Thanks a lot to both of you. Going to try both things.
First I will try to check if voltage is Ok and if that is fine check for interference.
Now that Kerry mentions motors there are times that I use a paintbrush in the room next to it. Going to have to try unplugging everything and pluggin one by one I suppose.
There's another thing to consider besides interference and that is the voltage change that having other equipment on the same leg or circuit can cause. I know of one company that was having problems with a machine and just could not figure it out. When the tech showed up he put a voltage meter on the outlet and it was not running at 220~240V it was running at about 200V. They turned the machine off, plugged it into an outlet that measured just fine and the problem was solved.
Well - I've been chatting with a bean to bar maker who is having trouble with the tempering machine when the melanger is running - but not when it isn't. The solution being tried right now is a EMI/RFI filter/surge supressor to see if that solves the problem.
Hubby say's unshielded motors can produce RF that will affect other equipment.
Hmmm never thought about it. Microwave is next to it (connected but not in use at the same time). Refrigerator is about a meter away, Air conditioning machine is about 1.5 mts away. Same distance induction hob and electric oven (convection). Also machine is over a marble countertop, and below it there is a voltage converter 220->110 where the machine is connected.
I am not normally using any other electric equipment (except for air conditioning wich I use at low power when using the machine) when working with chocolate but they are indeed connected.
Do you think any of this equipment can mess with the baffle thermometer? Didn't know rev system was affected by RF.
I've often found I get white marks the first time I use a mold - they disappear in subsequent batches.
Victor - what sort of other electrical equipment have you got going around this temperer? Anything with a large motor that might be producing RF.
The legal limit in most (not all) countries is 1.75% shell. Less is better, as the more shell you have the grittier it will taste, the lower your fat will be, the faster your equipment will fail, and the higher your unwanteds (lead, mycotoxins, etc) will be.
Hey David,
I've tried Rapadura once before. From my recollection, it was much drier than brown sugar and I don't recall having tempering issues because of it. I do recall that it added a noticeable molasses flavor to the batch of chocolate I used it in, so I haven't used it in chocolate since as I'm not looking to try to add flavors from the sugar...yet. Anyway, my wife slowly used up the remainder in baked goods. Tasty!
Another lesser-refined sugar that I have tried and really enjoyed was called Muscabado from the Philippines. Alter Eco (I think) sells it here in the US. It had a noticeable "unrefined" odor to it, not quite molassesy. The package said vanilla and caramel notes. The chocolate that I made with it didn't seem to have an altered tasted because of it though. Note that at that time, I only had one refiner so I made two back-to-back batches of the same cocoa bean origin: one with bulk organic cane sugar and one with Muscabado. Didn't notice any major flavor differences and actually I liked the Muscabado more for that particular origin.
Are you buying the organic C&H from say Costco? I had a negative experience with it in my Santha Spectra 11 refiner. Relative to other organic cane sugars that I had tried before testing the C&H sugar, it had a seemingly much larger particle size. When I put it in my refiner, it was like hearing Pop Rocks going off in my Santha and it definitely dogged the melanger down. Enough so that I was worried it was going to fry my Santha's motor. A heat gun helped though.
Other organic cane sugars that I have tried that had much smaller particle size were from United Natural Foods Inc (UNFI) and Florida Crystals. Both I've ordered 25 lb bags from in bulk from our local natural foods COOP. On sale they were about $30. I know other chocolate makers have mentioned Wholesome Sweetners, but I haven't tried them. Last week, I purchased two 1 lb bags of Muscabado and Wholesome Sweetners sugars to test out and compare to the Florida Crystals I'm currently using. Each 1 lb bag was $3.99 at our COOP, which is pretty pricey but not going to break my bank to test with. I'm sure there's a much larger price break for 25 or 50 lb bags of each, if they sell that large.
Anyway, hope that helps.
Dave
I bought a Rev Delta from amazon last year. First uses went fine, but this year I needed to move to a new place with air conditioner (here in Peru is summer). First use I noticed the chocolate was not in temper and with a thermometer I checked the temperature of the chocolate, machine said 31.4 ºC "In Temper", all my other thermometers said 34 ºC "Your batch is ruined". I noticed the sensor was strangely not calibrated and it was detecting like 3-4 less degrees all the time. It was really strange. I thought maybe I got a faulty one. anyway I contacted customer service and they told me warranty doesn't cover external parts (what?) and that they will send me two new baffles as a courtesy but I would have to pay for the shipping (shipping cost they gave me was almost the same as buying the new baffles without shipping).
I then remembered I also had a new holey baffle stored, so I decided to work with that one while I decided if I was going to pay for the shipping of the "courtesy" baffles. First time use, fine, second one, fine, third and fourth ones fine. Fifth one, the nightmare ocurred again the baffle started detecting an 3-4 less degrees. I really don't know what to do now, maybe this has already happened to anybody here and can give some advice. Thanks in advance.
--- Edited by moderator - moved to a more appropriate category ---
Norm is the residue of 1.5% by weight.
Thank you all for your kind answers. I also have another question that I'm trying to remove the shell of the cocoa bean from the meat ( winnowing ), but I can't remove all the chaff from it. Can anyone tell me what is the maximum percentage of chaff allowed in the final tage of winnowing before making the final chocolate?
Thank you
Lecithin should be added at the end of the process, before draining the masses, but that he would mix well. For grinding and conching cycle on melangeur in 48 hours lecithin can be added for 1.5 hours to drain. Amount of lecithin is not more than 0.4-0.5% by weight.
And its also summer have atthe mo and really hot. I have been having problems tempering my chocolate so wondered if that had aything to do withit
It was really strange but I had washed and dried it and then I redid it and filled them again and they came out perfect. There must have been something on the mold. Thanks for replying
That does seem odd comming from the same batch and conditions. Normally we see this with tempering, humidity, mold temperature etc.. You mentioned washing the molds - It is critical the mold is 100% dry
- It is possible that the mold may have some residue you cannot see left in that area - from hard water, crystalized sugar, or other prior molding problems, an extreme case would be the mold surface itself is degraded, although unusual.
I normally don't like people to polish molds but in this case, first wash with warm water and very SMALL amount of non abrasive dish detergent, lightly rub the area with your finger and the water to loosen. Dry with air a pure cotton cloth, then lighly buff with another dry cotton cloth. Make sure the mold is not cold, min of room temp or mid 70's or higher 70's if possible.
Another obvious quesion - do you only have one of the bunny molds?
As a chocolate enthusiast I recently began to wonder why Indian grown Cocoa is not as widely used to make fine chocolate .I am currently working to promote the use of Indian cocoa beans in the international Artisanal Chocolate industry. I am working directly with the Farmers to procure good quality Cocoa Beans by paying them a higher price than what they are currently receiving. I would like to ask all of you fantastic Chocolate Makers out there if you would be willing to try using Indian Cocoa and thus help me (in my small way ) to improve the lives of cocoa farmers in India .
Regards
Nabil Chunawala
To build on Marks post - since sugar is a bunch of large crystals, you need to 'refine' it down to smaller crystals - hence the reason all of your solids should be in your refining stage - to crush them into smaller pieces. Now, as you do that, the surface area of your chocolate will become very high, and the cocoa butter that you ahve present will have to coat all that extra surface area. As it does this, your chocolate becomes much thicker - it's called higher viscosity. In order to 'thin' it back out so you can do things like pour it into a mould, you have to reduce that viscosity. That's what lecithin does. You'll want to add it almost at the last stage because if your chocolate is too thin (low viscosity) during conching, conching isn't as effective. Now, most stone grinders are terrible conches, so it doesn't really matter all that much - but it does to some degree.
Remember, just a little bit of lecithin (0.5%) is almost always enough - adding more of it will usually result in the chocolate thickening back up again.
Sugar before, lecithin after.
Are you looking for couverture chocolate for chefs to use at the restaurants? Or just provide private label chocolate bars that customers can buy? or both?
I can provide both types of bars (and even the labels), including organic. The chocolate comes from a chocolate maker Ecuador where they sell (exclusively) to the top hotels & restaurants in Guayaquil and now some in Quito.
Let me know if you're still looking. I can send samples, too.
Hello everyone,
Could anyone tell me at what stage or conching/refining should I add sugar and lecithin to my chocolate? ( at the beginning of the conching/refining phase or near the end of the conching/refining?
Thank you!
For just sugars, i like palm sugar or jaggery mixed with local things. I'd not likely use either of those for chocolate however because in chocolate, i'd want to emphasize the chocolate, not the sugar. Personal preference.
I am hoping that someone can help me. I have got some molds that I have been using. When I pop the chocolate out of the new molds there is white specks on the chocolate. I know that this is a sign of chocolate not been tempered correctly. But this isn't the case as I have used the same batch of chocolate on other molds and it has been perfect. Why is it happening on only 1 mold. I have washed the mold and dried it. What am I doing wrong?
@jack-meyer Thanks, I ordered a sample to evaulate.
@sebastian - very interesting! Where in your experience have you found the most interesting sugar, both in taste and in processing?
You will want to use a high DE pectin. The pectin will set by solids, temperature, and pH. Typical solids is 78-80%, this will dehydrate the pectin enough for it to set. The temperature needs to be kept hot until deposited or sheeted, otherwise you will get pre-gelling. The acid, lowering the pH will set the pectin, pH should be 3.1-3.5. As soon as the acid is added, deposit or sheet as it will start to pre-gel quickly. Lower solids and higher pH will give a slower set, high solids and low pH will give a fast set. There is also a lot you can do with the pectin type, not only deciding on apple or citrus, but the DE (also called DM) as well.
Citrus pectin is typically a cleaner, clearer gel.
You also want to look at how much protopectin you're adding with the fruit, if any, and compensate with the level of pectin you're adding.
One final note, be sure the pectin is fully hydrated before you cook.
Does the site no longer have a classifieds page for equipment, etc?
Thank you for the response. Now I just need to "digest" this. 
Hi joseph,
Sent you a email, please check.
Pate de fruit pectin sold by Chef Rubber is the apple pectin if I'm not mistaken. If you have a cheaper source of apple pectin just make sure it is the stuff for PDF not for jam as the jam version will not set up as you hope.
The ganache does tend to stick to the blades as Tim has suggested above. Might work better to mark the ganache with it lightly and use it as a guide to cutting with a knife.
hello, what is your contact? I am based in Turkey and am looking for raw beans.
I stand corrected then 
I misunderstood the labeling on the FDA's site. I wasnt suggesting that the big guys were lobbying for change on that regard, but I've heard discussions that it was suggested as a cost cutting measure.
The only thing I can think of would be that the caramel cutter is more like a pizza cutter. Ganache may stick to the blades as it rolls across. Anyone with more experience have ideas to prevent that?
I'm personally not familiar with apple pectin. But I have run into issues with trying a recipe for pate de fruit from Andrew Schotts' book. He has his own branded pectin blend specifically for pate de fruit called G Pectin, which I believe is sold at Chef Rubber.
This was discussed over on egullet here: http://forums.egullet.org/topic/97623-what-is-g-pectin/page-2 It's about a third to halfway down the page.
I've had success with Pamona Pectin recipe, which can usually be found in local specialty stores or in bigger places like Sprouts and Whole Foods. The trick is in heating things just right. Too little heat and it'll not set properly, too much heat or too much pectin and it'll be more of a gummy candy. It's been a tried and true go to for me.
Tim:
The relevant regs are in CFR 21 Part 163 . The 1.75% figure for residual shell applies to nib - as all chocolate gets made from nib and this specification gets inherited by chocolate liquor, etc.
I have not heard about much lobbying by the big chocolate makers to increase this because they know - as Sebastian has said - that pathogens, heavy metals, and mycotoxins are mainly in the shell - and the shell messes with both flavor and texture in really quite negative ways.
I need a caramel cutter and I need a guitar cutter. I can not afford the guitar cutter until the fall but I can get a caramel cutter probably this month. Is there any reason why I should not cut up a slab of ganache with a caramel cutter? Am I missing anything?
Thank you everyone in advance.
I want to make pate de fruit for two layer pralines. I've tried a dozen times with 2 recipies and it never sets but I now understand that I need aple pectin, or something. I see special pate de fruit pectin on Chef Rubber and I'm wondering if it's that worth paying more or will apple pectin be fine? Is there anywhere cheaper than Chef Rubber for apple pectin?
It is interesting and I find the whole Raw Food think kind of...hmm, to remain diplomatic and civil.....stupid. One of the reasons I got into chocolate was because of interest in where my food comes from and chasing down and reading up on food science. I essentially became a foodie because of demonization of various ingredients. Big ones I see in chocolate is lecithin and corn syrup (high fructose or otherwise). But I digress. that's a whole topic on it's own.
Something I noticed about the link you posted. The shell content only seems to be an identification of selling and marketing cocoa nibs as a food in and of themselves. So when you go to the store and find a bag of cocoa nibs; that's the standards that are required. The reason I mention this is it seems that the big industry folks have toyed with if they havent already moved to just keeping the hulls in the processing because it accounts for 20% of "waste" If processed and refined correctly other than a slightly more bitter and "dry" taste, I'm not sure there's any way to enforce that without sending inspectors to the factory as it's not readily noticible and I'm not entirely sure that it's testable either.
For the raw people; unfortunately it's going to take a small epidemic (more than one or 2 isolated cases) of someone getting sick before the FDA really moves on anything. Right now, our politics have a lot of our safety agencies sorely underfunded which means they dont have quite the enforcement capacity as we would expect. Hopefully that changes, but until then, FDA and USDA are largely reactionary to problems as opposed to heading them off at the pass like they should.
Not meaning to dismiss them outright, so I do appologize for the wording here. It seems like the majority of the Raw Food enthusiasts are able bodied adults that tend to be of a more new-age hippy mindset. As long as it stays that way, I dont see too much of an issue. It's when they start feeding this stuff to thier kids, that's the only time that I think that we'll feel the reverberations and the government will step in.
David -
I was thinking you could post it in the DIY group. You have all the formatting tools necessary to do this. There is even a page break you can insert so that you can put each step on its own page.
If you like, I can recreate the instructable for you, as a guide to others.
