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Post by Alan on Apr 9, 2006 18:48:14 GMT -5
Dear all,
Here is that photo:
One lamp is a regular 75 watt "crystal clear" bulb and the other is a 125 watt heat lamp with reflective covering on the back side. They are each positioned about as close as possible, with the 125 watt bulb slightly lower. I have had no problems with the lid or the Santha base becoming too hot. The temperature holds steady at 149 with around 1200-1300 grams of material in it. It is possible to replace the 75 watt bulb with another 125 watt bulb for larger batches, and one can also alter their distances from the Santha for more precision.
Alan
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Post by seneca on May 19, 2006 19:12:52 GMT -5
Just a quick note, getting back to conche time: Although I thought Chloe's book was interesting and she's clearly a fellow obsessor on the topic, I would take her comments on basic chocolate production with a large grain of salt, since (as far as I know!) she's not a chocolatier herself. I'd be more intersted in what Schilling, DeVries, the Tessieris, et al have to say on the subject. FWIW, my own opinion is that longer conche isn't always better...like most things chocolate, there are dependencies that have to be taken into consideration when thinking about the individual cacao you're working with and youre desired outcome.
For that matter--totally unconched chocolate can be fun too, just to take us back to pre-1879 days. I personally like both the SB Jamaica bar and the Don Puglisi bars from Sicily (although they're too sweet :-)
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Post by Alan on May 19, 2006 19:40:06 GMT -5
Just a quick note, getting back to conche time: Although I thought Chloe's book was interesting and she's clearly a fellow obsessor on the topic, I would take her comments on basic chocolate production with a large grain of salt, since (as far as I know!) she's not a chocolatier herself. I'd be more intersted in what Schilling, DeVries, the Tessieris, et al have to say on the subject. FWIW, my own opinion is that longer conche isn't always better...like most things chocolate, there are dependencies that have to be taken into consideration when thinking about the individual cacao you're working with and youre desired outcome. For that matter--totally unconched chocolate can be fun too, just to take us back to pre-1879 days. I personally like both the SB Jamaica bar and the Don Puglisi bars from Sicily (although they're too sweet :-) Dear Seneca, That's the thing, this part of Chloe's book is based on what Amedei does. I wrote to her and she said that the chocolate she tasted was their Toscano (70% I think). She tasted it at different intervals of conching and it was the chocolate that was conched for 72 hours that tasted the best. Of course, Toscano is not a Porcelana or Chuao, so Amedei could very well conch those for less time. I'm not sure about that. Regarding De Vries, the label on his chocolate says that it is conched for 82 or 84 hours (I can't remember which), so he goes even further than 72. On the other hand, from what I've read, Domori doesn't conch their chocolate nearly this long, and that might add to that distinct "Domori" alcohol-esque quality that most of their chocolates have. Add to the list others like Claudio Corallo who don't conch, and it makes one realize that there is certainly more than one way to skin a chocat. I'm still doing experimentation myself, so a lot of things I've written before I might end up disagreeing with. C-L
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Post by fatcat on May 31, 2007 5:09:29 GMT -5
How were you able to keep the temp that high? I thought that the santha does not have any heating element. Does that mean that the heat generate from frition is enough to make that type of temperature?
Tara
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