More notes on slow roasting criollo

[Howard]

Here are my notes - started with 1 lb 11oz Venezuela Criollo (Ocumare) nibs provided by John the Alchemist
Pre heat oven to 250 deg F, split into two aliquots. Stir and taste every 5 minutes

5 minutes: I can taste the plastic it came in, not even warm yet, fruity
10 min: no more plastic, tastes chocolatey, fruity, no brownie
15 min: astringent acidity on palate, nibs are finally hot
20 min: noticeable acidity, but increased chocolate flavor and fruit, +/- cinnamon flavor, increased chocolate aroma, +/- cedar aroma
25 min: cinnamon becomes more prominent, decreased acidity, increased chocolate flavor, finish becomes more noticeable but still acidic
30 min: Nutty flavor appears for the first time, no acid to speak of, pleasant long finish with markedly decreased acidity
35 min: Increased nuttiness, increased chocolatey flavor, lovely long smooth finish, no acidity, there is mouth coating that I had not noticed before
40 min: not much change maybe slightly increased fruitiness
45 min: - acidity returns on palate and finish!!

Second batch ( I dumped the first batch onto a cool cookie sheet to avoid continuous auto roasting and dumped the second batch onto the hot cookie sheet)

Peak flavor and lowest acidity at 30 - 35 minutes, nice mouthfeel, nuttiness, fruitiness and finish. Lowest acidity.

Final roasted weight - 1 lb 9 1/4 ounces, so almost 2 ounces of water in the nibs. I have ground this with the Champion and flushed with 4 ounces of cocoa butter to create the liquor. I'll mix with sugar tomorrow and begin conching/refining then.

To be continued.
Howard

[Alchemist]

hroth521 said:

Final roasted weight - 1 lb 9 1/4 ounces, so almost 2 ounces of water in the nibs.
Howard

Yeah, about 6.5 % loss in water. That is right on target. I am in the middle of some roasting and water loss tests. All seem to start around 7-8%, but surprisingly, roasted still have a couple percent water. I want to see if I can find the in cocoa threshold before the system siezes when ground.

[Alan]

Hi all,

I don't know why I never thought of this before, But I have a very large and thick pizza stone, and I placed it on the lower rack with the beans on the upper rack (right above). This does wonders for a consistent temperature and keeps the bottom of the beans from over roasting. Otherwise the temperature in my oven was swinging all over the place. Now the problem is solved.

C-L

[Howard]

That's truly a "d'oh" moment. Of course, I've got a pizza stone too, use it all the time for my baguettes. Why didn't I think of that? Great idea, thanks

Howard

[Alchemist]

Agreed. Great idea. Consider the idea stolen ;D

Seriously, I will add that to some of the oven roasting note recommendations (with due credit).

[Alan]

Just for your interest, here is the firebrick bread-stone I used:

www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000E1FDA/104-6466460-9719921?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=284507


It is excellent quality, sturdy, and very large. I've owned others, but they were never anywhere close to as good as this one.

C-L

[ripvanwinkle]

Choco - I just checked and the stone you like was the one I got in November and subsequently pressed into service to make chocolate. I agree with you, it is a nice product.

Slows down heat up but after that the temperatures are much more constant.

I am going to see if I can find some more economical ceramic bricks or slabs to load on the sides of the oven.

Regarding floor tiles - I wonder if tiles might have coatings or ingredients on or in them that we wouldn't want gassing off, getting into the chocolate. I will stick to firebrick (or red brick if I have to) to be (hopefully) safe.