donk79

Commiseration might work, though... In my one season of efforts at making chocolates, tempering was certainly an issue!

Unfortunately, I have almost zero practical experience in this field. Anything I know comes from curiously following threads here!

Today I ran into a young guy at the local farmers market selling his own bean-to-bar chocolate. Naturally, I was intrigued. He is running some interesting flavor combinations on additions to the chocolate, but what impressed me more was the flavor of his 80% dark chocolate. It was very fruit forward. I loved it. Unfortunately, I did not love the texture anywhere near as much. My relatively uninformed suspicions are that he is not conching the chocolate long enough, and that he is having issues with tempering. These pictures are from his Facebook page. It is typical of what I tasted and purchased. The chocolate was slow to melt, and had a fine grit, almost flour-like texture. I want to help. I would really like this guy to succeed. But he does not know me from Adam. All I am is a guy who bought a bit of his chocolate. I would firstly like any helps with analysis of what you visually see going on with his chocolate. Second, any thoughts on what might be the best way to approach someone starting out, to try to point out some opportunities for improvement?

Pretty sure I saw this one at Costco for north of $10 for a box. I'd be happy to sample it, but it would have to make my pour-over for me in the morning for me to be ready to pay that much for a box of cereal.

Mei Leaf has been a large part of my tea education in the past couple of years. I only wish the videos were more condensed. Very informative when you have the time, though.

I am eagerly awaiting your results on this. A while ago, I concluded that what I found missing in most herbal teas was the complexity and depth of flavor that fermentation provides. Rooibos starts to get there, but I have yet to find a quality that truly satisfies what I am looking for.

Thank you, CDH! I will offer the same, though I need to figure out packaging. I have a "Milky" Oolong that I would be curious to hear what others think of. Supposedly the leaves are steamed over milk.

Oolong's are what have captured me so far. I have sampled a few puerhs, but I have not been able to pick up any of better than commodity quality yet. Green tea, well I am certain that there's more to be discovered than I have yet found.

Cdh, I would have had no interest when the first thread was live. However, tea is something I have begun to enjoy exploring the past couple of years. My current challenge is finding good suppliers, without having to go into ridiculous expense. I used to have a good tea shop about an hour away from me, but alas, it closed a year ago. Now, my tea purchases primarily happen during the holidays, while visiting family. My attempts at online purchasing have been more miss than hit. Direction there would be very welcome!

I have spent many a wonderful hour fishing for brookies in the Appalachians. While I have never kept any, that has almost always been a personal choice, from Pennsylvania down to southern Virginia. I think there may be better books!

Thank you, @DocDougherty! I will look into this! I have been relying on measures other than acidity for true preservation so far, but it's worth checking as to whether the acidity of the pickle might be enough!

Yes, salt is added to the whole. This is basically a fermented pickle right now. Admittedly with very unusual ingredients!

For the curious... Ferment bu-bubbling.

Thank you for the link! The sauce that I am making is simply vegetables (peppers, pears, squash) fermented into a pickle, then blended. Yes, very much the random experiment that occurs when you have too much of this and too much of that laying around. But the first batch (Pepper, pears, garlic) turned out so great that I am optimistic about what could come! All this is noted, though, to say that I am not adding vinegar, and am not confident in the acidity. Hence the desire to process under pressure.

This is quite a nice book. The Red Truck Bakery is near "back home" for me and their baking is good enough for me to have sought out a hard copy of this book. Baking from the recipes in the book has not disappointed.

This fall, I have wandered back into the realm of hot sauce production. I've turned to fermentation, and am including other garden ingredients in addition to peppers. And I have to say that I am enjoying it! But I am slightly stuck on the preservation stage. I decided that canning was the way to go, for something that I wanted to keep potentially for a year plus. The first batch went into jelly jars. But I really would like something slightly more elegant to dispense from. Is there a bottle form that can be pressure "canned." Is there another good way to process something like this? I am assuming that the acid level is insufficient for hot water canning.

Beeswax is pricey, for bees as well as us. Supposedly, beeswax takes twice the energy to make per weight that honey does. And, as usual, finding something that is high quality and pesticide free is a premium as well. I would say that $14/lb is a good price. Anything cheaper, I would consider suspect, unless I knew the producer well. Honestly, though, I consider any bee product suspect, unless I know the producer.

Picked up a bottle of Oban 14 last night. Have to say, bandaids are not my thing, at least not yet. It wasn't unpleasant, but I cannot say it was something I am seeking either. I did see some Lagavulin 9 that caught my eye. The 16 will have to wait for a special occasion purchase. Is the 9 substantially different than the 8?

Very interesting. I have heard of this, and may have to consider keeping the seeds next time I buy jackfruit. Please do let us know the results!

Resurrecting this thread, because I am curious. When the last post was made in this thread, my Scotch sampling was confined to a few mini's of JW that I bought out of curiosity. My spirit of choice for a long time has been bourbon, and I was unimpressed. However, in the past year, I developed a desire to find something different, something that grabbed my attention more. So I bought a bottle of Mccallan double cask, and was blown away by the nose. The palate was missing imo ( I may have a different opinion now) so I continued searching. I shied away from Islay, because it had a REPUTATION, and I thought I was unprepared for it. But as I tasted different Highlands, Speysides, and other Island Scotches, I kept wanting a little more, backbone, a little more bite. Then, about a month ago, I saw Ardbeg Uigedahl on sale. I had heard of it, and decided it might be a good introduction to Islay. Wow! It is everything that I had been looking for! I am looking forward to exploring further. I am curious to hear what others are currently enjoying and exploring. This is really still a new frontier for me!

For anyone from out of state poking about, Virginia wineries are still hit or miss. There are some really fantastic ones (Horton seems to have matured well as a winery) and some that offer a nice view. I cannot give a hard and fast rule as to how to find the good ones. Personally, I can recommend Virginia Wineworks (winery, sans vineyard) and the Snort (love the name) from The Winery at La Grange in Haymarket. It is well worth researching where you are going so as to not be disappointed by Kool-aid flavored plonk. And it is worth researching to find the good ones as well. There really are some gems worth the effort to discover.

If I think of one, I would name learning to brine meat. But the truth is that Egullet taught me (and is still teaching me!) how to cook. Pretty life changing! Thank you to everyone who shares their experience, wisdom, (and failures!) here.

The sale appears to be referencing the Nano, as purchased through their website. I have it available on Amazon prime for $71.

I ran across vinegar powder in a spice shop last month. When I saw it, I remembered reading about a Modernist technique using maltodextrin. I most likely read about it on Egullet somewhere. Sure enough, that is what the commercial powder contained. My suspicion is that the maltodextrin probably allows for a more concentrated product. But I also suspect that your method may provide a more palatable product. The sourdough especially intrigues me! Regarding temperature, you can most likely get away with higher temperatures early. As things get drier, I think you would want to go lower. Some vinegars have a fair amount of sugar in them still. Carmelization of the sugars and Maillard reactions in the bread are both possibilities, for better or worse!

My thought was easily accessible vinegar powder.