Humidity

[mrose]

I work out of a church kitchen which has no AC and therefore no humidity control. The humidity rises up & down as usual in the upper Midwest. Does anyone have any good suggestions for the best ways to cope with it & chocolate making? A dehumidifier in the room isn't a workable solution. Would a strong fan in the room make much of a difference while I'm working? I can tell the diffence in my finished products.

Mark

[escry]

When I started out making chocolates, one of my first purchases, long before I sold my first chocolate, was a portable dehumidifier. It was about 18" x 18" x 30" high and collected the water within an internal resevoir which I emptied every day. Cheap too at £70 ($110). It broke after one year's continous use.

With no humidity control then a chief concern is that chocolate absorbs moisture from the atmosphere when humidity exceeds (from memory) about 70-75%. Molten chocolate will absorb moiture and thicken quite quickly whilst dipping/enrobing/moulding. In such conditions work with small amounts of tempered chocolate. If you use a melting tank to hold chocolate at 45 degrees Celsius for twelve hours, either have this tank in a humidity controlled room elsewhere, or place in a cupboard with lots of silica gel?

Without air conditioning, a wine fridge (from $150 for 70 litre capacity), with more of those silica gel packets, is an excellent place to keep your chocolates once made. Even with a/c thats how I keep mine.

As to a strong fan, this will help cool your chocolates faster after enrobing so will help two fold. Less time for you to wait before packaging, and less time for moisture to be absorbed.

Just as importantly, how to you cope with temperature?

[WhiteTruffleGirl]

Mark,

Why isn't a dehumidifer a workable solution?

[mrose]

The kitchen which is good sized is off a large banquet room. A dehumidifier for this would cost $600 - 800. Bit more than I have to spend. Right now with summer, business is ectremely slow so I only make truffles as needed.

Mark

[Desiderio]

When I started out making chocolates, one of my first purchases, long before I sold my first chocolate, was a portable dehumidifier. It was about 18" x 18" x 30" high and collected the water within an internal resevoir which I emptied every day. Cheap too at £70 ($110). It broke after one year's continous use.

With no humidity control then a chief concern is that chocolate absorbs moisture from the atmosphere when humidity exceeds (from memory) about 70-75%. Molten chocolate will absorb moiture and thicken quite quickly whilst dipping/enrobing/moulding. In such conditions work with small amounts of tempered chocolate. If you use a melting tank to hold chocolate at 45 degrees Celsius for twelve hours, either have this tank in a humidity controlled room elsewhere, or place in a cupboard with lots of silica gel?

Without air conditioning, a wine fridge (from $150 for 70 litre capacity), with more of those silica gel packets, is an excellent place to keep your chocolates once made. Even with a/c thats how I keep mine.

As to a strong fan, this will help cool your chocolates faster after enrobing so will help two fold. Less time for you to wait before packaging, and less time for moisture to be absorbed.

Just as importantly, how to you cope with temperature?

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I am interested in the wine fridge and the silica gel packs, can you tell us more about it ?

Thank you

[WhiteTruffleGirl]

Mark,

How many sq. ft. would you say the kitchen is?

[sote23]

yes, I too would be intersted in hearing about the wine fridge as well.

[mrose]

My guess the kitchen is about 600 - 700 sq feet outside a big banquet room in the downstairs of the church.

[WhiteTruffleGirl]

Mark,

I'm not sure what dehumidifiers you've been looking at (you obviously have, as you have prices), however, I'll give you my home experience if it helps.

I have a very large living room with a vaulted ceiling. It's approximately 800 sq. ft. and I can't estimate the cubic feet because of the pitch of the ceiling. It was an addition to a very old farm house that cannot have central air put in. The room opens to a parlor which cannot be closed off. The doorway opening is approximately 5'8" x 4". A few summers ago we started to have some major problems because of humidity. (We live in a heavily wooded area and so 80% humidity outside became 90% humidity inside our house.) My husband purchased what I would have considered a "too small" dehumidifier to combat the problem. Thing is...it works.

While it's not bone dry in my living room, it is certainly comfortable, and a lot lower humidity than much of the rest of the house and outside. Yesterday (a very humid day) I emptied the reservoir (65 pt. capacity) three times. And, it only cost $167 at WalMart. I'm not saying it's the answer, but it's another way to think about it. Here's a link to the unit we bought, in case you're interested.

The heat is another thing altogether. I'm likely going to buy a portable air conditioner since I can't install a window unit in my kitchen, and I need to be able to both cool and dehumidify in order to make any confections at home during the summer months. They've come down tremendously in price, and this site has given me some pretty good guidance as to what I'll likely be buying.

Good luck.

[Lloydchoc]

You can get one of thoses mini fridges from Home Depot for about $120. I think the brand is Magic Chef and it is 4 or 5 CF. Set the thermostat to barely on and it will hold a 50 degree temperature. Great for chocolates and usually above the dew point so you won't get condensation .

Lloyd

[mrose]

I had an interesting experience today. I was making truffles in church kitchen, it was fairly hot & humid (80+ degrees, humidity seemed pretty high). About 11:30 I went to temper a small amout of white chocolate in an old sinsation tempering machine (for decoration). I melted white chocolate & seeded machine for temper cycle. After the temp goes down I assume aprrox 80 & then should start back up to ~86 -87. The chocolate stated getting small lumps and never would reach temper. Tried it a 2nd time, same thing happened & was also stirring chocolate on melting side. I assume this was caused from the humidity. I was using chocolate from a newly open package.

Eaarlier I used a larger machine with milk chocolate & evryting worked fine.