curls

Getting some beef ready for fridge and freezer. Sous vide’d London Broil, sirloin steak, and rib steaks at 54.5 C for 2.5 hours. Started a beef tongue at 70 C that I will pull from the bath tomorrow night.

Many thanks to Kerry, Patty, Rodney, Ruth, and everyone else who helped organize and implement this workshop! I learned that I need to think about and re-evaluate my workflows and figure out what I can improve and streamline. When Gaylene showed us how she makes her pipeable pdf, I realized that her process is much more efficient and uses a lot less dishes and equipment than my process. There are many ways to do the same things but some ways are far more efficient than others and it would be great for me to cut down on my dish washing. Not too many more pictures for me to post but here are the last few. Fruit chocolates in the melanger -- @patris made a banana chocolate & @Haley made a mango chocolate. Both used freeze dried fruits from Trader Joes. Another day, another amazing breakfast from Rodney / @Alleguede The caramel that was added to the hazelnuts to make a hazelnut praline in the melanger. This is a dry caramel made with glucose and sugar. A bon bon with a red currant jelly base -- later topped with cheesecake and a piped graham cracker base. A great experiment but needs a lot more work before it is a sell-able piece. Got lots of good advice from the workshop attendees on how they made their cheesecake bon bons and cookie bases. Sunday afternoon, an unplanned sightseeing trip to Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House. On the drive back home, a stop at Penn State's Berkey Creamery. Enjoyed a serving of their Death by Chocolate ice cream and picked up some ice cream, cheese, and beef sticks to take home. Added to my collection of dipping bowls made by @patris. Love her pottery! The contents of our swag bags from the workshop sponsors! The ThermoWorks IR Thermometer that I won as part of our workshop raffle. Thank you to all our sponsors!!!

Heading home from a wonderful workshop. Will include more details later. Took the opportunity to stop in State College Pennsylvania and visit the Berkey Creamery. I've heard so much about their ice cream program and this is my first visit. Enjoyed their death by chocolate ice cream and sampled the peachy paterno ice cream. Both were delicious with a wonderful texture and flavor. The store has various sizes of ice cream to go along with insulated bags and dry ice. I'm going to have a look and take a half gallon or two home.

And ice cream for dessert -- black raspberry truffle & black sesame.

Dinner at Home Taste https://www.hometaste88.com/. A wonderful recommendation from Brian of Tomric! Served with rice.

A lovely tilting melanger and mini bowl are coming home with me. Looking forward to experimenting with it!

I don't know why that part was not installed. When I made a hazelnut praline today, the "splash guard" was in place. We used Rodney's recipe -- including his dry caramel with glucose.

The 3D printer masks are sized to fit the egg mould. I included a photo of the egg with the sprayed rabbit. I hope that helps.

Decor tips and information were shared. @Haleyis using a 3D printer to create airbrush masks.

Fruit purees in the walk in freezer! So many flavors to try!

First item being made in the melanger. @patrismade a banana "chocolate". This will be used as a component in tomorrow's experiments. A number of melangers and melanger parts were purchased and will be heading home with happy chocolatiers. We were joined by the company owner and his chief engineer!

Didn't take many breakfast photos but I'll share the handful that I took. Rodney's breads and pastries are fabulous!

Lunch would be nice but if there isn't much interest I'm also fine taking care of my own lunch Sunday.

Yes, an old fashioned text/SMS group should work. Only disadvantages that I can think of are SMS charges (if you don't have unlimited messaging) and a messier interface (the messaging apps generally do a better job of displaying and organizing group chats).

Sorry, not a WhatsApp user. I am willing to set up a Signal group. Same deal... need to have mobile phone numbers from all who would like to participate. @lironp are you ok with Signal? Or we could create a new Facebook group and limit it to this year's workshop participants.

Almost time! When are we planning to start at Tomric on Friday?

The only reason that I mention macadamia nuts is that I purchased a few pounds when I visited Hawaii (sometime pre-Covid). Some were eaten and some went in the freezer. I need to check what is in the freezer and if there are enough to play with.

@Jim D. I appreciate your comments and welcome any additional melanger knowledge that you share. And yes, we are very lucky to have Rodney at the workshop. When I have made dry caramel for nut praline I have made it with straight sugar. Willing to try the glucose + sugar method.

Woo hoo! I was hoping to work with hazelnuts and pistachios. Will see how much room I have in the car but I may bring almond flour, walnuts, and peanuts for some micro batch experiments. Have you tried macadamia nuts?

I'm thinking about doing some experiments at the upcoming eGullet Chocolate & Confections Workshop and have a few questions for those who have been using melangers. For making nut pastes and praline paste, do you always start with whole nuts, blitz them in the food processor, and then put them in the melanger? Wondering if starting with purchased nut flours has any advantages / disadvantages? Mainly thinking about this approach for almonds since it is easy to find almond flour / almond meal. What nuts have you tried in the melanger and how happy were you with the results? Any other confectionery uses for the melanger other than making chocolate, making fruit chocolate, nut pastes, praline pastes?

I should be able to take some photos this weekend with canning jars and various items. Any particular stuff that you would like me to test?

I am very interested in the new 10 lb. tilting melager with stainless steel holder along with the micro-batch set accessory but I'm not sure that I am ready to buy them. So, I'm a maybe. Thought I was the only one attending this workshop that doesn't already own a melanger.

When you mention the small bowl -- is that the micro-batch set accessory but a new stainless steel version?

Correct. All chamber vac bags will work, no need to buy the Anova bags. You can get the 11" x 10" bags from Anova or Avid Armor (they have a similarly sized vacuum sealer) and purchase other sizes from @rotuts's preferred vendor - Vacuum Sealers Unlimited.

I have one. Purchased it June 2022 during their Father's Day sale when the price was $280. I like it but I still have a FoodSaver that I can use for larger items. I like that it is lightweight and small; it is stored in the basement when I am not using it. It is great for stocks and items with lots of liquid -- the stuff that is difficult (or impossible) to do with a FoodSaver. Also had some fun with compressing fruits and quick pickles and infusions. I purchased 250 each of two sizex of bags 6" x 10" and 11" x 10" bags. 11" x 10" is the largest bag that will fit in the chamber. I wanted to see how much I used it and what I used it for before I bought a case of 1000. Happy to answer any questions.