Paco Jet Probs

[arpege]

Hi everyone..

I have been playing with a Paco Jet for a couple of months and have had great success with making sorbets. The consistency is amazing when you get the temps right.

The problem that I have encountered is with ice creams. I have tried a few different recipes but mainly go with Giardet's recipe for caramel and vanilla. The problem is when I pacotize.. they turn so soft that they are unservable. I have to put into a container and refreeze them. I thought that too much sugar might be the culprit but I have tried reducing the amounts with no luck.. It is very hot in our kitchen, which compounds the problem. If anyone has any advice, I appreciate it!

ty,

arpege

[alanamoana]

do you hold in the blue air valve when spinning? if you don't, a lot of air gets pumped into the ice cream and that can cause it to be softer than you'd like.

[tan319]

The air valve notwithstanding, I was able to work with a Paco for awhile and these were things I noticed.

I was in a very hot envior too so...

You should Paco your ice creams before service so they have some time to reset to get that perfect creamy texture.

We had a big ice cream freezer that you reach down into that was damned cold and would vent the top at service to keep it from getting too cold.

Worked very well.

The Dulce de leche ice cream we did was very soft, once it was processed, probably because of the high sugar content.

Maybe it's the same for your Caramel I/C?

My advice would be to Paco the whole beaker before service and let it set back up.

Good Luck!

Edited August 16, 2006 by tan319 (log)

[maggie]

alanamoana, do you hold in the blue valve the entire time? or can you control the texture by holding it in varying amounts of time?

[arpege]

Thanks to everyone for the replies..

I have tried holding the air valve and it didnt do much..

REfreezing the ice cream seems like the only way to go.. I feel like it kind of defeats the purpose of pacotizing though. I think that I can get the same or better result with a batch freezer.

[alanamoana]

Thanks to everyone for the replies..

I have tried holding the air valve and it didnt do much..

REfreezing the ice cream seems like the only way to go.. I feel like it kind of defeats the purpose of pacotizing though. I think that I can get the same or better result with a batch freezer.

←

that's kind of how i feel about the paco jet in general. only advantage being it takes a lot less time than spinning in a batch freezer.

[xdrixn]

I think that I can get the same or better result with a batch freezer.

←

I agree with you completely. Our storage freezer is at -6f so the base gets cold enough. I've experimented with lowering various types of sugar, the cream, rigging the blue button and I still prefer to spin our ice creams daily in the batch freezer despite the fact it takes 2-3 hours. Yet I continue to experiment with the paco from time to time.

[alanamoana]

alanamoana, do you hold in the blue valve the entire time?  or can you control the texture by holding it in varying amounts of time?

←

nah, just use a piece of cardboard or something and hold it in the entire time. remember to take the cardboard out before you clean though!

my last job only had two paco jets, so we did everything in that thing. we spun ice cream every morning and afternoon.

[tan319]

Sorry to read that you're not too keen on the resetting (freezing) the ice cream.

I think the way the Paco jet started was because European chefs seem to prefer ice creams that have just been churned, very soft, etc.

If you do a search you'll see a few threads on the Paco and a few of the chefs who use the Paco all of the time seem to prefer churning things like caramel ice cream in a batch freezer, as a rule.

Good luck to you!

[alanamoana]

ideally, freezer temps should be about -10 to -20 degrees fahrenheit. even if you think your freezer is cold enough, it might not be. also, traffic in and out of the freezer can affect the temperature negatively.

just spoke to my old boss who exclusively uses paco jet...it's a bit slower in the restaurant (summertime in the city) and the freezer is much more effective. so he can scoop right after pacotizing with no problems. he's currently running thirteen flavors and usually has two beakers of each flavor spun for service. to do that with a batch freezer would be ridiculous.

but, he does say that you shouldn't think that you can pacotize and then serve the ice cream as some places were doing as a gimmick. the base needs to be super cold. so, you should still work directly from the freezer.

[skidude72]

i believe its completly broken... so if you want you could send it to me and i can poroperly dispose of it

... hey we all have dreams...

[tan319]

but, he does say that you shouldn't think that you can pacotize and then serve the ice cream as some places were doing as a gimmick.  the base needs to be super cold.  so, you should still work directly from the freezer.

←

Do you mean pre processing?

[alanamoana]

i don't think so...just spinning a solidly frozen base at least an hour or two before service so it has time to set up again in the service freezer.

[stscam]

We use our Paco just for sorbets. We also whiz them on the spot for customers, which they seem to enjoy. Most of the fruit we use is local (strawberries, raspberries, currants, melons, etc). But we do buy "imported" stuff when it looks good (pineapple, watermelon, figs).

Early on (i.e., this past June) we tried making ice creams, but the mushiness didn't work for our "spin on the spot" concept. So we use the batch freezer to make our dairy-based gelati and serve those from a proper Italian freezer (i.e., 12-15F).

To freeze the Paco beakers we bought an inexpensive chest freezer. To get the temp just right we use a pair of digital remote probe thermometers - one probe reading the air temp, the other probe in a cup of frozen water. This gives us a pretty good idea of the actual temp, which we try to keep between -5 and -9F. Using the chest freezer helps minimize temperature changes when removing or returning beakers because cold air drops.

If I had to do it over again, I don't think I'd get a Paco. Having the flexibility of easily concocting myriad flavors, and being able to serve a dozen or more on the spot, is pretty cool. But our market is just not warming up to the idea. I'm thinking that going forward we'll just stick to the batch freezer and sell the Paco after the summer tourist rush is over.

C'est la guerre.

Cheers,

Steve

Edited August 17, 2006 by stscam (log)