Showing posts with label candy making. Show all posts
Showing posts with label candy making. Show all posts

2/09/2012

Chocolate Tempering Machine - Revolation 1 LID INCLUDED Review

Chocolate Tempering Machine - Revolation 1 LID INCLUDED
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
Tempering chocolate is one of the hardest things to do; even experienced professionals will fail at this task from time to time. There are machines that will do this, but they cost 4 figures. At less than $400, anyone who has an electrical outlet in the kitchen and can press two buttons can have perfectly tempered chocolate in about 20 minutes. Even the klutzy will be successful.
The most important feature of this machine is that the level of temper produced by this gadget is absolutely perfect, and is identical to the chocolate I temper by hand. It has separate settings for white, milk, or dark chocolates. I use one at work, and no longer have to temper chocolate for other employees. Mechanically, the machine operates flawlessly (an important fact, since the bowl rotates continuously whenever the machine is on). Operation is simple, since it has instructions printed right on the machine. The temper cycle is computer controlled, so you do not really need to know how it is done; you just push a couple of buttons. Also, it will operate by itself once you press the buttons; tempering by hand requires your full attention for at least half an hour. With this thing, you can get it going and do something else for a few minutes, which is extremely important in a professional kitchen.
There are some minor drawbacks. It has several pieces that you assemble, so be careful that you do not lose any when you break down the machine to wash it. The capacity is 1 1/2 pounds; this sounds like a lot, but once you get into it, that pound and a half will get used up awfully fast. The cycle time is 20 minutes, so if you run out of tempered chocolate, you will have to wait that long for another batch; there is no provision for trickle-feeding. Also note that you must wash out the machine when you are done; there is no provision for overnight storage of the melted chocolate. Of course, these drawbacks can be cured by purchasing the professional version of this machine (I think it is called "X" or "X1320" or some such thing), at about $1300.
For the uninitiated, you must use real chocolate, and not confectionery coatings. You must temper if you are going to do something fancy with the chocolate: dip candy, fill chocolate molds, make those fancy chocolate decorations you saw on cable TV, etc. If you are going to cook with it (cakes, cookies, brownies, sauces, etc.), you do not temper chocolate.

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The idea was simple: Take the world's most desirable and most perplexing food (chocolate) and make it simple, easy, fun, and economical for anyone to use. This tabletop chocolate temperer was designed with the homemaker and hobbyist in mind. With just two keystrokes, you will be able to create beautiful chocolate creations in the comfort of your own home. The temperer melts and tempers up to 1.5 lbs of chocolate in under 30 minutes, guided by a fully automatic micro-processor using forced hot air. The stainless steel bowl is removable for easy cleaning. Includes a dipping tool, scrapers, and cleaning brush.

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10/23/2011

Maverick CT-03 Digital Oil & Candy Thermomter Review

Maverick CT-03 Digital Oil and Candy Thermomter
Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)
This seems to be a well made product, and if not for one tremendous flaw I could somewhat recommend it.

The manufacturer got a the hardware design and functionally right. The temperature readings are very accurate. The view-screen tilts for easy reading, even on pots with sloping sides. And having the 14 most common candy and oil temperatures stored in the unit for easy selection is a nice addition, unfortunately it's also the Maverick's Achilles heel.
Because if you ever want to cook something at a temperature 'other' than those 14 presets, you may as well use a cheap analog thermometer. Unlike any other digital thermometer I've ever used, the Maverick does not permit setting of custom temperature alarms. You'll either use their 14 alarm presets or nothing at all.
Certainly the unit will display whatever temperature it is currently reading, but so can any $3 analog candy thermometer. In my mind, the primary purpose of a digital thermometer is to alert a cook when a specific temperature is reached. Not allowing the cook to set alarms at their chosen temperatures is a ridiculous and fatal defect.

The unit does have some issues even aside from that major flaw. The 14 available temperatures are selected from an LCD display, unfortunately the text on the display is very tiny it's awfully difficult to read. I have good eyesight, those suffering even moderate nearsightedness will be unable to read this display unassisted. This tiny-text problem seems also to a consequence of those 14 presets. If this thermometer worked like most other digital thermometers, the display would be more than big enough show 3 digit temperatures in huge lettering. But those 14 presets have too much text to be displayed at anything other than a tiny size on the unit's screen.
This product also misses the mark in catering to the needs of cooks. In candy making, knowing when candy has dropped to a certain temperature is just as important as knowing the highest temperature reached. This unit has no function for setting alarms at cooling temperatures.
This product shares it's reason for failure with many other failed electronic products. It has good hardware but very poorly designed software (firmware). The fixes should be simple by software standards. The designers need to ditch 14 presets, allow setting of alarms for any user-defined high and low temperature, and increase the text size. Those few changes would turn this lemon into an amazing kitchen tool. But if it remains as it is, it will be just another piece of kitchen junk to clutter your drawer.

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Digital Candy & Oil Thermometer

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