Post by littleblue on Jun 6, 2013 4:43:32 GMT -5
Hi there - having a few trials and tribulations with the new Santha, and since this isn't the kind of thing you can ask your neighbour about - unless your neighbour is the Alchemist - I figured I'd ask here before I go down the route of having to return the machine or whatever.
1) Cleanability - I initially ran my machine with vegetable oil for several hours to clean it on the grounds that I don't use sugar and don't want to have it anywhere near the chocolate, even if I'm cleaning it out. I'm rather glad I did as I have found some parts that simply cannot be reached! The pins that hold the spinning rollers seem to be fixed at both ends, so you can't take the rollers out, so the gap between the roller and the shaft collects chocolate or oil or whatever else you're milling. There is enough of this collecting in there that I can forsee the need for a second machine to do white chocolate, a third to do milk chocolate, etc., and that is not exactly the route I want to take when I've already paid a not inconsiderable sum of money for this piece of kit and to have it shipped to the UK.
2) Imbalance - one of the wheels is almost always running nothing more than just a sticky film of chocolate over it, while the other is immersed. I know my worktop is flat, because I checked it, could there be another reason for this, is this normal? I was using a kilo of nibs and a kilo of butter last time and it still didn't seem to cover both wheels properly.
3) Metallic taste - since starting to use the melangeur the chocolate has acquired a metallic taste - could this be because I am refining/conching for too long, or is this an issue with something else?
4) Plastic quality - the plastic on the central spindle and the wiper blade both seem to be rather bad, on the ends of the rod, at the far end of one wheel, it is so bad it appears to be split even after just one run through, with a dark line across the bottom of the "stud". On the other items it has left a series of creases that are so fine they are impossible to clean without water, which I really don't want to use. Last night I tried everything, including filling the drum over the height of the wheels with sunflower oil and leaving it to soak, brushing into the creases with a variety of brushes, ensuring I don't strip or peel the plastic, even running plain cacao butter through it in an attempt to force the chocolate out of the creases, but all to no avail. I'm concerned not only about weeping of cacao from these creases but the reliability of the part given that it appears to be poorly cast.
5) Grittyness - experiments so far include one involving cacao powder at a ratio of 1:2 with cacao butter (1 kilo powder, 2 kilos butter), and nibs, warmed, in an empty bowl, no nut on the top to allow for the bumping, when it started to thicken adding slowly a kilo of butter that had been melted and was still hot.
I ran the powder one for about 78 hours at 1200, still powdery, upped the butter gradually over the next 24 hours and found that it remained powdery and dry, even though it was flowing better. Eventually gave up at 48 hours and poured the stuff out for dealing with later when I knew what was going on.
The nibs started very well indeed, grinding nicely, reducing well, added the butter, left it overnight, this morning it is still "gritty". Am I just supposed to sieve this out, or is there a problem? 10 hours should, surely, be enough, given that one guy on the forum claims he can make chocolate with his Santha in half an hour?
As stated, I don't use sugar at all, could this be a factor?
And finally, what are the consequences of using agave? I know you don't recommend it, but I would love to know why. I haven't had much time to research this yet, so if you have the information to hand it would be good.
Thank you in advance!
1) Cleanability - I initially ran my machine with vegetable oil for several hours to clean it on the grounds that I don't use sugar and don't want to have it anywhere near the chocolate, even if I'm cleaning it out. I'm rather glad I did as I have found some parts that simply cannot be reached! The pins that hold the spinning rollers seem to be fixed at both ends, so you can't take the rollers out, so the gap between the roller and the shaft collects chocolate or oil or whatever else you're milling. There is enough of this collecting in there that I can forsee the need for a second machine to do white chocolate, a third to do milk chocolate, etc., and that is not exactly the route I want to take when I've already paid a not inconsiderable sum of money for this piece of kit and to have it shipped to the UK.
2) Imbalance - one of the wheels is almost always running nothing more than just a sticky film of chocolate over it, while the other is immersed. I know my worktop is flat, because I checked it, could there be another reason for this, is this normal? I was using a kilo of nibs and a kilo of butter last time and it still didn't seem to cover both wheels properly.
3) Metallic taste - since starting to use the melangeur the chocolate has acquired a metallic taste - could this be because I am refining/conching for too long, or is this an issue with something else?
4) Plastic quality - the plastic on the central spindle and the wiper blade both seem to be rather bad, on the ends of the rod, at the far end of one wheel, it is so bad it appears to be split even after just one run through, with a dark line across the bottom of the "stud". On the other items it has left a series of creases that are so fine they are impossible to clean without water, which I really don't want to use. Last night I tried everything, including filling the drum over the height of the wheels with sunflower oil and leaving it to soak, brushing into the creases with a variety of brushes, ensuring I don't strip or peel the plastic, even running plain cacao butter through it in an attempt to force the chocolate out of the creases, but all to no avail. I'm concerned not only about weeping of cacao from these creases but the reliability of the part given that it appears to be poorly cast.
5) Grittyness - experiments so far include one involving cacao powder at a ratio of 1:2 with cacao butter (1 kilo powder, 2 kilos butter), and nibs, warmed, in an empty bowl, no nut on the top to allow for the bumping, when it started to thicken adding slowly a kilo of butter that had been melted and was still hot.
I ran the powder one for about 78 hours at 1200, still powdery, upped the butter gradually over the next 24 hours and found that it remained powdery and dry, even though it was flowing better. Eventually gave up at 48 hours and poured the stuff out for dealing with later when I knew what was going on.
The nibs started very well indeed, grinding nicely, reducing well, added the butter, left it overnight, this morning it is still "gritty". Am I just supposed to sieve this out, or is there a problem? 10 hours should, surely, be enough, given that one guy on the forum claims he can make chocolate with his Santha in half an hour?
As stated, I don't use sugar at all, could this be a factor?
And finally, what are the consequences of using agave? I know you don't recommend it, but I would love to know why. I haven't had much time to research this yet, so if you have the information to hand it would be good.
Thank you in advance!