Forum Activity for @Ben Rasmussen

@aura An older model Savage Bros. 50lb table top tempering machine.

The Savage Bros. temperers do not need to be seeded. They use a water jacket hooked up to a cold water supply to cool the chocolate.

Also, I haven't had any issue with keeping the pump warm, but not too warm. Just run it on the timer with the heater off. 

Thanks Ruth and Kerry! I had a great time meeting all of you! Thanks Ruth for setting it up!

Hi Clay. 

Any news on getting the group discussions updated? In my opinion, they're almost useless now, since there's no way to easily see when a thread was last updated.

Also, the search results issue I mentioned in my 3/12/15 post is still happening.

Thanks,
Ben

It should help, but it'll still take a long time. Making the room cooler, or pointing an a/c unit at the tank would help, too. Adding seed or tabling would be much quicker, though.

The process you describe should work fine, but it will probably take a long time to cool. I don't believe the jkv-30 has any active cooling, right? Does it just circulate air around the tank? You could probably speed it up some by adding a fan on the chocolate.

The [76] reference in the book I linked is to this book:

http://www.amazon.com/chemistry-flavouring-manufacture-chocolate-confectionery/dp/B00086FPC4

Hi Robert,

I found this reference in 'Chocolate: History, Culture and Heritage' (page 1672 in the link, but page 620 in the hardcover version):

https://books.google.com/books?id=zwVS5gsJMUcC&lpg=PP1&dq=chocolate%20history%20culture%20and%20heritage&pg=PA1672#v=onepage&q=tempering&f=false

It doesn't say much, though.

-Ben

p.s. good to 'see' you! I hope things are going well.

Hi Clay, 

I just noticed something when doing a search. I did a search on 'pricing' looking for an old thread to send to a friend and several of the results didn't display a title or link. So, it was impossible to actually click through to the thread.

There are a couple on the third page of results:

https://www.thechocolatelife.com/search/results/jrForum/3/10/search_string=pricing

There's one by me and one further down by Matt Caputo that aren't working. There's also one on the second page of results.

Thanks,
Ben

Hi Clay,

Yes, I'm referring to the sorting of the discussions themselves, and what info is shown about the discussions, on the group pages. You previously changed the sorting of the comments in a discussion to be much more readable.

Thanks,
Ben

Hi Clay,

Just wanted to bring the group discussions back up. Currently, they show when the thread was started and the number of replies, and are sorted according to start date. On the previous site, they showed, and were sorted by, the last comment date. I think the previous way was much more useful, as it made it easy to see which threads have been updated recently. On older threads in particular, new comments could easily go unread with the current method.

-Ben

The home brew chocolate group seems to be missing.

@clay: not having to tip the melanger to empty it sounds very nice.

Thanks Clay. The reordered comments are working for me, and are much better, in my opinion.

And thanks for looking into the search funtionality. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

Just noticed an issue with the search function. It appears that it only searches titles for group discussions, and the first post for forum discussions.

As examples, a search for the word 'foil' does not return the following group discussion, which has 'foil' in the first post:

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/group_discuss/1134/chocolate-bar-wrappers

...and a search for 'infrared' does not return the following forum discussion, which has 'infrared' in the second post:

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/forum/tech-help-tips-tricks-techniques/4441/chocolate-thermometers

Thanks Clay. I think the search results look a little weird since they're inconsistent between the forum results (with detail) and the group results (without detail). My preference would definitely be to have the group results show the same detail as the forum results. It just gives you a little more info to help you decide which link to click.

For the group discussion comments, I would definitely prefer them to be oldest to newest. This is how the forum discussions work, so it would be consistent. But I also think it just makes more sense, considering that existing/older discussions on this site are used as a resource for new and existing users. Newest to oldest may work ok if you're actively tracking an ongoing discussion (although, I think oldest-to-newest makes more sense for this, too), but doesn't when referring back to it later or reading a discussion for the first time. In those cases, the user would read the original post at the top, then jump to the last page and scroll to the bottom, and then read a comment, scroll up to the top of the next comment, read down, scroll up, and so on.

Yep, I see the Shared Journey discussion now, too. I think it just didn't register that it was a link to the discussion since it didn't have the date, icon, first lines, etc. I must have just thought it was another section header.

The first post I see on that discussion is yours of 12/1/14, which is the most recent comment posted to that thread.

Thanks,
Ben

Thanks for looking into this Clay. The discussion that I first noticed this was this one:

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/group_discuss/1068/barbecue-grill-convert-to-roaster

But the issue is much more apparent on a thread with more comments, like this one:

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/clay/group_discuss/666/shared-journey

It would be very awkward to ready that discussion start-to-finish with the current sorting.

On a separate issue, the search doesn't seem to search the group discussions. I tried to search for 'shared journey' but it didn't find the thread linked above.

Hi Clay. In the group discussions, is it possible to have comments displayed chronologically top-to-bottom like they are in the forums? Currently, they're showing in reverse order which makes it difficult to read an entire conversation.

Also, is it possible to have the group discussion list be ordered by the date of the last comment, instead of the creation date (again, like the forums)? 

Thanks,
Ben

Thanks Annmarie!

When I'm doing it, I'm aging it untempered in a block. In the discussions, others say they're aging tempered bars, though.

Hi Annmarie,

I haven't had To'ak or looked too closely into any of their claims. That being said, there are several discussions on these forums, as well as elsewhere, debating the benefits (or lack thereof) to aging chocolate. Personally, I age one of my chocolates and feel that it results in a much better flavor (the other two don't really benefit from aging). I've also spoken with another maker, who makes some of my favorite chocolate, who mentioned that one of their chocolates is aged for over a year before it is ready.

All this is to say that the claim that their bars gets better with age is not necessarily an outrageous claim.

-Ben

p.s. I agree that the bar in the photo does appear to have some tempering issues.

Hi Mariano,

Most of the melangers go around 120-140 rpm, but I'd include speed control if I was building one. How are you making it? Care to share your design?

-Ben

Something like this was discussed in this thread: http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/mold-release-ring-formation-issue-in-mold

In that one, though, the idea was to glue a rigid bar to the bottom of a mold.

For yours, I think you may have problems with the mold retaining temperature and the bars not cooling correctly. Do you warm your molds?

I had this happen to me a few times in the past, but it was due to the humidity in the room. I haven't had it happen again since I got that under control.

I was recently emailing with another small chocolate maker who told me about an upgrade to the Behmor that gives a lot more control (although not complete control). You can set the power to the heating elements from 0% to 100% in 25% increments as well as switch the drum speed between 8 and 16 rpm.

I believe that the new Behmor 1600 Plus is basically the old Behmor with this upgrade already installed. I think this would be good for doing tests on bean samples or small batches.

I'm not sure what you mean by liquoring. Do you just mean that the chocolate maker who makes the chocolate you use does not pre-grind his nibs before further refining? If so, I don't think that should cause the problems you're having, as that's what myself and many other makers do, and the resulting chocolate tempers fine.

Hi Jacob,

I've taken part in it for the past two years and will be again this year. Looking back through my emails, it looks like it's been called the 'DallasChocolate.org Chocolate Conference & Festival' since 2012.

The chocolate side of things this year looks to be as great as ever, with a lot of great chocolatiers and chocolate makers in attendance.

Santiago Peralta of Pacari will be doing a class on cacao growing and processing, and Art Pollard of Amano and I will be doing a class on the bean to bar process.

All in all, I think it will be a great event.

Ben

No problem! Happy to help.

Here are a few of the discussions:

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/hilliard-vs-chocovision-newby-here

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/tempering-machine-2

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/1978963:Topic:14103

Hi Mariano. There's a lot of discussion on these two tempering machines (among others) on this forum. If you search for little dipper or chocovision, you can see what's already been said. I think there are a few threads that specifically compare the two.

-Ben

Hi Sabrina,

This is a pretty common problem that most of us have had at one time or another. There are a bunch of discussions about this here on the Chocolate Life. If you do a search for streaks, you'll find a lot of good info about how to avoid them.

Good luck!

Ben

Hi Siham. There are several discussions on this forum discussing tempering machines and people's opinions of them. I'm linking a couple of them below, but there are many more that you can search for.

-Ben

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/chocovision-x3210-or-delta-good-for-bean-to-bar

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/which-tempering-machine-to-purchase-fbm-gami-selmi-or-wheel-type

http://www.thechocolatelife.com/forum/topics/1978963:Topic:14103

What size belt does it use?

As has been suggested by Paul and in other discussions here on TCL, take a look at Power Twist fiberglass link belts. They don't stretch and seem to last forever. I used 3 small cocoatown melangers for a few years without having to change or even tighten the belt.

I have the Premier Wonder Grinder which is the non-tilting 1.5 L version.

I've run many test batches in a couple of unmodified Premiers for multiple days with no heat issues. I also haven't heard of anyone having any problems with them overheating.

There's not much chocolate left in the syringe--just a tiny bit in the nozzle. I just clean it with hot water or put it in the dishwasher.

At the suggestion of Cheebs on the Chocolate Alchemy forum, I got a couple of these and cut the tips to about 1/4":

http://www.calvetsupply.com/product/Feeding_Syringe_140cc/Feeding_Syringes

They work really well for a controlled pour. I would also pour with the mold on a scale.

-Ben

I think someone on one of the forums made their own holey baffle for one of the smaller machines by just drilling some holes in one of the regular baffles.

I got mine a couple years ago for about $1800 including extra bowl and the holey baffle. Clay here at the Chocolate Life offers some discounts on some of the Chocovision machines.

Yep, with just melter, you're going to have to keep stirring it manually. One of the Chocovisions would do that for you, as well as temper the chocolate, too.