help building my own cocoa butter press

[jeffpzena]

I'm trying to make one too! I've PM'd foodofthegods but if anyone else out there in chocoland has any plans or pictures of one they made, your help would be greatly appreciated

[jamescary]

Wondering has anyone taken a look at this?
61.218.81.166/product_branch_category_final.php?p_no=146&b_no=5&p_class2=292
(OMEGA Lift Equipment 12 ton bench press)

Looks like a cheap option -- (One e-tailer has it for sub-$300 + shipping).

[jeffpzena]

I have a 12 ton hydraulic shop press and it with 1 inch deep of cocoa beans in a 4 inch diameter container, I can put 2000 psi on the beans. This still doesn't work as you really need to use cocoa liquor. The question is how do you contain the cocoa liquor and put 2000 psi of pressure on it at the same time?

[jamescary]

Here's the press alluded to in an earlier post:
www.grenadachocolate.com/tour/press.html

Looks like you're going to need a press plate with one of the meshes Choco-Luvah mentioned.

This is exciting! Let me know if you make any further headway!

[jamescary]

Have a look at the norwalk juicer..

Also, I've found 10 micron vegetable oil filter bags on ebay for very cheap..

[holycacao]

Has anyone tried the norwalk juicer? its kind of expensive -$2500. The piteba looks like a toy version of the industrial screw type presses. I guess it could be jerry rigged to run continuos but my question is how much cocoa butter are people trying to press? I'm looking for a press that can make 1 kg in a "reasonable" amount of time. My estimate is that the container would need to hold about 3 kg of liquor. The norwalk takes 2 cups of grated stuff per press. 2 cups of liquor is about 150 g - every press would get about 30-35 g of ccb- thats a lot of pressing for 1 kg. And what about the heating of the press for additional extraction. I would like to not have to build a cocoa butter press, but I'm not sure there are many other options. What are people using for cocoa butter presses. Thanks
Jo

[cheebs]

Jan 12, 2008 16:05:05 GMT -5 jeffpzena said:

I have a 12 ton hydraulic shop press and it with 1 inch deep of cocoa beans in a 4 inch diameter container, I can put 2000 psi on the beans. This still doesn't work as you really need to use cocoa liquor. The question is how do you contain the cocoa liquor and put 2000 psi of pressure on it at the same time?

Jeff, sorry for the late response but to answer your queston, take a look at my "Making Artisanal Cocoa Butter" video. Easier to see it done than to try to explain it here.

[jeffpzena]

Hi Cheebs,

I'd love to check out your video. Where do I find it? Currently I'm using a Taby Type 20 oil press. It's incredibly boring work and it doesn't make pure cocoa butter, but it works for my purposes. I use raw winnowed nibs as my starting material.

[cheebs]

Feb 20, 2009 14:05:46 GMT -5 jeffpzena said:

Hi Cheebs,

I'd love to check out your video. Where do I find it? Currently I'm using a Taby Type 20 oil press. It's incredibly boring work and it doesn't make pure cocoa butter, but it works for my purposes. I use raw winnowed nibs as my starting material.

Here ya go Jeff

chocolatetalk.proboards56.com/index.cgi?board=cocoa&action=display&thread=497

[jeffpzena]

Thanks Cheebs, it looks like it cost more than $1,000US to set up and required a fair amount of engineering to get it going. We just don't have that capability. Looking for something a bit more idiot proof.

[reelchemist]

I was just walking around a bulk kitchen supply store and saw a 'mini fruit press' and I was reminded of Cheebs' video. I am wondering if you could do the same thing by filling a fabric bag with cocoa liquor and putting it in the fruit press and pressing? I found a good pic at the following link.

www.brupaks.com/winemaking.htm

I would say you would need to warm up the container in the oven and have pretty hot liquor. You would probably want to keep adding heat somehow also. This wouldn't be too hard on a hot day here.

[jtoddm]

just reviving an old thread...

After working with a machinist and going through a few design revisions, we are finally able to reliably make a small amount of cocoa butter/cocoa powder with a hydraulic press. I'm wondering if any of the resident chocolate experts could shed some light on the following:

* In Beckett's book, he mentions the need to worry about thermoresistant spores in cocoa powder. I assume if you achieve a 5-log kill after roasting the beans that should be sufficient, or is there something else microbially we have to worry about with cocoa powder?

* I've seen some references to tempering cocoa powder (and even one recipe that claimed the need to bloom your cocoa powder before using it). Anyone know something about this?

* Alkalization -- has anyone tried this on a small scale?

Thanks!

[itsallaroundyou]

Out of curiousity, what is "a small amount?" Have you been able to test how efficiently you're extracting the cocoa butter?

-mike

[Sebastian]

Mar 7, 2011 13:12:03 GMT -5 jtoddm said:

just reviving an old thread...

After working with a machinist and going through a few design revisions, we are finally able to reliably make a small amount of cocoa butter/cocoa powder with a hydraulic press. I'm wondering if any of the resident chocolate experts could shed some light on the following:

* In Beckett's book, he mentions the need to worry about thermoresistant spores in cocoa powder. I assume if you achieve a 5-log kill after roasting the beans that should be sufficient, or is there something else microbially we have to worry about with cocoa powder?

Thermophiles can easily survive the roasting / pressing stage. Typically not disease causing, they're more problematic if you're making, say, a shelf stable or ready to drink beverage where they have the potential to go vegetative, pressurize your container, and blow up your packaging.

* I've seen some references to tempering cocoa powder (and even one recipe that claimed the need to bloom your cocoa powder before using it). Anyone know something about this?

If packaging your cocoa powder, you should temper it (similar concept to chocolate, very different process) to avoid it solidifying into one big block. Note: basis the degree of temper, the color of your cocoa powder as seen by the eye will vary. NEVER use the room temperature color of cocoa powder as a quality guide.

* Alkalization -- has anyone tried this on a small scale?

Yes.

Thanks!

[jtoddm]

Thanks Sebastian -- I had a feeling you would be the one with the answers to these questions

I don't suppose you could point me to any good sources for finding out how to temper cocoa powder or alkalize on a small scale? Or any potential tips/tricks or starting points?


Mike -- for now we are pressing just under half a kilo of cocoa liquor at a time. Our yield is still low (130g on 480g -- even at 22% fat cocoa powder we are probably at least 50g off), but we are going to upgrade our press to 50-tons and I imagine that should help a lot... it'd be nice to know the actual fat content of the beans -- apparently it's possible to analyze them in the microwave but it's not something we've tried: www.worldcocoafoundation.org/scientific-research/research-library/documents/ElKhori2006.pdf