Time to Golf for Charity! The annual ACF Golf Tournament is being  held at St. Ives Country Club and is only 10 days away. We still have 8 slots open. If you are interested in playing, please contact Cheryl, cheryl@acfatlantachefs.org as soon as possible to secure your slot.  

Love to see you out having fun. Golf Brochure 

Thanks for your contributions to our ACF charities!

Michael Deihl, CEC CCA ACE AAC 

 President
Greater Atlanta Chapter

 

Keep Your Tempering Under Control

Tempering has three common meanings in the kitchen. We temper chocolate to give it a characteristic shine and snap as well as the ability to mold and shape it. We also temper eggs and egg yolks to keep them from over cooking in an apparel to form smooth custards, sauces and soups. We also temper gelatin solutions to keep them from setting up too quickly and causing lumps or inefficient distribution in Bavarians, panna cottas and the like.

Tempering chocolate is relatively easy these days. There are machines which do the job automatically. The idea behind tempering chocolate is to equalize the melting points of the complex and distinct fats or beta crystals contained in the cocoa butter. The earliest and most common method was to "seed" the chocolate. The chocolate was melted until it reached 120 degrees then bits of whole chocolate were stirred in until a temperature of 80 degrees was reached. Then the chocolate was heated until a temperature of approximately 91 degrees was reached. When I was a young commis you could tell the pastry chefs who were tempering by the bits of melted chocolate on their lower lip. Much like chefs will tell the internal temperature of large cuts of roasting meat the lower lip would give an indication of the temperature of the chocolate relative to body temperature.

Egg yolks and eggs are tempered in quite a different way. Since eggs will coagulate at temperature as low as 149 to 158 degrees. If added to a hot solution they would immediately cook and not thicken the sauce or custard being made. The best way to temper is to add a touch of heavy cream to the eggs stir well- this will raise the temperature at which the eggs curdle to 180 degrees. Then add some of the hot solution very slowly until the eggs are warm and smooth. The egg mixture can now be successfully added to the custard or sauce base and cooked as long as the temperature does not exceed 180 degrees.

Gelatin requires a similar tempering process. It is one hundred percent protein and will bind most solutions with great efficiency. One must first "bloom" or dissolve the gelatin in a small amount of water to allow it to expand. Then it can be heated and have more liquid added. Most chefs use a basic 6 to 1 or 5 to 1 liquid to gelatin powder ratio to bind desserts, stabilize whipped cream, etc. Since it will start its thickening properties at temperatures as high as 55 degrees one must work quickly and efficiently to incorporate the gelatin solution.

So with some patience, practice, a good thermometer and some good recipes you can master all three of these techniques in no time.

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