teonzo

This is a very nice biography: most sincere and dealing with a really weird life. Teo

There's not much sense in working this way. If you seed your melted chocolate then you do that with the aim to temper it, not just to lower the temperature. So it's better choosing between seeding and tabling, not going for both. Tabling method was developed starting from melted chocolate at high temperature (110-120 F), so the 1/3 that is not tabled is hot enough to raise the temperature of the tabled chocolate. If you lowered the temperature with the "seeding" passage then you are just complicating your life. Using an immersion blender to mix a small quantity like that is far from optimal, you only risk to add lots of air bubbles. So it's better if you choose between the seeding method (no blender) or the tabling method (no blender). Working like you are doing means adding lots of passages for nothing. The fact that the test was good does not imply the chocolate was still in temper when you poured it in the molds. If the bloom started pretty quickly then the first thing to consider is that the chocolate was out of temper. But if it was out of temper then you should have faced some troubles unmoulding the bars. So you should give some more details about how they unmoulded, if they made a passage in the fridge, how you stored them while waiting for the crystalization, so on. I must say I witnessed a weird case years ago: a batch of hand-dipped bonbons had a surface similar to yours but the chocolate had the snap. After a couple days the bloom disappeared on its own and the bonbons were totally fine. I found the explanation on a book time ago, but can't remember the technical details now sorry. So try leaving the bars where they are, maybe you are lucky like that case. Teo

Just added these ones: Hall Mary Elizabeth - Candy-Making Revolutionized Confectionery from Vegetables 1912 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33974 Pease Martin - Candy Making Secrets 1908 https://archive.org/details/candymakingsecre00peas/page/n2 Sherwood Snyder - The Art of Candy Making Fully Explained 1915 https://archive.org/details/TheArtOfCandyMakingFullyExplained Terhune Herrick Christine - Candy Making in the Home 1914 https://archive.org/details/candymakinginho00herrgoog/page/n8 Teo

More books for this year. As usual there is a big load of fall releases from France. Alfonsi + Cayeux + L'Hourre + Mariani - "Cuisine des Chefs" Recipes by 4 chefs from Corsica. Arzak Juan Mari + Elena - "Arzak + Arzak" Story of their restaurant with recipes from various years. Ballarin + Etchebest - "Pays Basque" No infos on the content, only that it's on Ducasse Editions. Banctel Jérôme - "Jérôme Banctel : La Réserve Paris" French restaurant with 2 michelin stars. Barbier Jacques - "Auguste Colombié, cuisinier et écrivain culinaire (1845-1920)" Biography of this French chef and professor. Brys Yann - "Tourbillon" No infos on this new book by Brys, young French pastry talent who is already a MOF. I'm betting there will be pastries decorated with the "tourbillon" technique he invented. Charial Jean-André - "Signature Jean-André Charial, l'esprit Baumanière" New book on the French restaurant L'Oustau de Baumanière, one of the historic 3 michelin stars of the past century, now with 2 stars. Couvreur Yann - "Ephémère : Les desserts à l'assiette de Yann Couvreur" Plated desserts by this young French talent. De Pooter Bart - "Biotope: Pastorale" Belgian restaurant with 2 michelin stars. École Ferrandi Paris - "Chocolat" Title says all. Felder Christophe - "Patisserie Collector - Numero 3" No infos on the content. Felder + Lesecq - "Ma petite pâtisserie" Should be playful recipes of pastry classics. Gauthier Alexandre - "Alexandre Gauthier, Cuisinier" Restaurant La Grenouillère, 2 michelin stars in France, his second book. Girardet + Giovannini + Bovier - "Partage" Recipes for home cooking by these Swiss chefs with michelin stars. Goetz Gérard - "Alsace: Un paysage gastronomique" No idea if this is a book on Alsace (the region) or on the restaurant owned by the author. Grolet Cedric - "Opéra" New book by Grolet, again on Ducasse Editions, no infos on the content. Kobayashi Kei - "Kei 2" Second book by this Japanese chef working in Paris, it was scheduled for last year. His restaurant now has 2 michelin stars. Langholtz + Kinsel - "A place at the table" Recipes from 40 top chefs working in the USA but of foreign origin (Dominque Crenn, Marcus Samuelsson...). Le Quellec Stéphanie - "Pour ceux que j'aime" Recipes for home cooking by this French chef with 2 michelin stars. Lignac Cyril - "Saisons" Savoury recipes by this pastry chef. Niland Josh - "The Whole Fish Cookbook: New Ways to Cook, Eat and Think" Australian chef talking on how to use all parts of all fish (mouth to fin?). Orieux Gaël - "Cuisiner la terre - 100 produits et 70 recettes" Paris restaurant with 1 michelin star, second book after "Cuisiner la mer. 70 espèces et 90 recettes". Perret François - "Instants sucrés au Ritz Paris" Pastries from the Hotel Ritz in Paris. Roca + Medina - "Casa Cacao" Chocolate explorations by Jordi Roca. Tiernan Lee - "Black Axe Mangal" London hip restaurant, published by Phaidon. Torosyan Karen - "Secrets et techniques d'un cuisinier orfèvre" Bozar Restaurant in Bruxelles (Belgium), 1 michelin star. Van Damme Roger - "Dessert" Belgian dessert restaurant with 1 michelin star, finally a book in English language after a bunch in Dutch. VV AA - "Restaurants historiques de Paris" Title says all. Zancanaro Frédéric - "La créativité culinaire: Les trois étoiles du guide Michelin" This one talks about creativity in French restaurants with 3 michelin stars in the last 40 years. Teo

Since you are talking about an enrober then you must be using a tempering machine too. Try raising the chocolate temperature as high as possible (32° C for dark). Another thing: when placing the centers on the enrober, it's better to place them at 45°, so the first (and last, mainly) thing being enrobed is a corner and not a full side. Teo

From what you write it can't be condensation. Condensation would appear on random spots, not only on the rim of the shell. If it was condensation then it would evaporate with the blow drier. It seems to be something similar to what happens with hand dipped bonbons when the center is too cold: the shell contracts too much and breaks in one point, contracting too much puts more pressure on the center, so some syrup oozes out of the break, forming a small droplet. Ganache is multi-phase, so you can't rule out oozing if the surface is dry. My guess is that you are filling the molds before the shell is cristallized, so when the shell completely cristallizes it puts pressure on the filling, forcing it to ooze out some syrup. This is coherent to the fact that it happens both on humid and dry days. It's coherent with it happening to only 2 molds on 5. Best way to know is by tasting a droplet of that "condensation" next time it happens. Teo

Are you sure it's condensation and not syrup oozing out of the filling due to compression / bad execution / bad formulation? Teo

I have a bit of experience with professional ovens, never went below 330 F for cookies... You should be more precise when explaining what you are doing. You just wrote you are filling all racks, which is a very important info you did not write in your first post. How much space is there between 2 pans? Some photos would be of help, one of a pan full of cooked cookies, one of the bottom side of a cookie, another one of a section of a cookie. If you want to be helped you need to give as much infos as you can. Teo

300 F is quite low for cookies, it should be around 330-350 F. Is it the temperature you set on the oven, or did you check the real internal temperature with a thermometer? Usually the problem you describe is given by insufficient heat coming from below, best thing to do is checking the real temperature with a thermometer, placing it in various sides inside the oven. Insufficient heat from the bottom can be caused by an unbalanced oven, by wrong settings, or by the pan itself (if it's too thick, or if the aluminum bottom surface is too new and shiny). To get a better idea you should check with a thermometer, then post some photos of the cookies and the bottom of the pans. Teo

Can I ask what it is? Teo

So I can troll only the US people about raisins/currants? Teo

I thought they called for currants... Teo

Probably it's due to the surface of the second pan drying while waiting out of the oven. What are the temperature and humidity of your kitchen? If this is the case, then you just need to spray a bit of water on the surface of the second pan while the first one is cooking. Teo

There are many troubles if using a cheese lyre to cut a slab of ganache. A guitar cuts diagonally, not horizontally; being a long lever, it's easier to adjust the pressure you are exerting. If you try to cut the ganache laying the wire of the lyre on the ganache, then pressing, most probably you'll end up breaking the wire. Same if you exert too much pressure. Trying to cut it diagonally is not easy, you risk to start a couple of degrees out of line, which will result in poorly shaped pralines (and a broken wire if you try to adjust). When I made some experiments at home I bought a square frame 20 cm x 20 cm (like this one) and a kitchen scraper 20 cm wide (same exact measure as the frame). I pour the ganache in the frame, level it, then wait until it's crystallized. Then I lightly score each of the 4 sides with a pairing knife and a ruler, to mark where the cuts need to be done. Then I lay the kitchen scraper on the ganache surface, each extremity on one of the marks, then I press it down to make a vertical cut. Pretty quick and easy. Whatever method you use, never cut the ganache when it's laying on a silpat. Always substitute the silpat with a piece of parchment paper. It's very easy to damage a silpat if you cut something on it. Teo

Pretty hard to slide the wire under a ganache slab. There are the handles (where the wire is attached) that prevent the slide movement along the cut line. Sliding on the other sense is difficult, since the ganache will tend to stick to the parchment paper / silpat. Teo

The problem with a knife is that the blade is thicker than a wire and it had a triangular section, so when you cut the ganache the blade will tend to put pressure on the sides of the cut ganache, moving it and changing its shape. Ganache tends to stick to the blade due to this. So the end result is not clean as with wires. If you use a cheese lyre then you need to go back up with the wire after cutting, which can cause troubles especially when you are making the last cuts (the squares of ganache will tend to move up with the wire). When you use a guitar the wires stay down after making a cut, so you don't have this trouble. You can try to use a kitchen scraper to make the cuts. But your choices depend on what's your goal. If you are making pralines as a hobby, then just use what you have on hands, you are not aiming for perfect results and work optimization. If you aim to open a business, then you need to consider efficiency. Hand dipping pralines is really time consuming, if you want to sell dipped pralines then a guitar and an enrober are forced choices. For small scale productions, molded pralines are a much better choice. Teo

They have the 220V 50Hz version and it's only 310W? Very interesting! I see they will be at the fair in Milan, so I suppose their products will be available in Italy too. Time to consider the possibility for a blast freezer for home. Thanks for the infos! Teo

If you are an amateur and want to open a business with a limited budget, then it's much better to spend that money to get better/more equipment. Better equipment will make much more difference than taking one of those classes. If you don't have budget limits, then take both classes and have fun. Teo

I don't have my MC set here with me, so I can't check the original recipe (minor suggestion: in such cases please write the volume number and page number where the recipe is located, flipping through MC is time consuming). I suppose it requires to cook the basic batter in a bag at around 82°C. Problem with this is that you are not stirring the batter while it cooks, so you end up with the creme brulee / creme caramel effect: if the batter is not stirred then it starts to set. There is a good explanation about this on "On food and cooking" by Harold McGee. To break those lumps you need to blend them, but for the least time possible. The more you blend, the less viscous the end result. Blending a creme anglaise is used when you get a too thick result and you want it more runny. Personally I don't see the point in using this method for creme anglaise. It's such a simple and quick recipe that there is no need to go sous vide. Standard method is quicker, requires less equipment and ends up with less things to clean. Teo

Too bad all the best Vegas photos are not suitable for this forum. Teo

I would avoid putting the machine in that cabinet. First of all it's not that handy, lots of troubles for using it: the cabinet door is on the way, you have few space to move and so on, to use it properly you want some free space around and a work surface on the side to be able to lay bags on it. Second, it's not an efficient way to manage the volumes in your apartment, that cabinet needs to be filled with other things. As the others suggested, if your logistics allow for a solution on wheels then it would be the best choice. I would look for a lower cart, so the machine lays at a lower height than the usual one for a working surface. If the working surface is around 80 cm high, then I would try to put the vacuum chamber machine on a cart that is around 60 cm high. If the machine is placed a little lower than usual then it's easier to work with it, especially when you are using bags with liquids (you want to have a good view from above to see when the bag content is getting near the sealing bars). Then I would try to build a wood box to cover it, so I have more working surface when the machine is laying on the cart and I'm not using it. Teo

I would definetely not put a vacuum chamber machine there, both for the machine (the space is too closed) and the shirts (if you don't remove them then you'll end up staining them, if you remove them when you use the machine then put the shirts back there then you go mad quickly). Teo

There is a lot of confusion about sterilization and pasteurization. Sterilization requires that everything inside the jar/can must reach a high temperature (in the zone of 250° F) for a required time. To do this at home you need a pressure canner. If you sterilize the jar and the lid, but pour inside some non sterilized food then you don't sterilize the whole final jar. It has not much sense to start from a sterilized jar and lid then ending up with something that's not sterilized, it's a wasted effort. Stuff like jams and jellies have a low pH, so there is no need to sterilize them to have long shelf life. Pasteurization is enough. You just need to start from clean jars and lids. Better to not boil the lids before canning, heat tends to toughen the rubber ring that's placed between the lid and the jar, if this gets too tough or breaks, then the jar will not be closed air tight. The helping point in heating the jars before filling them is to make them hot when you are pouring the jam inside it. If you start from cold jars then the jar will absorb heat from the jam, lowering the temperature of the jam itself. If it goes below the temperature needed for pasteurization, then the jar will spoil. Jars are relatively heavy and with a sensible thermal mass, so this temperature drop can be a problem. If you start from hot jars then you solve this problem. To heat the jars the best way is putting them in a pan in the oven at around 220° F, leaving them there, then picking the pan out when you are ready to fill them with the hot jam (just out of the stove). Otherwise you can heat the jars in the microwave until they around 220° F, time and power depends on your microwave and on how many jars you put into it. There's no need to heat the lids before closing the jars, their thermal mass is really low, so they won't create troubles. So what you need to do is to clean perfectly the jars and the lids. Then start preparing the jam. Around 20 minutes before finishing the cooking, you put the jars in the oven and heat them to 220° F. When the jam is ready (cooked over 221° F to reach gelification point) you pick out the jars from the over, fill them (as near as you can to the brim), close them with the lids. After closing them you turn them upside-down and leave them to rest upside down (on a kitchen towel is the best thing, so this means the lid will be in contact with the towel) for around 10 minutes. Then you turn them upside (lid up) and wait for them to cool to room temperature. Putting them upside down has the goal to put the lid in contact with the hot jam, so the lid reaches pasteurization temperature and remains in that temperature zone for enough time (pasteurization is a time and temperature matter). If you proceed this way you are sure to end up with pasteurized closed jars. Another common error is saying that the lid keeps a concave surface because there's vacuum inside the jar. There isn't vacuum inside a jar, there is still air inside it. The lid has a concave surface due to a depression. When you fill the jar you are pouring hot jam, hot jam occupies a bigger volume than cold jam. So when you close the lid you are not pulling a vacuum, you are leaving air inside the jar. What happens is that when the jam cools then it contracts (looses volume), so there is more space for air inside the closed jar. More space for the same amount of air means lower pressure. But atmospheric pressure outside the jar remains the same, so when the pressure inside the jar goes below a certain point then the lid will "pop", turning the flexible surface from convex to concave. That's the sign for correct closing, it means the jar is closed airtight, so the content will remain pasteurized. There's no need to boil in water (at room pressure, so not in a pressure canner) jars that were prepared correctly (pasteurized and with the concave lid), it's just overkill. If it's pasteurized then you are ok, there's no sense to pasteurize again. Heating them again will lead to ruining their taste: the more time you cook a jam, the more flavour you loose. So when cooking jams your goal is to reach gelification temperature as soon as possible, then avoiding re-heating the closed pasteurized jars. What I wrote is valid for jams and jellies, food with low pH and high sugar content that just needs pasteurization. Things are pretty different for foods that need sterilization for long shelf life. Teo

Beware that there are other troubles, even if you solve the power cord problem. A vacuum chamber machine needs enough space around it, since it needs to pump air in and out of the chamber. If you use it in a closed space (few space around it) then you risk ruining the machine. Ask to the manufacturer what's the required free space around the machine you want to buy, so you get an idea. Teo

Seems like it's just a matter of personal preference. I tried chicken breast prepared in many different ways, from quality animals and cooked by skilled people. Never did much for me. I much prefer all the rest of the chicken. I love the neck, the cockscombs, the small triangular part just above the ass (don't know the name in English)... just never cared for the breast. If I had to choose about chicken, probably I would pick the unformed eggs and the tripe, but I would cry knowing I would be leaving out the liver, the heart, the gizzard, the thigh. Give me a risotto with all the innards then a roasted thigh and I'll leave you all the chicken breasts you want, so we are both happy. Teo