manufacturer's instructions of a slightly cooler tempering curve and working temperture (usually 30-31 C) for milk and white.
As a side note, cocoa butter expressed from beans say, from Malaysia will have a much harder consistancy at room temperature than cocoa butter from beans from the Ivory Coast or Ghana. Since white "chocolate" is a concoction of only cocoa butter, milk powder, and sugar (alright, some vanilla...) no manufacture will have bragging rights to say that "Our white cocoa beans come exclusively from the area of ________"...
Hope this helps
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I think the issue here is cheap-ass pans, not rivets in general. Some of the best pans made have riveted handles (there are restaurants in Europe using copper pans w/ rivited iron handles that are decades old). I have cookware that I've been using since 1991 that has never had a rivet issue.
While this is true in many high quality pans, (to which I attest to as well, since I have a very nice laminated copper- s/s saute pan with a riveted on cast iron handle and after 10 years is still rock-solid) aluminum cookware invariably features aluminum rivets, and aluminum rivets are fairly soft and prone to fatigueing quickly. Manufacturers are loathe to use dis-similiar metal rivets on almunimum cookware, and even though welding aluminum is commonly ued in many other applications, I have yet to see an aluminum manufacturer weld handles on or use a combination of spot welding and rivets
IMHO aluminum only has three virtues: Good heat conductivity, is light, (this becomes very advantagous with large pots), and it's fairly cheap. The bad virtues I have listed above.
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Oh, I forgot to add...
I hate them because they (alum. cookware) react to wine, vinegar, citrus juices, some fruit juices (cherry comes to mind...) and tomatoes.
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[The recipie was just for the ganache. It does take a bit of trial and error to find the right amount, but once you have it nailed down, use it to your advantage!
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Now, this is strictly from a Chef's point of view, and I lay no claim to any health knowledge.
Stay away from the stuff!!!!
Why?
As other posters pointed out there is straight aluminum and anodized aluminum, with anodized being very expensive and in many cases more expensive than good quality s/s cookware with a "sandwich" (laminated discs of aluminum and s/s) bottom
Straight aluminum I hate with a passion. To date I have not seen a staight aluminum pot or pan with a "sandwich" bottom, and becasue of the lack of one, it warps--very quickly and very badly. For most commercial kitchens this isn't much of an issue since virtually all N. American commercial kitchens have gas ranges, and a warped pot or pan with a pronounced "belly" or warped bottom can still function fairly well. For those with an electric range, it is very--uh--"challanging" to cook with a warped pot/pan.
I hate them becasue the handles are invariably riveted on. The rivets then invariably work themselves loose, and then you have a pot/pan with a built-in "overflow protection devices", which means that any liquids above the rivet line will leak out and dribble all over the range. (or your hands as you saute) In my carreer I must have peened over the rivets on thousands of aluminum saute pans over a cement filled post in the parking lot with a meat hammer--and then inverted the stupid thing and pound flat the "belly" so the pot/pan can actually sit on the burner grate.....
And I hate, really, really, REALLY hate them becasue untreated aluminum oxidizes. Which means that whatever the pot/pan touches will turn black from oxidization: Hands, countertops, cupboard shelves. Certain soaps and detergents can aggravate this oxidation, so watch out what you wash the pot/pan with.
I hate them becasue if you have any white/cream liquids in them and stir with a metal whisk or spoon, your liquid will turn grey/black. Califlower and fennel tend to turn grey too when cooked in liquid in an aluminum pot/pan
I hate them because they pit far worse and far quicker than most other materials. Yes, s/s and even enameled ware will pit if you add undissolved salt to a liquid and then apply heat--some kind of a chemical reaction-don't know what it is or what it's called, but aluminum pits far, far quicker than any other material.
Well, I did say I hated the stuff, didn't I?.......
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Oh dear, just found out what "snap-back" means.....and I don't like it
Here goes again:
for two molds for 3 molds
couveture 150 gr 225 g
cream 35 gr 55 gr
fruit puree 65 100
butter 20 30
Put your pot right on the scale, tare off and weigh your cream tare off again and weigh your fruit puree, tare off and weigh your butter. While cream is boiling, scale your couveture, etc, etc,add
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Well, for example two molds with 18 cavities each aprox 12 grams would go like this:
Couveture
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From start to finish, I tend to "streamline" the whole process. Usually the day before I'll coat all my molds and the following morning I'll make the various ganaches.
Everything gets weighed--liquids, solids, booze, everything, I hate futzing around with measuring butter by volume or liquids by eye, everything has a weight so I take advantage of this fact. All of my recipies are written down with columns: Column one with weights for 2 molds@18 cavities, column two with 3 molds etc. there is no waste, and no "leftover" ganache to store away. Thus I can scale out verry quickly and accurately.
I'll start with the lightest ganache and work my way up to the darkest one, using the same pot to heat up the cream and the same utensils to make up the ganache, and the same disposable piping bag (when pouring into the bag, I use twist ties at the small end, and when filling the molds, use a twist tie at the large end.) A 'run" of 6 types of ganaches and 14 mold trays usually takes me under an hour.
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I have more difficulty with unmolding milk and white, and sometimes even if I unmold perfectly tempered dark after a few days some pieces still stick. After a bit of headscratching I realized the pieces that stuck were exactly on top of where my fingers were when I held the mold for filling and capping......
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Oliver,
You seem to have gotten the advice of quite a few woodworkers...
Don't get me wrong, I've been in the hospitality biz for more than 25 years now. When I need to relax and have a hobby that doesn't include food, I turn to woodworking as well. If you think cooks are addicted to sharp knives, see how woodworkers are addicted to planes and chisels, well, for that matter, any edge tool.
The stone--whatever you choose, is only one aspect of sharpening. Every woodworker and knife freak has thier own methods of sharpening, and if they work, well then they work and there's no need to question or scoff at their methods.
There are two rules of thumb when sharpening.
The first is to always use progressively finer grits of abrasive, with many people going as high as 8-12,000 grit range. The fine the grit, the finer the surface, and therefore the longer the edge will last you.
The second rule of thumb is always to respect the bevel. The bevel is the angle at which both sides of the knife meet. Most knives are around the 2o-22 degree range, with some Japanese knives having bevels of 18 degrees or even lower.
If you imagine an axe, it would have an angle of maybe 35 or even 40 degrees, a big, fat, "V". This is a very strong edge, it won't collapse or fatigue when chopping wood, but it isn't really all that sharp. If you imagine a surgeon's scalpel, it would have an bevel of around 10 degrees, a very slim, tapering "V". Wicked sharp, but the edge will curl over and collapse if it hits a bone or even scar tissue.
For the first time users, maintaining a consistant bevel free hand on a stone is fairly hard to do. There are jigs available for this purpose and even some stones mounted on rods that are guided and guarantee you a consistant bevel (also available at L.V....) If you want to experiment sharpening free hand, I'd suggest leaving your "good knives" in a drawer for a while and experiment on some lousy knives untill you are confident.
There are so good books on sharpening in general. The C.I.A (Culinary Inst. of America) has a good one out, and, yes the woodworkers have some good ones out too. L. Lee (founder of L.V.) has a very good book on sharpening called, "Sharpening". (Well, whadja expect?) The best part of this book is the photographs of edges on various razor blades and other tools blown up to 100 x. This gives you a pretty good idea of how to start.
Oh. And don't get addicted to sharp woodworking tools. Once you start on that slippery slope you'll never stop slip-sliding away......
Hope this helps
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I've always been dissapointed in the quality of candied ginger around here, it's always sulphered, so I never go near it.
I do, however make a white chocolate and ginger truffle, and I use fresh ginger.
Peel the ginger with the back of a spoon and shred it with a microplane. The microplane is great, it reduces ginger to a pulp. No fibers whatsoever. The pulp goes into my cream and is boiled, then into the couveture.
Very easy, very cheap, very good flavour, bragging rights to "fresh ginger".
For me, it's perfect
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Kelly, check out Canagra Technologies (don't have the website handy right now) Located in:(drum roll please....) The center of the universe, S'toon, Sask.! They've got a range of about 8 or 9 freeze dried fruits--including pommegranate and of course, saskatoon berries.
Creating a unique chocolate takes a bit of time. It's what I call "back of the brain" time, where you're semi-conscious of a particular flavour, but don't kow what to combine it with. I had mango-on-the-brain for about 2 weeks untill it finally hit me to combine mango with jalepeno. It's a good seller.
And sometimes it's completly spur-of-the-moment....
Waiting at the dentist's after months back I was thumbing through an old magazine and came across a photo of someone who looked alot like the chef saucier at the place I did my apprenticeship at. I had a run-in with him once and accused him of stealing my strawberry coulis--which he did!, and used it to make a strawberry and cream-black pepper sauce to accompany veal tenderloin. (this was mid-'80's)
Within a 250/th of a second of looking at the photo I was already tasting a strawberry and black pepper ganache encased in white chocolate....another good seller.
Chocolate is always fun.....
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For me a new recipe usually starts with "I wonder how that would taste dipped in chocolate?"
So after I fell in love with Suvir's tomato chutney (which, by the way, it's time to make again since the tomatoes are ripe) I wondered what that combination of warm south indian spices would taste like in a ganache.
I have some basic recipes - ie cream based ganache, butter ganache, caramel, fruit jellies - I just have to decide which filling to plug my idea into.
When I was at the Spice House in Chicago I discovered freeze dried corn - makes a lovely bark - then the brain moves on to adding a bit of crispy bacon to that - now I'm wondering where I can find the remaining freeze dried ingredients to make succotash bark.
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Ah, mulitple choice, not T/F. Yeah, sure , that would make a difference....
Look, I think we can agree that writing a Red Seal shows that you are dedicated to the industry, but it does not demonstrate that you can cook.
In order to get a driver's license, you have to demonstrate that you can drive and can follow the rules of the road. A road test, a practical. I don't think anyone would have it any other way.
In order for me to get my cook's papers this is what I had to demonstrate:
A 3 year aprenticeship program, with all of the tests, including the 2-day battery of tests PRIOR to the practical only make up 45% of the enitre mark. If you ace every test and bomb on the practical, you bomb. 3 years gone.
This is what I cooked:
Goujons of Sole "Prince Murat"
Choice of salad, two dressings (one emulsified, one vinaigrette)
Jarret de Veau Glace (shank had to be butchered in house, dish accompanied by a selection of glazed turned root vegetables)
Braised Fennel
Asperagus with Hollandaise
Spaetzli
Raspberry sorbet (made infront of the inspectors)
Mignardises
The menu was given to you at 8:30 am, first course had to be served to the table of 10 (inspectors plus guests) before 12:30
Menu was cooked in the same kitchen I spent 3 years in, co-ordination with the regualr a'la carte and banqueting work was important.
After dessert, another 3 hours were spent demonstrting various other tasks: Making a fumet de poisson, fabricating chicken saute, fabricating salmon darne, salmon steaks, salmon filets, sole filets, cleaning and portioning tenderloin, etc.
It's an old-school stodgy menu, I know, but I count no less than 8 of the 14 cooking methods, and a dozen various techniques in that menu. 6 pairs of eyes on me the entire 6 hours. This took place almost 20 years to the day.
3 weeks later I got my "papers". I was a officially a "Cook".
So, it is my personal opinion that is impossible to demostrate the neccesary skill that a cook needs with a written test: Motor skills, eye-hand coordination, timing, and economy of movement.
Those who think a written test can replace actual demostration of physical skills have much to learn....
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A hollow ground edge doesn't really have much purpose in a kitchen knife.
If you imagine looking at the blade of any knife in profile, it would have a slender "V". A hollow ground is when a slight impression or dip is ground along the entire length of the blade, so that the "V" now has a slight "hollow" on either side.
This type of profile is commonly used in woodworking hand tools (i.e plane irons/blades) . As these tools recieve quite a bit of abuse they need frequent sharpening, and the "hollow grind" allows only the very last little bit of the tool edge to be sharpened--not the entire blade. This is seen mostly as a time saving feature, but has no direct advantage or influence on edge sharpness or durability.
Hope this helps
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You just stepped into a big pile of life, I guess.
Look, this is N. America, O.K.? Cooking is not a recognised trade, there are no national standards, every school does what it wants, and answers to nobody. And the word "Chef", it's a free-for-all title, you just need a poofy white hat and memorize what ever was on the FoodChannel last night.
Stick it out in school for a while. "Challange" the "Chefs/instructors" by asking them questions, get them to demostrate techniques. Throw away the TV and read, read alot: James Peterson's "sauces", The C.I.A.S's The New professional Chef", Pauli's "Classical Cooking the modern way", Escoffier--for background, Larousse Gastronomique, and on and on. I'm sure other posters will submit many other instrumental books.
If you find you don't like cooking and want management , you can still do it in the hospitality industry. I've worked for many excellent Chefs who were only decent cooks.(A chef is the guy who hires, fires, designs menus, and keeps his eye on the gas guage and speedometer--the food and the labour costs. A cook, cooks) But in order for a good Chef to instruct and supervise s/he MUST know how it's done properly.
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I like to use a very bland Couveture (aprox 64%)for my ganaches, as many of the ganaches are fruit or booze flavoured, and I want this flavour to shine through. Quite a few people in this field insist on using top quality couveture for ganaches, and the blander one for enrobing. I feel like this is the same as adding ice and coke to a single malt scotch, and drinking the "national brand" straight up....
For enrobing and molding, I like to use a good couveture (I use a Lindt Ecuador 70%). I don't usually need to thin it out with cocoa butter.
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What's the point of the Red Seal? Every chef I know in Canada claims it's kind of useless. Why do some cooks get it?
Why? Because it is SOME form of a qualification, not a very good one, but still a qualification.
Because of this, many HR dept.'s and hiring mangers insist on the applicant having this paper. In many cases it's the deciding factor between $8 per hr and $14 per hr. Most HR people don't know it's just a bunch of multiple choice questions. The Chefs, on the other hand just roll their eyes at the mention of "Red Seal".
Like I said in the previous post, it's wild west out there as far as some form of acknowledgement/certification goes for cooks. Every cooking school does thier own thing.,
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No, I'm a Canuck. Born in Sarnia, Ont., raised in S'toon, Sask., and apprenticed as a a cook in Luzern, Switzerland.
As a Chef and Employer, I don't hold much in stock for the "Red seal". The only thing it tells me is that the applicant has spent 3 or 4 years in the trade, it doesn't tell me that those years were without interuptions or that the applicant is in anyway serious about his trade.
Google "Wendys" (the burger chain...) in connection with "Red seal cooks" and see what you come up with....
True, the Red Seal is a piece of paper, a qualification of sorts, but it isn't a national standard, and it isn't very standard to begin with.
There are two ways to qualify to write the "Red Seal". The first is the "front door" method where you've completed a 3 year apprenticeship. The second way, the "back door" method, which is by far the more popular way is to "challange", in that you must prove that you've worked (currently in B.C. that is..) 8,100 hrs in the industry. The test costs $100.oo and (well, two years ago when I last checked) if you failed the first time you could write the test a second time for free.
The test itself is nothing more than a few hundred T/F or multiple choice questions. That's it. No actual cooking involved. For the Province of B.C. that is, as I have been corrected in other forums that the Province of Alberta requires an actual cooking element as part of the exam. This is a fair, intelligent, and neccesary part of an exam, to see how cooks cook, yet only one province out of 10 does it.
"Red seal" has always been used in sentences with "Chef". As a matter of fact "White Spot" ( a local pasta/burger chain) had an aggresive and TV ad series proudly proclaiming "We only hire "Red Seal Chefs".. They are not. They are "Red Seal" cooks.
So, for me, "Red Seal" is NOT a national standard, as Alberta has better qualifications, and other Provinces have different working hour requirments.
For me, the only test to guage applicants is to have them work 3 or 4 hours in the kitchen and watch how they move and what kind of questions they ask.
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I've got a small retail store where I make and sell chocolates and confections. However, Man does not live by retail alone, and over the summer we've been busy getting wholesale customers.
I've got some of the packaging taken care of: Boxes, liners, stickers, etc. but I need the "Frills", and more importantly, some kind of a "security seal". My first choice would be some kind of shrink wrap film over the whole box. After doing some investigating I am faced with two choices: A table top impulse sealer and a hand-held heat gun, or, a heat tunnel. Conservative prices of a heat tunnel start at 3 big ones. The price doesn't put me off, it's just that my volume is very low (100 boxes per day) and space is at a premium. The hand held stuff kind of scares me in that it is fairly labour intensive, especially when you factor in the box assembling and hand packing.
What's everyone else doing?
Chocolate & confectionary Books
in Cookbooks & References
Posted
"Swiss Confiserie,
Pralines
Chocolate specialties
Ices
Buffet articles
Torten decoration"
NO ISBN # in the fly leaf or any oher pages
Printed 1987 by the bakery and Confectionary Craft School, Richemont, Lucerne
3rd edition 1992
Hope this helps
Bought 4 out of the 5 books in this series direct from the school in Luzern waaay back in the early '90's....