tammylc

Can you describe your process to me for making this in big batches? Are you just using a few larger pans? I've always shied away from upsizing dishes where the rice and everything else cooks in one pot, for fear that the bottom will burn and the rice in the middle won't get done. I've modified the Cook's Illustrated jambalaya recipe so that I cook the rice separately in our big rice cooker, then combine it the the meat, vegetables and liquid shortly before serving. Seems like a similar adaptation might work well for this recipe too, although I would like to hear about your strategy. Typically I'm cooking for about 32 meat eating adults plus some kids, so I'd need to do at least 6 batches of the recipe you give.

They are indeed very cute. Nice work!

Personally, I'd stay away from the "adult" suggestions. A group of women that David *doesn't know* are going to come to *his house* to make some chocolate. If I were one of them, I'd be totally creeped out if this guy then suggested that we make little chocolate, umm... members, or body paint or whatever.

Dinner was good, and easy. The apple cider vinegar is key - it ensured that the sauce wasn't too sweet. For the sauce, I used a ratio of 2 parts mustard to 2 parts maple syrup to 1 part cider vinegar. With some chopped sage thrown in. I mixed that all up like a vinaigrette. It was pretty liquidy, so I just rubbed down the seared tenderloins with it and put them in the oven. I used about half of what I made on the tenderloins. I made a sauce out of the rest. First I deglazed the pans I'd seared the meat in with more cider vinegar, then mixed that with the leftover sauce. Once the meat was done, I put the pan drippings in with it too, and reduced it by about a third. I sliced up the tenderloin, then ladled some hot sauce over it all and served it. Tasty. For the vegetarians, I sliced up some granny smith apples and put them in the bottom of baking dish, put slices of tofu on top of that, then topped it off with the sauce. Baked it for a while, took it out, and drizzled a little more sauce on top. Covered it with foil to keep warm, and served it topped with toasted pecans. The veggies really liked it. I used 12 lbs of tenderloin and 6 lbs of tofu. Sides were mashed sweet potatoes (20 lbs), broccoli (florets from 9 bunches), and salad (2 lbs) - all organic. Breyer's ice cream for dessert. I made some mac and cheese for the kids. Total cost was $187 for 66 people - 36 meat eating teens/adults, 15 veggies, and 15 kids. So that's $3.93 for an adult. Pretty darn good!

Hi kbjesq, welcome to eGullet! Thanks for the suggestion - Cook's Illustrated is usually my go-to place for things like this, but I've let my website subscription lapse. I'll probably re-up soon, though, and will check out the recipes you mention.

Tammy, I hope I'm not too late, but what about cooking the glaze with the garlic in it for a few minutes before you apply the glaze? ← That would have been a good idea. But I didn't bother with the garlic and it was really good anyway. I'll keep your suggestion in mind for next time!

Long time no post. I've been busy, busy, busy starting my own business, so all of my creative juices have been flowing that way and I've strictly been sticking to reruns for common meal. However... last time I cooked I did the korean-style pork tenderloin, and got a great price on the tenderloin. So while the price was still good, I figured I'd put it on the menu again. Brainstorming around what flavors I like with pork, I decided on a maple-mustard glazed pork tenderloin with sage, to be served with mashed sweet potatoes, broccoli and salad. Should be a pretty easy meal to put together, with one caveat - I've never actually made maple-mustard glazed pork tenderloin before! But lots of other people on the net have, or at least so Google tells me. My plan - season with salt and pepper, sear on all sides. Make a sauce/glaze out of the maple syrup, dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, sage, and rub that all over the meat. Finish in the oven, slice and serve, maybe with some sort of pan sauce if I have enough drippings. I'd marinate the meat in the glaze, but I'm concerned about the maple syrup burning during searing. Any thoughts on times and temperatures once I get it into the oven? They are likely to be a wide variety of sizes, although I will sort them on pans according to size to help ensure that they finish at the same time. 350? 400? I'd like to get some garlic in there, but not sure what the right method would be. One recipe calls for rubbing the meat down with a cut clove. I could mince it fine and put it in the glaze, but I'm worried it might not have enough oven time to cook. Thoughts? I have to leave to go shop and cook in 2 hours, so any advice or ideas before then would be most welcome!

Thanks, Lysbeth - I appreciate the comment. I often feel like I'm talking into the void on this thread and wondering if I should bother continuing to post! I think the rough strategy to donations that I came up with yesterday is that a tasting is a good thing to offer for a silent auction donation request. It's more interesting, and then I have the opportunity to essentially market myself to all of the winner's guests. And, with a silent auction, there's an assumption that the kind of person who would bid on an item valued at $80-$100 is likely to have the kinds of friends who might be a good target market for that kind of event. For events that are looking for a door prize or something like that, then a box of chocolates is more suitable. And if I can find the right event for it, one person suggested that I donate a single boxed piece of chocolate (with business card enclosed) to be given to each attendee. Obviously this would be a major investment on my part, but is also the widest possible exposure. The possibility that you raise is the one about actually donating product to be served at the event, and that's certainly something I'd think about doing as well for events where that was a possibility. Which reminds me, I need to send an email to someone about that exact thing...

At the chocolate class I attended, we had pairs of two each with our own portable burner and a double boiler setup. We infused some cream and made a ganache, which we were able to take home to do something with later. Then we learned to temper chocolate using the seed method, and dipped and decorated a variety of centers that had been prepared in advance. We made bark with the remaining tempered chocolate and a variety of toppings, like dried fruit and coconut, etc. But that was very much an event geared at learning to make chocolates, so it's applicability to your event will very much depend on what the group is looking for, and if they're looking for more of a party atmosphere then I think you've got great suggestions elsewhere in the thread.

Well, got the word back today that the local store I'd been hoping would pick up my chocolates isn't interested. Bummer. The sticking point appears to be the couverture - apparently a bunch of the people who were in the decision tree "weren't crazy about the Guittard." There is some possibility that I might be doing a custom piece for them, however, from a new-ish chocolate that they're really fond of. So that would be something. And we're still talking about caramels, although they thought my last offering didn't have enough depth of flavor, they'd be interesting in trying others that I come up with. And if I find a chocolate I like better, I'm sure I can revisit the bonbon question with them. Ever onward... Tonight I'm going to stop by a small wedding expo being run by a local group. It's 12 women-owned businesses who each specialize in a particular aspect of weddings - catering, DJ, flowers, limo, officiant, etc. But they don't have a chocolatier... So I'm going to hand out samples and meet all the different women involved, and if I like them and they like me, they're doing interviews in April for new people to join the group. In other news, I'm looking forward to playing with my new toys - my airbrush compressor and dental vibrator have both arrived, along with four new colors of cocoa butter, a bunny mold, and an egg-shaped cutter. I'm crossing my fingers that my order from http://dr.ca will get here today too - two different molds and a bunch of individual transfer sheets. I got my first request for a charity donation and am working on figuring out my strategy for responding to those sorts of requests. In addition to the chocolates, my business also includes customized tasting events, so for any given event I have to decide if a) I want to make a donation and b) whether a box of chocolates are tasting event would be more suitable. The tasting event has more possibility of spin off business, because it would involve more people, but of course it's more time and resource intensive. And lastly, I'm trying to finalize my Easter offerings. I'm torn between something peanut-buttery and something caramely for my last flavor (the others are raspberry, cardamom, and milk or dark chocolate truffle bunnies). Anyone have any ideas on how to make a peanut butter caramel, and whether it would be any good?

The Heartland Gathering is a (roughly) annual gathering of Heartland eGulleteers. At last year's gathering in Ann Arbor, the Cleveland crew expressed some interest in hosting the next event, and we're all waiting breathlessly for an announcement of the details.

What are the prices like for lunch?

With one exception, I've always found Vosges flavors to be subtle to a fault. As a person who likes the unconventional flavors, they sound wonderful, but I usually find the flavors almost undetectable. The one exception I had was a fresh truffle rolled in curry powder (not just dusted on top like the Naga) that was made that day and purchased at their boutique on Michigan Ave. That one was a powerhouse, but the rest have paled in comparison.

That is a really good read. Thanks for the link. For any Alinea fans who haven't read, it definitely go check it out. Here's an eGullet specific bit that's kinda interesting...

The networking continues. Went to a Vendor Showcase event yesterday for a local event planners group. I really needed to *be* a vendor, but I only found out about it a few days beforehand. But I took along a bunch of sample boxes and found a few people it was appropriate to hand them out to. I spent some time tonight sending email followups to some particularly promising contacts. This stuff about marketing and promotion and selling myself is definitely a challenge. I'm pretty comfortable with what I'm doing in the kitchen, and pretty confident with the tasting events (the other side of my business). But the marketing angle is coming a little harder. It's definitely the biggest barrier I see in me trying to make this into a full-time job - constantly having to be "on" and looking for the next opportunity is really hard work. Having regular paid employment in addition to this work means that if I fall down on promotion for a month or two, it doesn't much matter - the bills will still get paid. On the technical side of the house, I won eBay auctions this week for an air compressor and a vibrating table, and placed orders for some new molds and a bunch of colored cocoa butter. Hoping/planning to spend some time this weekend doing some experimentation to the end of nailing down my Easter flavor assortment so I can start promoting that. Need to get some acetate, as my plans include trying out making my own transfer sheets. Must go read up on that thread to avoid the pitfalls ahead!

No reason not to. I've used the chai spice mix before and quite like the flavour. I also tried making an alcoholic infusion of chai spices and adding that. Gave an entirely different effect. ← I made a truffle center once that many people described as tasting like chai. It was made with a cream infusion of Cardamon-Cinnamon herbal tea from the Republic of Tea, which contains cardamon, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, pink peppercorns, and star anise.

We've had a discussion on what "inexpensive" means in the context of this thread. I think a similar definition needs to be developed for "haute-cuisine." Things that have been mentioned so far include the inclusion of named sources either geographic or producer, emphasis on garnishes, and the use of trendy and/or luxe ingredients. What other characteristics define "haute-cuisine?"

Thanks!

Anybody have any updates to this thread? I'll be in Des Moines for training in May, and wondering where I should plan to eat.

You guys are the best. Thanks for the link! So, since it looks like I'll have one in the not-so-distant future, how do you use it? How long does the mold need to be on it (typically - I know it will vary based on chocolate viscosity, etc).

Talk to me about vibrating tables. I don't have one - I'm banging around my molds by hand, and ending up with more holes and bubbles than I want. Could be I just need more practice and to tweak my technique. But what do I need to know about vibrating tables? Who has one? What do you and don't you like about it? How is it used? Where's the best buy for a chocolatier on a budget?

I'm not sure denatured alcohol is what you'd want in this instance, unless you're referring to something different than what I'm finding in my web searches: "Denatured alcohol is ethanol to which poisonous and foul-tasting chemicals have been added to make it unfit for drinking. There is more than one recipe for denaturing alcohol; some add methanol or isopropanol, some gasoline, and so on." http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/chem00/chem00102.htm I believe Everclear is recommended, because its higher alcohol content means that it evaporates more quickly.

Since I've just started my own chocolate business, I'm reading this thread with great interest. Federal labeling law requires that packaged food be labeled with the weight, so I do know how much my pieces weigh. But for a retail store that's selling by the piece, I can understand why it just wouldn't be relevant to them. I didn't know how much mine weighed until I had to start labeling.

I've experimented with it. Didn't have any significant clogging issues. But I was just using vodka, which didn't evaporate as well as I would have liked, and I figured there had to be some people on here who'd tried it!

The event yesterday went really well. I had a lot of people whose first reaction was "But those are too pretty to eat!" Very gratifying, and I was able to convince most of them that really, it really was okay to eat them. Then word started getting around and it got much easier! I didn't make a ton of sales, but I didn't really expect to. I gave out some cards and some flyers, added some names to my mailing list and - most importantly - got some really good networking done. Some memorable moments: The women who's first question was "Do you do corporate gifts?" Why yes, yes I do. The 12 or 13-year-old boy who made a point of coming up to tell me that my chocolates were really, really good. Helping out a new mom, by telling her that most (good) dark chocolate is dairy-free, so she doesn't have to give up chocolate entirely now that she's giving up dairy (because of her breastfeeding baby having trouble). (All my filled pieces had dairy from other sources, but she did grab a couple of chocolate-covered pretzels.) Spending the day chatting with another local small business owner (a coffee roaster) about business, and our favorite local restaurants. So all in all, a good experience, and hopefully will lead to sales down the road. The new mom I mentioned above is on maternity leave from Detroit area lifestyle magazine, and she encouraged me to send a sample box to the editor, giving me her name and address and her own name to drop. On Wednesday, I'll be going to a local event planners event to do some schmoozing. I just found out about this group on Thursday - it's a membership organization for event planners at the University and in the community, as well as vendors and suppliers. They're having a vendor showcase on Wednesday. I'm sure it's too late or too expensive to get a table of my own (although I'm planning to contact them to check), but I made up a bunch of small boxes to hand out with cards and figure I can at least do some informal meeting and greeting.