Where Does Chocolate Come From?

Yesterday, I received an email from Alyssa who sent in a two-part question regarding chocolate. She wanted to know whether there really is a difference between semisweet and bittersweet chocolate and why a recipe would call for both. Both of these are excellent questions and I will do what I can to make chocolate a little more clear.

The short answer for part 1 of her question is: not necessarily. The short answer for part II is: probably personal preference. Unfortunately, to really understand the difference between semisweet and bittersweet chocolate requires more than just short answers but a more detailed response. Let’ start from the beginning where chocolate comes from and

Where Does Chocolate Come From

Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, which is in turn grow inside pods on the cocoa tree. The first step in making chocolate is to harvest and open the pods, exposing the beans. The beans are allowed to ferment for about a week and then are dried.

At this point, the beans are roasted. Roasting not only brings out their flavor, it also makes the husks easier to remove. After roasting, the beans are cracked into cocoa nibs (pieces generally no larger than 1/8”), and all the husks are separated. The nibs contain 53% cocoa butter and 47% cocoa solids.

The next steps separate the cocoa butter from the solids. First the nibs are ground until they form a thick paste (cocoa mass or chocolate liquor). Then, the paste is pressed so all the cocoa butter is “squeezed out.” What is left is 100% pure cocoa solids. When finely ground, the solids are sold as cocoa powder.

To make chocolate for eating and cooking, chocolate manufacturers combine unpressed chocolate liquor, extra cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla, and sometimes milk solids (only in the case of milk chocolate). This mixture is churned together and then refined to break down the different particles and make is very smooth.

After the refining process, the chocolate is conched. Conching is the process by which heavy rollers further grind and blend the chocolate, incorporate some air to help some of the more bitter compounds evaporate and breaking down the chocolate to a silky smoothness. Conching can take up to six day.

The last step in the process is tempering. Tempering is the repeated heating and cooling of the chocolate to specific temperatures. The goal of tempering is to force the different fats in cocoa butter to all set up and crystallize together into a very stable form. Properly tempered chocolate will be very hard. It will snap when you break it, melt slowly and have a lovely sheen. The end result is an emulsion of very small dry chocolate particles suspended in a stable matrix of fat (cocoa butter).

Dark Chocolate

Since all chocolate is made following these steps, the differences between chocolates depend on the flavor profile of the beans used, the proportion of cocoa solids to sugar to cocoa butter, and the amount of refining and processing. In the US, the two basic kinds of chocolate available are dark and milk. To be sold as dark chocolate, the candy must contain at least 35% chocolate (total amount of cocoa solids and cocoa butter). In the UK, it must contain at least 42% chocolate.

What About Milk Chocolate

Milk chocolate must contain 10% chocolate and 12% dairy. Technically, white chocolate is not chocolate at all because it contains no cocoa solids. It is generally made from cocoa butter, sugar, vanilla and milk solids.

In some less expensive chocolates, some or all of the cocoa butter is replaced by other more stable fats, usually palm, palm kernel or coconut oil. These confections are known as coating chocolates or compound chocolates. Since these fats have a higher melting point than cocoa butter, chocolate made with them will not melt in your mouth the way that high quality chocolate does. On the plus side, these coating chocolates do not need to be tempered.

Now that we’ve all had a crash course in how chocolate is made, let’s get back to Alyssa’s question. There is no real regulation of the amount of sugar used to make dark chocolate; whether a manufacturer labels the chocolate semi-sweet or bittersweet is not dictated by the government (or any other body, for that matter).

As a result, one manufacturer might make a chocolate with 50% chocolate and call it semi-sweet while another might label that same chocolate bittersweet. Where the difference between the two (when there is any) really matters is in the ratio of cocoa solids to sugars in a particular recipe.

Let’s say that, for the sake of argument, a recipe calls for 1 ounce of 64% semi-sweet chocolate. This means that .64 oz is made up of cocoa solids and cocoa butter. The remaining .36 oz is made up of sugar, vanilla and perhaps an emulsifier (lecithin). If all you have is 85% chocolate on hand, this means that 85% is made up of chocolate with only the remaining 15% made up of sugar, vanilla and possibly lecithin. You can go ahead and use the 85% chocolate, but as you can see, it will be more chocolaty and less sweet than the 64% chocolate.

In a recipe that calls for several ounces of a particular percentage chocolate, you might have to increase the amount of sugar when substituting a higher percentage chocolate. When substituting a lower percentage chocolate (say, 50% for 70%) you might need to compensate by adding a little less sugar and maybe a little cocoa powder and butter.

As to why a particular recipe calls for a mixture of semi-sweet and bittersweet chocolate, I can only surmise that the author was going for a specific flavor profile. Now, having said that, no two chocolates taste exactly the same, so unless they expressly call for certain brands and percentages, I would probably just go ahead and use whatever I had on hand, not worrying too much about just a few percentage points.

Does Chocolate Really Taste Sweet?

If someone asked you “how does chocolate taste?” your first response might be, “Sweet.” Chocolate is not sweet at all. Did you ever try a nibble off the corner of one of your mom’s Baker’s Unsweetened Chocolate Squares?

Remember the face you made? 100% chocolate, containing nothing more than cocoa solids, cocoa butter and maybe some vanilla is one of the most bitter things you will ever put in your mouth. While a Hershey’s milk chocolate bar might taste “sweet,” what you are really tasting is all of the sugars, both sucrose from the added sugar and lactose from the milk solids. Just remember, the higher the percentage of chocolate in the bar, the more chocolaty and the less sweet it will be.

Tomorrow I will post some examples of baking brownies with unsweetened chocolate and semisweet chocolate. You will see there is a vast difference between the two.

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Eric Jorgensen’s Hearty Fish Chowder

One of the very cool things about Facebook is finding old friends you haven’t spoken with in ages. This recipe comes to me from an old high school friend I recently found on Facebook.

When we first met in homeroom on our first day of high school, we discovered we were born just days apart in the same hospital and both had mothers from Denmark. Small world. Eric went off to sea his senior year but we keep in touch by letters and years later he visited me in New York City. And then we lost touch until our Facebook connection.

Eric is a stay-at-home dad like myself and takes on a lot of the cooking so I asked him to send me one of his favorite recipes. This fish chowder is one he used to make when he was working on commercial fishing boats. He has worked on crab boats and salmon boats in Alaska, fished lobster in Maine and on trawlers in New Zealand so I guess he should know something about fish chowder.

Fish Chowder

This recipe creates a hearty stock in which to poach fish. The amounts of liquid can be altered to create either a fish stew or chowder. Likewise, the vegetable amounts can be varied based on what you have on hand, the object is a flavorful stock.

Ingredients:

2 onions
3 carrots
3 medium sized potatoes
3 stalks celery with leaves
½ lb bacon
1 ½ lbs fresh chopped clams
2 - 3 lb fresh fish, white fleshed like cod or haddock
3 tablespoons flour
Fresh thyme (optional)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Cream or half & half (optional for New England style)

How to Make Fish Chowder at Home

Finely mince the onions, 2 carrots, 1 potato, 2 stalks celery. Chop remaining veggies into bite-sized chunks to add later.

In large pot, saute bacon, add minced veggies, & stir until cooked. Sprinkle in flour and stir a few minutes longer. Add some salt and pepper. If you don’t want to use bacon, substitute butter.

Add water to pot to cover veggies with a few inches of water, more for a soup, less for stew. You can always adjust.

Let veggies simmer for an hour or two to make a nice stock that will be used to make the chowder. I asked Eric if you should strain the vegetables when done simmering now that they have done their job and added their flavor to the stock but he told me "they just kind of disappear and create a thick stock, especially with the addition of flour."

About an hour and half before serving, add remaining chopped veggies and clams. Let them simmer for approximately 1 hour 20 minutes. Check seasoning, this recipe can take a lot of fresh pepper and salt. Add fresh thyme if desired. If a thicker chowder is desired add some more flour-premixed with water to a slurry to avoid clumping. When potatoes and carrots are almost tender, add fish.

Allow fish to cook just below a boil, until tender, about 10 minutes. Don’t overcook fish, just until it can flake. Fish can be left in large pieces and served on rice, or broken up for a traditional fish stew.

If you want a New England Chowder add cream when fish is done—but do not allow to boil once added.

Eric also likes to add shrimp to this dish with the fish.

Eric told me, "I used to make this on fishing boats, making the stock when I had a chance and adding the fish when it was time to eat. I like clams now for flavor and consistency and they’re really quite economical at around $6 for fresh chopped, but any fish heads and bodies work to create a stock. Now, I prefer butter to bacon, and skip the cream, you can really taste the fish much better."

Serve as a chowder with good bread, or ladle onto rice for a heartier meal.

Curry In A Hurry

What Is Curry?

What exactly is curry? Where did the word originate, and what does it describe? The origins of the word curry are debated. Some people say that it was derived from a Tamil word, kari, meaning spiced sauce. If this is the case, any sort of food cooked in or served with a gravy could be considered a curry.

Other people have asserted that curry could be derived from the Hindi word for a wok-shaped cooking vessel, kara, which incidentally are what many curries are cooked in. One of the more interesting hypotheses is that the word is actually derived from the Old English word for “cooking,” cury. Many of the more exotic Indian spices had found their way into better English kitchens by the 14th century, and foods cooked in spiced gravies were familiar to the English. As a matter of fact, when English merchants began landing in India in the mid 1600’s, they were served a spiced chicken stew which was strikingly similar to a chicken pie recipe in a Indian spices in stews were already familiar to the merchants.

Regardless of the origin of the word curry, which nobody seems to be able to agree upon, the word describes any dish of meat, fish and/or vegetables that is served in or with a sauce. So, if you think you don’t like curry, you are really limiting yourself. There are literally thousands of different curry blends that range from sweet and mild to hot and spicy.

How Curry Is Prepared

Most traditional Indian cooks make their curry seasoning from toasted whole spices that they grind themselves. There are probably as many curry seasoning blends as there are cooks who make curry, and most of them contain anywhere from 5 or 6 to as many as 30 different herbs and spices. As a convenience, curry powder blends are sold in most grocery stores. Some curry powders are hot and spicy, and some are much milder. If you don’t fancy grinding your own spices, try several different brands of curry powder until you find one that you like.

What About Curry Leaves?

Curry leaves come from the curry tree, and they are used in many Indian dishes, much like bay leaves are used in Italian cooking. Curry leaves taste slightly bitter and a bit like citrus, but their flavor is short-lived. Dried curry leaves have very little flavor, so very rarely will you find them listed as an ingredient in commercially produced curry powders. If you can find fresh, bright green curry leaves, you can add them to a curry whole or chopped, or they can be ground into a spice mix that you will use immediately.

Many commercially produced curry powders are somewhat yellow, to one degree or another. This is due to the use of turmeric in the blends. The more turmeric, the more yellow the curry. By itself, turmeric is used not only for its earthy and slightly bitter flavor but also for its brilliant yellow color (in small amounts, it is even substituted for saffron—for the color more than the flavor). Because of its vibrant hue, turmeric is often used as a coloring agent in other food products, ranging from yogurt to popcorn seasoning to cookies.

What About Garam Masala?

What further confuses the curry issue is another spice blend known as garam masala. Literally translated as “hot spice mixture,” garam masala also comes in many forms and is often unique to each individual cook. To cut through some of the confusion, a curry blend and a garam masala blend can both be added to a curry.

As you can imagine, Indian cooking can seem daunting, especially when faced with a long list of exotic spices needed for making both a curry seasoning and a garam masala. It is for this reason that prepackaged blends have come into favor, although true purists will tell you that you will get the best, most aromatic blends by making your own.

Making Your Own

If you are interested in making your own curry powder or garam masala, here are a couple of recipes. Keep in mind that there are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of different recipes for these spice blends, so feel free to experiment.

The traditional procedure for making a curry powder or garam masala is always the same. Put all the whole spices except in a dry skillet over medium low heat. Cook the spices for several minutes, stirring constantly, until the spices have darkened a shade or two and are very fragrant. Don’t turn up the heat; this must be done slowly, to toast the spices all the way through without burning the outsides.

Pour the spices on a paper towel to cool.

Once cooled, grind all the spices together in a mortar and pestle. Stir in any ground or granulated spices after grinding. Use immediately or cover tightly and keep in a cool, dark place for 3-6 months. Of course, grinding spices by hand using a mortar and pestle is time consuming, and you might not end up with as fine a grind as you might like. Fortunately, you can get very good results using a spice grinder or a bladed (not burr) coffee grinder. If you are a true purist, by all means use a mortar and pestle, but if you want all of the flavor with less fuss, it is perfectly fine to use an electric grinder.

If you come across a recipe for a spice blend that calls for all ground spices, you can still bring some depth to the flavor by toasting in a dry skillet for 2-3 minutes, just be very careful since ground spices will burn quickly.

Madras Curry Powder (Fairly Hot)
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 tablespoon turmeric
3 small dried hot chilies
2 teaspoons cumin seed
2 teaspoons fenugreek seeds
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon fennel seed
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
3 whole cloves
1 1” piece cinnamon
½ teaspoon granulated garlic

Mild Curry Powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons ground coriander
2 teaspoons ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Garam Masala
2 tablespoons cumin seeds
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
2 tablespoons cardamom seeds
2 tablespoons black peppercorns
1 (3-inch) stick cinnamon, broken up
1 teaspoon whole cloves
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Garam Masala 2
1-inch piece cinnamon stick, broken into pieces
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup cumin seeds
1/3 cup coriander seeds
1 tablespoon green cardamom pods
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
2 teaspoons whole cloves
1 dried red chile
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground mace

Homemade curry blends and garam masala made with whole spices will almost always be more flavorful than a purchased product. This is because ground spices lose their flavor much more rapidly than whole, and you have no control over how long a powder has sat on a store shelf.

If you want to purchase your curry powder and garam masala, I suggest you try to find a brand that is sold in dark jars or, better yet, metal tins, as exposure to light can rapidly degrade the essential oils in the spices. If you are lucky enough to have an Asian, Indian or Pakistani grocery in your area, buy your curry powders and spice blends there, as there will be a higher turnover rate and the spices are likely to be fresher than at your local “regular” grocery store.

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