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FOOD SCIENCE Take the Mystery out of Melting Chocolate Avoid separating and seizing by monitoring temperature and moisture BY SHIRLEY O. CORRIHER CHOCOLATE IS MADE OF DRY PARTICLES SURROUNDED BY COCOA BUTTER To understand what happens to chocolate when it melts, try to picture its components. Dark and milk chocolates are made from "nibs" (the processed insides of the cocoa bean) and sugar that are ground until their particles measure from 25 to 75 microns in diameter. (A micron is one millionth of a meter.) These fine cocoa and sugar particles (as well as milk solids for milk chocolate) are kneaded with cocoa butter until they're evenly distributed. Most chocolate also contains lecithin, a natural fat and emulsifier that helps disperse the solids in the chocolate. Cocoa butter gives chocolate a sharp melting point. Instead of melting gradually over a range Theobroma cacao, the first part of which translates to "food of the gods." His choice makes perfect sense to those who think the taste of chocolate is heavenly. But you may find yourself cursing the gods when the smooth, glistening chocolate you're melting turns to dark black knots topped by a slick of oil. Or, even more startling, your melting chocolate becomes a dull, solid mass right before your eyes. Heat and moisture-and not capri- W cious gods-are the real culprits here. They cause the two most common mishaps when melting chocolate: • Separation, caused by overheating, is when the solids in chocolate separate from the fat and clump together. • Seizing, caused by moisture, is when the flowing chocolate turns into a grainy mass. Knowing the source of these problems can help you avoid them. 78 hen Linnaeus classified the plant kingdom, he named the cocoa tree of about 10 degrees as most fats do, cocoa butter has a sharply defined melting point, so it melts quickly when heated to around body temperature. This trait, which gives chocolate its melt-in-your-mouth quality, can cause trouble for cooks. OVERHEATING CAUSES CHOCOLATE TO SEPARATE Because cocoa butter melts quickly and at a low temperature, it makes sense to melt chocolate over low heat. If you don't, it will separate irreversibly. When chocolate gets too hot-above 1200P for dark chocolate, 115° for milk and white chocolate-the fats separate from the sugar and cocoa particles, which then clump together. I had an assistant who once boiled the chocolate she was melting until there was nothing left but lumps and a pale, golden oil. Long before you reach that point, you'll know your chocolate is separating if you see small lumps forming (see photo above right) . You know your chocolate is separating when you see lumps. Long before you get these big clumps of solid chocolate, small solid knots-like those you can see on the spatula-begin to appear. To avoid separation, watch the tem- perature, not the texture. This may seem obvious, but some unknowing cooks mistake the lumps caused by separation for solids that have yet to melt, and so they tum up the heat. I use an accurate thermometer when melting chocolate. Beware that most kitchen thermometers are offby as much as 10 degrees. A laboratory thermometer (see sources opposite) is more reliable. If you don't have an accurate ther- mometer, use your body as a gauge; it's a better judge of temperature than an inaccurate thermometer. Touch a dab of melting chocolate just above your upper lip (a very sensitive area) . The correct temperature should feel warm, not hot. Here are some basic methods for melting chocolate safely: • You can melt chocolate in a saucepan directly over very low heat, but melting it over hot-not boiling-water, is usually safer. A double boiler or a hot water bath works well. • You can also melt chocolate in the microwave. Heat dark chocolate on me- dium heat (50% power) and milk and white chocolate, which contain heatsensitive milk solids, on low (30% power) . Stir the chocolate every 15 seconds, heating the chocolate until it's just melted. • Speed up melting by first cutting the chocolate into small pieces, so that more surface area is exposed to the heat. • Stir chocolate constantly while melting to keep the temperature consistent throughout. FINE COOKING