Chocolate changing taste in the melter over a few days...
Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques
I'm a new owner of a tempering wheel and a melter and am not sure whether my problem is related to my current setting or the use of the machine. I have noticed that after a few days, the chocolate changes the taste. It becomes a bit more...roasted/caramelized, I guess. Not necessarily bad, but definitely a different flavour from day 1, which does not bode well for big batches of bars. I should add I am talking about milk chocolate here.
My melter is currently set up in my kitchen, which I also use for regular food prep, so smoky/meaty flavours abound. My melter is covered most of the time, either with a plexiglas cover or a metal cover (which leaves about 10% of the pan open to the air).
Sometimes I turn the melter off for the night, sometimes I leave it on low, then reheat the chocolate to 40+ C in the morning and let it temper down to 28-32 C before I use it.
Is the change in taste because I keep reheating/cooling the chocolate, keeping it warm for days, or is it just chocolate absorbing my cooking flavours?
updated by @parole_chocolates: 01/07/17 06:00:59PM