Science of tempering chocolate
100,785
Published 2021-03-26
LEARN MORE:
- Learn about the composition of chocolate: • What is chocolate made of?
- Learn about the crystal structures of chocolate: • Crystal structures of chocolate
OUTLINE:
0:00 Introduction
0:24 Crystal structures of chocolate
1:06 How chocolate bars are made
1:44 Goal of tempering chocolate
2:10 Choosing the right temperature
4:06 How to make crystals form faster
4:30 Undercooling
6:07 Seeding
7:04 Demo: Tempering chocolate in the kitchen
8:51 Demo: Tempered vs. untempered chocolate
CREDITS:
Presented, written, and edited by Mingyu Yang
With additional input from Camille Farruggio, Robin Lindemann, and Jacqueline Baidoo
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
We are grateful for the support of the MIT Department of Materials Science & Engineering (dmse.mit.edu) and Dr. Rohan Kundargi, K-12 Outreach Coordinator of MIT's Office of Government and Community Relations.
ACCESSIBILITY:
[email protected]
CONTACT US:
If you have a food/materials-science question that you’d like to see featured in a future video (maybe even with you in it!), please reach out at [email protected]. You can also keep up to date on Twitter @foodsci_mit.
All Comments (21)
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Omg, finally an explanation in depth and so easy to understand! I never understood the "need" to reheat the chocolate back up before using it as tempered. Now I understand that without reheating, I'm leaving behind some state 4 crystals as well. I thought the sole purpose of reheating was to make the chocolate more fluid and easier to work with. Now I understand I have to reheat it, and why :) Thank you so so much for making this video!
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This is the best video i've seen that explains tempering chocolate, thank you. I admire your passion for science <3
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As a fellow scientist also studying crystal structures related to fatty acids, this was really well done. Also - can’t believe you are finding time to do this during your degree! Amazing lab group.
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Today I managed the first time to temper chocolate. It's so satisfying to achieve a shiny chocolate with a nice snap. Thank you very much Ming your explanations helped me a lot.
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Nobody ever ask me again, why I wield a big hammer while cooking! Kitchen Blacksmiths 👍! Best video I could find on tempering chocolate, with enough information to understand tempering in general. Cheers!
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As a pastry chef, this is really great and admirable how you explain it all on point and so easy to understand. keep doing amazing work explaining the world, I love it when people are curious enough to get excited about discovering how and why things are like they are. 🤩
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I had never ever seen one so clear explanation about chocolate tempering! Brilliant!!! Thank you very much!!! 🙏🙏❤❤
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I am a fairly new mechanical engineer working in the steel industry and I think this was a great video! I love your use of the term "culinary blacksmith" because I thought the same thing when I first heard about "tempering chocolate"; my mind also created an image of a steel mill casting chocolate instead of steel haha. One other food product that reminds me of steel making is gelatine, because water gets trapped inside of the triple helix protein structure when it cools, like how Carbon gets trapped inside of Iron's cubic structure during solid solution strengthening.
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Thank you for the best explanation of something I’ve been doing for 30 years without understanding it!
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Finally someone who understands. Also explained well. Thank you!
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I should say this is the first time I actually understand why and how to temper chocolate. Great video!
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If every video were as clear and amazing as this beautifully presented explanation, the world would be a better place
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BRILLIANT EXPLANATION ON TEMPERING AND EXPLAINED WITH SIMPLICITY :washhands:
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Superb exposé on chocolate tempering! One aspect of seeding is adding pure type V crystals of pure cocoa butter (incubated @33.6°C for 24hours) without the cocoa solids so you just melt and when the T<33.6°C, you can add in 1% by weight and no need to undercool. Cocoa silk is the name of pure type V xtals.
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OMG this video was amazing! This is seriously the only explanation I've found on YT that lays out a framework for the mechanics of chocolate tempering. Many I've seen take twice as long to give a rough algorithm for tempering that is nearly impossible to follow because they cannot explain the basic physics in terms of time, temp and phase. Thanks for being an amazing science AND food communicator!
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Your easy-going presentation and no-nonsense science of chocolate were top-notch. I learned more about the process of tempering in this video than in dozens of others I have seen. Good job :)
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This is amazing!!! Thank you so much! Your explanation is truly the best on the Internet!
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And now I FINALLY understand how this works. THANK YOU!!!! I've been looking for a clear explanation of chocolate tempering for ages
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Wonderful explanation that finally answered all my questions! I tried proper tempering for the first time today, and while other videos told me how to do it and included some basics about the crystal structures, they didn't have such neat graphics and also didn't explain why we don't have to worry about the "bad" crystals during the final cooldown phase. So thank you for addressing the whole process in such a detailed and easy-to-understand way!
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This explanation was fantastic: well paced, direct but thorough; I learn so much better through graphics and charts, and love to get to molecular level of subjects. Thank you so very much
