pcm
Novice
Posts: 75
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Post by pcm on Feb 24, 2011 13:02:54 GMT -5
Hi,
I am thinking of a chocolate factory that wastes as little energy as possible and one step I always hate is when I move my chocolate from the conch to the aging tray where it cools down and sits for a period of time. Then I heat it up again to temper it after the aging process is complete.
If I finished my conch at around 125 degrees and then tempered it right away, would that affect how it ages? Does it being in temper matter? Could i temper and pour molds and age the chocolate in its final bar format? could I just wrap it and age it in it's packaging?
Just planning over here!
thanks for any thoughts.
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Post by cheebs on Feb 24, 2011 13:08:29 GMT -5
I always take my chocolate from the conche directly to the tempering machine. Since usually the batch is done by late afternoon, we just leave the chocolate at 120 overnight and mold the next morning. If we have enough demand we'll mold directly to bars, if not to ice cube trays to be stored in 5-lb bags. We never age the chocolate, pretty much in under a month that particular batch will be history.
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Post by Brad on Feb 24, 2011 15:38:36 GMT -5
Why do you feel you need to "age" chocolate?
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Post by Sebastian on Feb 25, 2011 8:36:32 GMT -5
There are a number of reasons one would age chocolate - all of which should be done in the solid form (tempered and molded). To start, crystallization will continue to occur over the next few months - although your bar may appear to be solid when you take it out of the mould, there's still a good 40% of the cocoa butter that's in liquid form. It will slowly convert to solid form, which impacts bloom stability, texture, and flavor. Which brings us to the 2nd reason for aging - the flavor of your bar will quite likely shift significantly over the next 3 months. If you immediately wrap your bar in packaging that provides a very, very good barrier - your flavor shifts will be less significant as there's no volitalization (or rather, no where for volitales to go). There will stlil be an impact due to the shift in melting properties as a result of increased crystallization. If you don't have a strong barrier packaging, the shifts in flavor will be more noticeable.
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Post by Brad on Feb 25, 2011 12:48:02 GMT -5
Would it not stand to reason then, that if the chocolate were conched properly to obtain the desired flavour profile, it should be eaten very shortly after molding, because in theory, some of the acids and other compounds responsible for flavour would also leach off over time?
I don't want to sound argumentative, but it would be unreasonable to assume that "just" the volaties would dissipate, but also other flavour friendly compounds as well. In my limited experience, a good conching period (heat AND agitation) allows a chocolate maker to get the chocolate to the desireable profile - which is perfect for us, because our chocolate doesn't stay on the shelf long enough to age. It's being bought as fast as we can make it! In fact, I'm not about to compromise conching periods, so two more refiners are already on their way to help with demand.
I agree with the crystalization after molding. Our bars are still very soft when demolded. In fact I've requested that my shop manager let them rest for at least 48 hours before being wrapped. Our shop is kept at a steady 64 degrees, so the bars have time to set up properly.
Interesting concept, aging......
Cheers.
Brad
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Post by Sebastian on Feb 25, 2011 15:46:12 GMT -5
Unfort there's no way i can do the topic of flavor justice in a paragraph on the web, and much of the info is going to be trade-secret anyway  However, I can very definitively say that yes, your flavor will change over time. Yes, it is heavily volatile driven, but it's a quite a bit more complex than just that. In fact, my standard practice is to NOT make any decisions on freshly made chocolate, simply because the potential for change is so significant, and in my instance - the majority of what i make will not be consumed shortly after production. ie, the person eating it will be eating 'aged' chocolate. Not saying aging is better or worse, or even necessary. Only that it happens. It's an easy thing to test yourself - take a lot of beans (not numerically, but from the same lot) homogenize them and split them into two equal parts. Standardize a formulation and make a chocolate to that, mold it - and set it aside unwrapped for 8 weeks. 8 weeks later, take your 2nd lot of beans, roast it exactly the same, make the same formulation, and temper it the same (degree of temper can have a significant impact on flavor release as well...) - and then taste the two side by side. |
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Post by Brad on Feb 25, 2011 21:02:52 GMT -5
Sebastian;
It makes complete sense in your case to wait to make a decision - especially in the case of large commercialization, where a consistent, homogenous product is expected by your customers.
I can't even imagine trying to blend various lots of beans together to attain the same baseline.
I can only surmise that in the case of small artisans such as what we do here, celebrating the flavour differences from bean to bean and batch to batch, would seem more in line with what we're trying make, rather than creating the exact same profile time and again.
I'm thinking that someone aging their 5lbs of santha-made chocolate would be a more academic exercise "just to see what happens", than a means to an end such as what you do in the industry on a day to day basis.
It's good to know the reasons why though, that's for sure, and I appreciate you replying, as I'm sure we all do on this forum.
Your humble student!
Brad.
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Post by Sebastian on Feb 26, 2011 7:02:43 GMT -5
I'd urge you to try it from time to time, especially when you eval new beans, ferments, or roasts. You'd be surprised at some of the flavors that can develop over time, both the good and the bad |
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gap
Apprentice
Posts: 390
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Post by gap on Feb 27, 2011 18:06:23 GMT -5
Interesting discussion Guys - thanks for the info. I've noticed before how flavour changes when I have a 2.5kg bag of chocolate sitting open at home that I eat from slowly. Now I know to keep it sealed (well, to try and keep it sealed). :-)
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gap
Apprentice
Posts: 390
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Post by gap on Mar 7, 2011 16:04:31 GMT -5
PS: For those in the know (most likely you Sebastian) - do different types of chocolate show different amounts of flavour change when ageing? In particular, my milk chocolate always seems to change its flavour a lot quicker than the white chocolate when left for a couple of months (in a bad way). I'd be curious to know if its just my imagination at work . . . .
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Post by Sebastian on Mar 7, 2011 16:56:48 GMT -5
It could be - it depends a great deal on the ingredients you use, how they were treated/stored, and how they were processed...in order to be of any possible help, i'm afraid i'd need the specifics of your formulation, suppliers, processes and conditions, etc - many times folks are hesitant to provide that level of detail. while it's no guarantee i can solve if it you do provide that level of detail, it is a guarantee that i can't solve if it you don't |
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gap
Apprentice
Posts: 390
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Post by gap on Mar 7, 2011 22:48:48 GMT -5
Understood Sebastian, but you may be able to help me even less when I explain further.
I'm comparing standard Callebaut white couverture (can't remember the code) to standard Callebaut milk couverture (823 from memory). I did some confection work over Christmas and have some of each left over. Tasting it now, the milk seems to have changed flavour (for the worse) a lot more than the white. Both are stored in the same conditions (they have become general eating chocolate which is why they are only being slowly depleted).
Anyway, I thought there might be a general rule around the ageing which is why I asked the previous question - I wouldn't expect you to comment on my specific query around a well known brand. :-)
Cheers
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Post by Sebastian on Mar 8, 2011 6:20:57 GMT -5
what you don't know is when they were produced. the milk chocolate may be 2 years old by the time you bought it from your distributor (i'm assuming you purchased from a distributor, not direct from bc), while the white may have been 2 months old...
generally speaking, all things being equal, i'd have expected the white to 'turn' before the milk...
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Post by Brad on Mar 8, 2011 10:58:29 GMT -5
Hey Sebastian;
Understanding that the flavour of the chocolate is going to change as it ages, one must assume that large chocolate manufacturers have calculated the amount of time the chocolate sits in the supply chain before ultimately landing in the consumer's hands and has created a flavour profile with that period of time in mind too.
Just out of curiosity, what IS the approximate average amount of time that mass processed Milk, Dark, and white chocolate sit between being manufactured, and ultimately consummed?
Cheers.
Brad
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gap
Apprentice
Posts: 390
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Post by gap on Mar 8, 2011 16:06:33 GMT -5
what you don't know is when they were produced. Good point - I hadn't thought of that |
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However, I can very definitively say that yes, your flavor will change over time. Yes, it is heavily volatile driven, but it's a quite a bit more complex than just that. In fact, my standard practice is to NOT make any decisions on freshly made chocolate, simply because the potential for change is so significant, and in my instance - the majority of what i make will not be consumed shortly after production. ie, the person eating it will be eating 'aged' chocolate.