11/17/09

Chocolate: Notes from Powerpoint

Powerpoint by Chef Webb

-Theobroma Cacao- refers to the tree the cocao pods grow on
-Theobroma means food of the gods
-tree in evergreen family
-grown in regions that border the equator- with high temps, high humidity, high rain fall

Areas of Production

-Africa: Ivory Coast, South America, Southeast Asia, parts of Central America, West Indies Islands
-Ivory Coast produces 70% world’s crop
-child slave labor in cocoa industry- controversial
-fair trade and organic chocolate companies work directly with farmers

3 Botanical Categories
Criollo: most rare cacao, delicate tree, susceptible to disease and environment
Criollo pod

-cacao produced from it has complex flavor profile, delicious, rich
-most expensive on market
-yields about 5% annually
-not up front chocolate flavor

Forastero: hearty tree, in Africa, largest group, 70% all cacao
Forestero pod
image:
-when taste- front note is chocolate, not very complex, flavors don’t endure

Trinitario: hybrid of criollo and forastero, originated in Trinidad- forastero was introduced to criollo crop
image:http://www.gardenislandchocolate.com/images/cacao%20album/images/trinitario_jpg.jpg
-varied profile, coplex flavors of criollo, stability of forastero
-yields about 10% annually

Chocolate Manufacturing/ Processing

Fermentation:
Extract seeds from cacao pods

Heap (Africa) vs. Box (Asia)
Heap- pile seeds on banana leaves, leave 5-6 days, yeast feeds on the pulp, begins to break down in a couple days
Heap fermentation

-lactic and acetic acids created- seep into seeds- begin to flavor
-ethanol created too

Box- Indonesia- tiered system, crates with holes in them, pour seeds into the next box each day, have more oxygen flow, more fermentation takes place, more flavor development
Box fermentation
image:http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19073/19073-h/images/image028.jpg

-get precursors of flavor after seeds have fermented

Drying:
-want to stop fermentation
-reduce moisture content in seeds
-if too much water could mold or disease set up
-natural drying- spread out in sun
-mechanical- dry at varied temps- range depends on kind of cacao used- criollo more delicate- use lower drying temperature

Processing:
Raw un-roasted beans

-once dry the beans are sent to manufacturers where they roast them according to their specifications
-can roast whole bean or take out nib and roast that alone
-roasting different part of flavor development
-Maillard browning
-nutty, caramel notes from roasting

Raw cocoa bean tasted winey, alcoholy

Cracking bean:
-winnowing, when shell separated from bean
Cocoa Nibs

-nib: meaty part of bean, 56% cocoa butter, 41% solids, 5% water
-nib passes through rollers- ground
-can produce cocoa powder, pressed further to get cocoa powder
-natural (acidic) and Dutch (treated with alkaline)
-cant use powders interchangeably, would add baking soda if using natural or brown sugar- molasses is acidic

Chocolate liquor
-cocoa solids and cocoa butter= 100% unsweetened chocolate= cocoa mass= cocoa paste
Processed extracted cocoa butter

Mixing:
-add sugar and flavors- vanilla
-lecithin- added to increase flowability of chocolate

Refining:
-grounded further

Conching:
Modern conche machine

-heated rollers, mix is agitated for several hours up to several days
-mellows chocolate flavor
-reduces bitterness
-reduces acidity
-increases/ improves mouth feel
-smoother

Then tempered, put in molds, cooled

Couverture:
-high % cocoa butter allows us to temper it
-increase flowabilty
-fat content 31-38%
-means to coat/ to cover
-percentages on box means amount of chocolate liquor/ cocoa mass: to sugar

1 comment:

  1. Hi Erica,

    Any idea where this conching machine is from? Like, what company?

    ReplyDelete