Forum Activity for @Jonathan Edelson

Cocoa Shell Infusion

Posted in: Tasting Notes

By shell, I think you mean the husk of the cacao nib, and not the outside of the pod.

My understanding is that cocoa husk concentrates a bunch of the stuff you don't want in chocolate, including lead from the environment.

Apparently the husk also have high concentrations of the various polyphenols that are proposed to provide the health benefits of chocolate. The shell also quite high in fiber.

Barry-Callebaut has a process where they extensively wash and sterilize the husk to provide cacao based fiber.

Several 'brewing cocoa' products are out there; they are essentially ground nib with the husk left in; I've tried this brewed like coffee and rather like it. I try not to think too much about heavy metals content

-Jon

Hilliards Little Dipper (not responding)

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

I don't have any experience with the little dipper, but I do have a bunch of electrical experience.

Do you have a volt meter and a schematic of your unit?

I found an old little dipper manual online, and it had a schematic. It looks like you have a control board which has a 'double throw' relay on it. Double throw means that there are two contacts (NO and NC) and they alternate which one is on. The output of this relay then controls power relays which then control the actual devices (the lamps or the blowers).

You should be able to measure the output of the relay on the control board and see if there are correct signals going to the power relays.

My guess, given what you have already replaced: there is a short in the socket that holds the relay that controls the lamps, so that a relay which is supposed to be off is getting turned on. This relay is then powering the lamps.

Good luck.

-Jon

Using cacao butter as seed AND What temperature to add seed

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

As I mentioned, I have used 'mycryo' as seed. Mycryo is pure powdered cocoa butter. This has worked quite well for me.

To expand on what I do: I generally use it in a non-stirred melter, but have used it in my small chocovision. I just need to ignore/bypass the built in tempering routine. What I do is let the machine melt the chocolate, then press the 'seed' button without adding anything. I wait until the temperature has dropped to 94F, and _then_ I add the mycryo seed. In this way I can control the amount added. Because it is a powder, _all_ of it goes under the baffle and into the melt.

Mycryo is recommended for use in 1% levels, but you could add 1% at higher temperature to simply be fully melted, and use 1% as seed.

-Jon

Using cacao butter as seed AND What temperature to add seed

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Above the melting point of the seed, the seed crystals will simply melt.

I have used the smaller chocovision machines, and they first melt the chocolate, and reach a temperature where all of the cocoa butter crystals melt. At this point they have you add an excess of seed 'behind the baffle', and the machine lets the temperature stop dropping. The excess remaining seed is not removed until the bowl and melt are just below working temperature. All this time the bowl is spinning, rubbing a layer of chocolate off of the seed block.

I am sure that this process path causes some of the desired seed crystals to melt, but apparently allows sufficient seed crystals to mix in to the melt for tempering. Because the bulk chocolate is used as the seed, any fully melted chocolate is simply part of your mix.

I have never tried bulk cocoa butter as a seed in the chocovision, but I expect that it would work just fine. The biggest issue is that your cocoa butter will change the composition of your chocolate (I presume that you want this, otherwise you wouldn't be using the cocoa butter in the first place), but the method of using an excess and then removing the remainder would mean that you no longer have control over exactly how much cocoa butter gets added.

I have used 'mycryo' for tempering in a chocovision. In this case I let the machine melt the chocolate, hit the temper button and let the melt cool down, and then add the mycryo after the bowl temperature hits 94F. This method has worked quite well for me.

-Jon

Truffles Cracking!

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Try letting your ganache sit at in the molds are room temperature for 4-12 hours ('overnight') prior to chilling.

I find that the ganache needs to 'set up' and this happens while warm.

-Jon

Thick chocolate while tempering

Posted in: Tasting Notes

When this next happens, could you double check the chocolate temperature with a different thermometer? When this happens, does it seem like the melting stage reached its final temperature more rapidly than normal?

I've seen my (very old) Rev II machine sometimes show strange temperature readings and then go to the next steps in the tempering process on the basis of what seem to me to be transient measurement errors. I've seen my system declare that tempering was finished because of a transient low reading, caused by a bad connection to the temperature sensor.

-Jon

I only did this once, but actually had very good luck using a robocoupe with a shredding disc, the sort normally used for making things like shredded vegetables.

The shreds break up into a relatively fine (if irregular) powder.

I was planning to use this as seed for tempering, but then found out that I could use mycryo, so I did not develop the process past one attempt.

-Jon

Content of alcohol in recipe

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

You have two issues to deal with: The law and the actual calculation.

Each state has its own take on the law for alcohol in chocolates. The National Confectionary Association compiles a list of the various state laws...but the versions that you can find online without an account are not quite correct. You need to go to your own state website to find the correct info.

Some states prohibit any alcohol in a confection. Others permit alcohol only from 'flavorings' (excluding alcohol from beverages, even if you are using the beverage only for flavoring, and you have to go to the federal laws to see what the difference is). Some have a limit of 5% ABV, others 0.5% ABV, and still others 0.5% _by weight_.

For Georgia, check out http://law.justia.com/codes/georgia/2010/title-26/chapter-2/article-2/26-2-26 It looks like Georgia limits you to 0.5% ABV with the alcohol coming from flavoring extracts only.

The second issue is that you need to figure out exactly how much alcohol is actually present in your formulation. In many ways it is easier if you can just figure by weight.

Something that is 40% ABV simply means that 100ml of the total solution consists of 40 ml of pure ethanol plus sufficient other material to make 100ml of total solution. So if you have 310ml of 40% ABV whiskey, then you have 124ml of pure ethanol mixed in with other stuff.

If you then dilute this 310ml of whiskey down to make 1000ml of 'stuff', then the resulting stuff would be 12.4% ABV.

step 1) What is the _volume_ of whiskey you are using (was that 10.5 fluid ounces, or 10.5 ounces by weight??)

step 2) What is the total _volume_ of your finished product (which might be a bit difficult to measure)

step 3) Multiply the volume of whiskey by 0.4 to get the volume of alcohol, and then divide the volume of alcohol by the total formula volume to get the ABV of the finished product.

-Jon

transfer sheet process

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Most normal ink printers use very thin _transparent_ inks, which don't show up well on dark backgrounds. Edible inks are similarly transparent, and also don't show up well on dark backgrounds.

There are transfer sheet systems for chocolate, but the transfer sheets themselves include a white background that goes on to the chocolate so that the thin transparent inks will show up.

There are digital printers which, in theory, could put down the sort of colors which would show up well on a dark background, but I don't know if anyone has actually put this into production.

As Clay mentioned, the most common transfer sheet process is to screen print using colored cocoa butter. There are more or less expensive methods for making screens, and if you check egullet you can find discussion of DIY screen printing for transfer sheets.

-Jon

You might also give consideration to how different the results will actually be if you fill the molds to the same weight even with the different densities of chocolate.

The thickness of the bar will change, of course, since different densities mean different volumes for the same weight. But if this variation is 'seen' as a change at the 'back' of the bar, there may be no perceived quality difference.

-Jon

"Whole Bean Chocolate"

Posted in: News & New Product Press

Barry-Callebaut has been working this from the industrial end, apparently processing the husk separately.

There are some nutritional benefits if you are looking for things such as fiber. Apparently the husk also has abundant catechins and polyphenols which supposedly have helth benefits

http://www.confectionerynews.com/Ingredients/Cocoa-shell-powder-has-numerous-uses-in-chocolate-and-foods-says-Barry-Callebaut

I suspect that if someone wants to use the husk 'properly' it will need to be done as a separate process line from the rest of the bean.

I wonder what the implications of heavy metal contamination in the husk are for things like 'brewing chocolate'?

-Jon

Converting from 3 phase to single phase

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

The reason for my question about the exact supply voltage in the new location is that 208V 'single phase' is really two phases of a three phase supply, whereas 240V single phase is a true single phase.

If you have 208V from two legs of a three phase supply, then you can use a transformer to generate the third leg.

-Jon

Converting from 3 phase to single phase

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

And to add to my last question: is the voltage in the location that you are moving to 120/240V or 120/208V.

Is the selmi set up for 208V 240V or 480V three phase?

208 and 240 often get confused or are (mistakenly) considered the same thing.

480V is what you would find in a modern industrial facility

240V is what you might find in an old industrial facility

208/120V is what you would find in an office/light industrial facility, because it is a three phase system that gives 120V directly for receptacles and the like.

-Jon

Converting from 3 phase to single phase

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

I forgot, there is one additional option: a 'static phase converter'. This is electrically similar to a VSD set to fixed frequency with all of the necessary filtering to run a generic three phase load.

Anywhere a rotary converter can be used, a static phase converter can be used.

If in Clay's experience the rotary converter mentioned works with the machine, then that will very likely be the cheapest approach.

However you just added a significant detail. You said that there is 3 phase at the main building where you are located.

What voltage is your Selmi rated for, and what voltage is actually being supplied to your location (both at the main panel and in the space where the machine will be located).

Thanks
Jon

Converting from 3 phase to single phase

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Before you go down the path of 'synthesizing' 3 phase power from a single phase source, the first thing you should do is contact Selmi and find out how much it would cost to convert the machine for single phase operation. I found a Selmi Plus user manual online, and it shows a couple of three phase motors...but most of the machine is using single phase power. Any heating element can be reconnected for single phase operation, and the control circuits use 24V derived from a single phase converter/transformer (it is not clear to me from the manual if the control is 24V DC or AC).

It may be that Selmi has already designed for an internal single to 3 phase converter to run the motors.

Failing this, there are several approaches to producing 3 phase from single phase; however these all have their issues.

The cleanest (and most expensive) way to produce 3 phase is a 'motor generator set. This is as simple as it sounds. You have a single phase motor that runs off your single phase supply, and drives a generator which produces 3 phase power. This is not really a likely option, but I mention it for background.

A very common mechanical approach is something called a 'rotary phase converter'. This is simply a 3 phase motor with two of its terminals connected to your single phase line. A special starter triggers this motor to turn, and the third terminal of the motor _generates_ the 3rd terminal of the three phase supply. The benefit of the rotary phase converter is that you get clean sinusoidal output, and only part of the power is actually passing through the converter; for a load that only has a portion of 3 phase loading, the bulk of the power can come directly from the single phase supply.

The downside of this is that the output may not be well balanced, which can cause heating issues in motors. Also you have a spinning machine which means mechanical noise, and the need for bearing maintenance.

The final approach is something called a VSD or inverter. These are actually used to control motor speed, but can also be used to convert single phase to 3 phase power. They work by taking their supply power, converting it to DC, and then using electronics to convert the DC to 3 phase AC. The output AC can have arbitrary frequency and voltage, which gives you the ability to control the speed of a three phase motor.

These devices are relatively inexpensive, and have no moving parts. The downside is that the output AC is rich in electrical noise and harmonics. These units are really meant to drive _motors_, not general purpose 3 phase loads. You would almost certainly need additional filtering between the VSD and the Selmi. Because these units are really meant to drive motors, the 'cleanest' approach is an internal VSD that only drives the motors, leaving the rest of the Selmi using single phase power directly.

(A quick aside: if you have a two terminal AC supply, then it is 'single phase'. If you have 3 terminals, then it is 'three phase'. To see why, draw two points on a piece of paper, and connect them with lines...you get a single connecting line. Now draw three points and connect them with lines....you get 3 connecting lines. Since a circuit requires a closed path between the supply terminals, a pair of supply terminals gives you one phase but 3 terminals give you 3 different paths.)

-Jon

hilliards Little Dipper and the end of 100 watt lightbulbs...

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

I wonder if "edison screw base heaters" would work. These are porcelain resistance heaters that have the same sort of screw base as a lightbulb.
http://www.tempco.com/Catalog/Section%207-pdf/Edison%20Bulb.pdf

Rather more expensive that a lightbulb (perhaps $20 to $30), but then you don't have to worry about them burning out.

-Jon

Tempering machine advice

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Thanks for posting your paper.

I am curious about how temperatures above the melting point of the cocoa butter factor in. For 'simple' compounds, once you have heated the material above the melting point there can be no solid phase left. If you have water above 0C with ice floating in it, then the ice itself is still at 0C and time delay for its melting is due to the limits of thermal conductivity.

If I have a stirred fluid bath of chocolate at say 100F, with no macroscopic chunks, then can crystals of cocoa butter still be present? (This is not a rhetorical question; I've been assuming not, but realize that I don't know...I know that the crystallization seems to take time _after_ the chocolate has cooled to the required temperature, so I could imagine that after the chocolate has been heated there is a time delay before crystalline order is lost.)

If chocolate is not heated enough to fully dissolve all of the crystals, then is the only risk one of overtempering? Or can you get the wrong crystal forms?

Thanks again.

Jon

Tempering machine advice

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Clay,

Could you please expand on the point about "...as they work on the difference between a melting temperature and a working temperature. If your max working temp is 42C then you might not have enough temperature differential to form crystals...."

Do these machines not 'subcool' the chocolate to trigger crystal formation and then heat back to working temperature? Or do they simply depend upon the temperature difference between the melt and the working temperature? Could agitation be added to the auger to trigger morecrystallization?

I have a similar interest in low temperature operations, not from a 'raw' perspective, but from a kosher perspective. If you keep your equipment below a certain temperature (which varies by supervision authority, in the range of 108-120F) then kosher supervision becomes easier because you are no longer considered to be 'cooking'.

Thanks

Jon

Caramel/roller cutter

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Please see my parts list above for a cheaper/more diy solution.

9 blades $25, rod $10, handles $14, spacers $7, nuts $4, giving a spacing of 1.375". You would need to pay about $7 more for the spacers (and stack pairs) to get 1.25". Give or take $65 for a cutter to your specifications.

-Jon

Caramel/roller cutter

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

Interesting about the pizza wheels getting caught.

I guess I got lucky with the pizza blades that I selected. They have a hub in the center, about 1/8" thick and 3/4" in diameter, with a 3/8" hole. They ride perfectly on the all-thread.

I was just doing a search for something else, and found this:
http://www.wasserstrom.com/restaurant-supplies-equipment/Product_432703

They sell the central rod and the blades separately. The central rod is $30, the blades are $16 each (ouch!). If you only need a few blades (say for scoring bark) then this might be a reasonable way to go.

-Jon

Caramel/roller cutter

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

I have not had good luck with rolling cutters for ganache; the ganache tends to stick to the side of the roller. However another chocolate life member has pictures showing good luck...as well as their home-made roller cutters.

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/diy-guitar?commentId=1978963%3AComment%3A134163

I have also made my own rolling cutter; materials for one 12" wide with cutters on 5/8" centers would cost about $90.

I used the following components:

replacement pizza cutter blades, http://www.katom.com/166-PCW4.htm l

parts from McMaster-Carr ( http://www.mcmaster.com ):

stainless steel threaded rod 93250A460

nylon unthreaded spacers 94639A212

tapered handle with threaded insert 57455K64

stainless steel hex nuts 92673A125

They have different sized spacers. It is trivial to make a couple of different cutters for the different sizes that you need.

-Jon

DIY Guitar

Posted in: Geek Gear - Cool Tools

Rather than a _guitar_ cutter, I made what is best called a _washtub bass_ cutter.

I used the best $25 hacksaw frame sold at home depot, and stretched stainless steel wire across the prongs that hold the blade.

The trick is to get a saw with _smooth_ prongs, and to wrap the wire around the prong a couple of times and then twist around itself to lock.

It takes a couple of tries to get the knack of it so that the wire can be tightened enough.

To deal with the wire having to pass below the slab, I used a firm foam with food safe material (plastic wrap) above it.

At first I would just use this for freehand cuts, but then I built a guide frame. This is just a pair of waterjet cut 'combs' screwed to some cutting board material.

I am only using this at home; in the commercial kitchen I'd probably use an NSF rated saw (they make them for butchers) and I would need to figure out different pad materials.

-Jon

Natural Chocolate sauce original recipe with decent shelf life ????

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

I (as well as others) focused on your question about Lecithin...but you also asked about cocoa liquor. I was wondering if you knew what 'cocoa liquor' was?

Cocoa liquor is simply ground cocoa mass, generally at the stage prior to pressing to separate the cocoa powder and the cocoa butter. Sometimes this is called unsweetened chocolate, although unsweetened chocolate might also refer to the same stuff after it has been further refined to reduce particle size.

In any case, if you want a decent shelf life in a sauce, you are going to need to control water activity. Since you likely want to keep the water content high in order to get the right texture for a sauce, you need ingredients that will 'bind' this water yet keep things fluid...and these 'humectants' are commonly the compounds that you say you don't want to use.

I'd suggest looking more closely at the whole range of humectants, learn and understand their properties, and then look for acceptable humectants that share these properties. You already know that honey is very similar to inverted sugar; honey is arguably a better humectant than inverted sucrose, more like the dreaded high fructose corn syrup So perhaps a naturally sourced honey is acceptable where a chemically similar HFCS or inverted sugar is not.

Sorbitol is found in many fruits; perhaps a fruit concentrate is acceptable.

Finally, plain ordinary sugar will lower water activity.

Good luck!

Jon

Natural Chocolate sauce original recipe with decent shelf life ????

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

I know that most lecithin is manufactured from soy, but that it is found all over the place. I recall seeing a reference to palm lecithin.

What I am wondering: does anyone make _cocoa_ lecithin. You could have your lubrication and keep it pure cocoa mass

-Jon

Why is my chocolate so shiny but soft and pliable?

Posted in: Tech Help, Tips, Tricks, & Techniques

As an intentional experiment, I melted some chocolate and then poured it onto a teflon release sheet without any attempt to temper.The chocolate picked up the shine of the release sheet, and had no visible bloom. It had a very soft, putty like consistency, and no snap. I guess you got your chocolate into a state where it set up cleanly, but into the wrong crystal form.I found that I rather liked the creaminess of the untempered chocolate, however it bloomed after only a couple of days. I suspect that 'perfectly untempered' chocolate could be attractive for some markets, but that it would have a very short shelf life.-Jon

Guittard/callebaut/Valrhona ?

Posted in: Opinion

I am quite partial to the Callebaut line, in particular 60-40-38-NV for enrobing, though I usually mix it with something slightly sweeter such as their 811NV.On your ganache: are you giving it a chance to crystallize at room temperature before cooling it? I find that my ganache needs a good 8 hours at room temperature to get the correct texture.-Jon

Where to buy bulk couverture?

Posted in: Classifieds F/S or Wanted

Gourmail is the retail division of Primarque. http://primarque.com/ You might try contacting them to see if they will provide retail handing (and of course, unfortunately, pricing) for other items in their wholesale line. I tried working with them years ago, but it didn't pan out; I mention them because you mentioned Gourmail.I highly recommend 'chocosphere' as a great online seller of a large variety of chocolates. http://www.chocosphere.com/ -Jon

Alcohol in Chocolates

Posted in: Recipes

I found a useful resource on this topic: http://www.candyusa.com/Resources/FAQDetail.cfm?ItemNumber=1684 The table seems generally accurate, however you should double check your individual state laws.The laws vary state to state, sometimes considerably, sometimes only in detail.In many states, food with less than 0.5% alcohol is considered 'non-alcoholic'. In some states this is 0.5% by weight, others go with 0.5% by volume. In some states the alcohol can be from any source, in other states the rules are different for 'extracts' versus 'liquors'. Some states have different rules for confections versus other foods.In Oregon, _food_ is considered 'adulterated' if it contains more than 0.5% alcohol by weight. At less than 0.5% alcohol the source could be anything used for flavoring, eg. an extract or a liquor.There are also provisions under the Oregon liquor laws for making 'non-beverage products' at up to 5% alcohol by volume, which require sales through liquor stores. (As I recall, the liquor law applies from 0.5% alcohol by volume to 5% by volume, leaving an overlap area, but this is from distant memory.)-Jon

Cocoa butter and cocoa solids

Posted in: Tasting Notes

For what its worth, you can often find 'specification sheets' for callebaut products online. Just search for "product name specification".

The spec sheet will often include both the % cocoa mass and the % non-fat cocoa solids.

You can use these spec sheets to double check your calculation technique for 'extracting' the relevant info from ordinary nutrition information.

Finally, several of the Callebaut dark chocolates are made with cocoa mass, defatted cocoa powder, sugar, vanilla, lecithin. These are not high end single origin chocolates, rather middle of the road mass market ingredients. These chocolates are very, very thick when melted and have relatively poor texture, but are quite nice for doing things like make ganache where the extra flavor hit per unit fat is a benefit.

-Jon