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Post by mattmarion on Nov 6, 2012 14:08:42 GMT -5
Anyone ever tried it? I can't see smoking the actual chocolate, too much moisture, too much sticky smoke stuck to the outside of the chocolate, etc.
On the other hand, smoking the beans while (or after) roasting miight be interesting.
If someone has tried it and had a concrete reason not to, let me know so I don't waste beans (personal preference is just warning level as, for example, things my wife finds smokey to me are not and things she finds very hot (chili hot), I find mild or not hot at all). For example perhaps there's some chemical in smoke that causes a bad reaction with something in the cocoa bean...
Cheers,
Matt M
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Post by cheebs on Nov 6, 2012 21:45:57 GMT -5
Why not just buy some Papua New Guinea beans and skip the smoking? PNG beans are fire-dried so they are almost always smoky. If you really want to do it, I would imagine a very light smoke with a sweet wood like cherry or apple would yield the best (least objectionable?) results.
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Post by Alchemist on Nov 6, 2012 23:39:12 GMT -5
I'd second the PNG suggestion. And you can try adding an nice smoked salt too. I've tried it and if you like smoke, it is nice.
I've tasted chocolate made from both smoked beans and smoked nibs. I personally liked the nib smoked chocolate a bit better. You could also smoke the chocolate itself if you cold smoked it, or tempered it afterwards.
I'd say go for it, have fun and report back.
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Post by cheebs on Nov 7, 2012 8:26:58 GMT -5
I'd second the PNG suggestion. And you can try adding an nice smoked salt too. I've tried it and if you like smoke, it is nice. I've tasted chocolate made from both smoked beans and smoked nibs. I personally liked the nib smoked chocolate a bit better. You could also smoke the chocolate itself if you cold smoked it, or tempered it afterwards. I'd say go for it, have fun and report back. I agree on the salt thing. I forgot that we actually make a smoked salt (cherrywood smoked) bark.
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Post by mattmarion on Nov 9, 2012 11:45:28 GMT -5
I see the salt which I think means it didn't go through the grinder, do you add it later?
I'm going to try smoking some of my nibs over the weekend and make a little 3 pound batch and I'll report back as to how it goes.
My current plan is to cold smoke the nibs and then roast them afterwards. There's a good deal of moisture in the smoker while it's going (there needs to be a bit of heat to make the smoke so there's always condensation dripping) so I think it might be safer to roast them afterwards (dry them out and kill the bacteria).
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