Conching & Refining

At this point you are in the home stretch and there is very little you have to know or do for success.  Everything up to this point, the bean selection, the roasting, winnowing has set you up for finishing your chocolate.  I’ve found a trend in making it way more complicated than it is and it need not be.  If you want to just get right to it, feel free to jump there (link to running the melanger).

To that point, I have noted that there tends to be some confusion when people talk about refining and conching chocolate. It probably does not help that I have even put the two processes on the same page. You need to understand that they are two separate processes with two different goals in mind. Sometimes refining and conching  can happen at the same time, but they do not have to and often you do not want them to.

Refining: The process of reducing the particle sizes of both cocoa solids and sugar crystals in finished chocolate. The goal is somewhere in the range of 15-25 microns. Your tongue loses its ability to determine texture and grittiness at around 30 microns. Under about 10 microns the chocolate can get gummy.

Conching Conch comes from the Spanish word concha, which means shell. The name "conching" arose because the original vessel used to hold the chocolate was shaped like a conch shell. It involves a process of heating and aerating chocolate to  both introduce oxygen and to remove unwanted volatiles.

What doesn’t work:

On a weekly basis I get asked if there is another less expensive way to refine chocolate at home. Trust me (hopefully you do), if I knew of one, you would know about it. Although the list is by no means conclusive, different things we have and failed to use as chocolate refiner are as follows:

  • Ice cream maker

  • VitaMix

  • Cuisinart

  • Blenders (many makes and models)

  • Juicers (including the Champion, which is the only juicer we know of that will liquify the cocoa nibs, but still doesn't touch sugar)

  • The oh so romantic Mortar and pestle

  • Metate

  • Ball mills (homemade they were just too expensive)

  • Rock tumblers (with steel shot)

What does work:

There are three ways to refine chocolate, and only one is viable for the home chocolate maker.

Melangers both refine and conch.  Their primary job is to refine the chocolate by grinding it between spinning granite wheels.  Conching happens enough because the grinding create heat via friction and the chocolate is somewhat aerated.  Fortunately for us, it happens naturally and to the right degree.  It is difficult to over refine and over conch in a melanger.  

melangeur.jpg

In a nod to history, Chocolate Alchemy brought melangers to the bean to bar world before there was even a bean to bar world.  We worked with Santha (now Spectra) to convert Indian wet grinders into what we know know as melangers.   The Spectra 11 is the melanger we offer and support.  You’ll notice, it looks a lot like a commercial old style Melangeur.  That similarity is what got the whole ball rolling.

Ball mills are another way refine chocolate and are kind of ingenious.  A bunch of very hard balls are placed in a container along with what you want to grind.  Then either the whole thing is rolled (rock tumblers are basically ball mills) or vanes are put in and the balls are stirred that way.  Currently there are no small scale ball mills that come anywhere close to affordable.

Roller mills.   They are sort of a different version of the grain crackers turned cocoa cracker I talked about here.  Their main difference is that instead of having a gap between the rollers of 3/16” it needs to be 100 times closer and although that might sound easy (you just push them together right?) it is devilishly difficult.  TANSTAAFL.  To get rollers that close and not move apart when the chocolate is going through them requires a LOT of heavy and very expensive metal to hold it in place.  Once again $$$$$$.

I go into a bit more depth on all three of these methods in this Ask the Alchemist article.


Conching

Here is what you need to know about conching.

1)  There are no small scale conchs, so the question of whether you need one is a completely moot point.

2)  The only reason you might need a conch is if you are using a ball mill or roll refiner.  If you are using one, then you will need to get a small scale conch and they are available.

3)  Reducing the pressure on the Spectra 11 or any melanger does not turn it into a conch and is not conching.  Because there is no pressure, there is no friction, so there is no heat, so there is no conching.

4)  Melangers both refine and conch and are all you need.

So, how do you use the Melanger?

There is a lot of misinformation out there and people get into the weeds of details that simply don’t matter.

So, how do you use the Melanger?

The TLDR is to put everything in the melanger, taking care not to stall it by adding things too fast, and let it run 24-48 hours until you are happy with it.

Details

  • Pre-heat the bowl and rollers.  Don't go over 150 F as the epoxy can fail, or worse, the plastic can melt.  Put everything in place on the melanger and tighten the tension cap a turn or so.

  • Melt any cocoa butter you are using,  anywhere from about 120 F on up to 250 F, and add it.

  • If you are using cocoa liquor, melt and add it to the melanger.

  • If you are using nibs, heat them to 120-150 F and add them in small handfuls, giving the Melanger time to grind them down.  Add more as it gets smooth.  

  • You can add your pre-heated sugar, milk powders and any other ingredients at this point too.

The goal in all this pre-heating is to have the soon to be chocolate over the melting point of chocolate, plus a little.  

  • Once everything is incorporated, tighten the tension cap down until it is fully tight.

  • Refine the chocolate 24-72 hours.  Less than that and there might still be sugar grit and over that, while not hurting anything, is rarely doing anything productive.

  • Stop refining when it is smooth and tastes like you want.  It is no more complicated than that.

You can either temper it immediately or store it for later tempering.  If you don’t temper it, it is going to bloom and look pretty unsightly.   It has not gone bad.

Is my bloomed chocolate ruined?

Important information

  • Do not add ANY water based ingredients to your chocolate in the Melanger.  The chocolate will seize and you can damage your Melanger.

  • Make sure you room is warm enough so the chocolate does not solidify.  Above 70 F is warm enough due to the heat generated by the friction of refining.

What you don’t need to worry about

  • There is no need to pre-grind the sugar or nibs.  It might take an hour off the refining time and in the long run, it is more hassle than it is worth.

  • It does not matter when you add sugar.  I’ve certainly know about people having strong opinions whether to add it immediately, at 12 or 24 hour and after exhaustive controlled testing I never found any difference in the chocolate, either good or bad.

  • Having the tension on the melanger anything less than full pressure.  People think reducing the tension is conching. It is not.  See Above for why it isn’t.

  • Refining too long.  In theory you can over refine chocolate but it takes a combination of many, many days and a very small amount of chocolate.  

  • Using a measurement tool to see if the chocolate is fine enough.  You don’t need it.  Just use your mouth.  It is the best tool you have.

  • Aging your chocolate. Chocolate can change slightly over time and in some cases, less than ideal tasting chocolate can taste better.  Chocolate isn’t wine or cheese where aging is critical.  

  • What temperature the chocolate is.  It won’t naturally get too hot and I’ve already mentioned about making sure it is not so cold it solidifies.

  • If you need to stop the refining, just do. It will not hurt a thing.  Just put the bowl, rollers and chocolate into a warmed oven (about 150 F, with the oven then turned off) and let it set overnight. It will often still be liquid in the morning and you can just restart the refining. If it does solidify, just turn the oven on about 150-175 and melt the chocolate.


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