Part 13 (1/2)

Ingredients required for _chocolate for covering cremes_, etc.:

Cacao nib or ma.s.s 30 parts Cacao b.u.t.ter 20 ”

Sugar 49-3/4 ”

Flavouring 1/4 ”

------------- 100 parts

It is prepared in exactly the same way as ordinary eating chocolate, save that more b.u.t.ter is added to make it flow readily, so that in the melted condition it has about the same consistency as cream. The operations so far described are conducted by men, but the covering of cremes and the packing of the finished chocolates into boxes are performed by girls. Covering is light work requiring a delicate touch, and if, as is usual, it is done in bright airy rooms, is a pleasant occupation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GIRLS COVERING, OR DIPPING, CREMES, ETC.

(Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Bournville.)]

The girl sits with a small bowl of warm liquid chocolate in front of her, and on one side the ”centres” (cremes, caramels, ginger, nuts, etc.) ready for covering with chocolate. The chocolate must be at just the right temperature, which is 88 F., or 31 C. She takes one of the ”centres,” say a vanilla creme, on her fork and dips it beneath the chocolate. When she draws it out, the white creme is completely covered in brown chocolate and, without touching it with her finger, she deftly places it on a piece of smooth paper. A little twirl of the fork or drawing a p.r.o.ng across the chocolate will give the characteristic marking on the top of the chocolate creme. The chocolate rapidly sets to a crisp film enveloping the soft creme. There are in use in many chocolate factories some very ingenious covering machines, invented in 1903, which, as they clothe cremes in a robe of chocolate, are known as ”enrobers”; it is doubtful, however, if the chocolates so produced have even quite so good an appearance as when the covering is done by hand.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE ENROBER.

A machine for covering cremes, etc., with chocolate.

Reproduced by permission of Messrs. Savy Jeanjean & Co., Paris.]

It would be agreeable at this point to describe the making of cremes (which, by the way, contrary to the opinion of most writers, contain no cream or b.u.t.ter), and other products of the confectioner's art, but it would take us beyond the scope of the present book. We will only remind our readers of the great variety of comestibles and confections which are covered in chocolate--pistachio nut, roasted almonds, pralines, biscuits, walnuts, nougat, montelimar, fruits, fruit cremes, jellies, Turkish delight, marshmallows, caramels, pine-apple, noisette, and other delicacies.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A CONFECTIONERY ROOM AT MESSRS. CADBURY'S WORKS AT BOURNVILLE.

Cutting almond paste by hand moulds.]

_Milk Chocolate._

We owe the introduction of this excellent food and confection to the researches of M.D. Peter of Vevey, in Switzerland, who produced milk chocolate as early as 1876. Many of our older readers will remember their delight when in the eighteen nineties they first tasted Peter's milk chocolate. Later the then little firm of Cailler, realising the importance of having the factory on the very spot where rich milk was produced in abundance, established a works near Gruyeres. This grew rapidly and soon became the largest factory in Switzerland. The sound principle of having your factory in the heart of a milk producing area was adopted by Cadbury's, who built milk condensing factories at the ancient village of Frampton-on-Severn, in Gloucesters.h.i.+re, and at Knighton, near Newport, Salop. Before the war these two factories together condensed from two to three million gallons of milk a year.

Whilst the amount of milk used in England for making milk chocolate appears very great when expressed in gallons, it is seen to be very small (being only about one-half of one per cent.) when expressed as a fraction of the total milk production. Milk chocolate is not made from milk produced in the winter, when milk is scarce, but from milk produced in the spring and summer when there is milk in excess of the usual household requirements, and when it is rich and creamy. The importance of not interfering with the normal milk supply to local customers is appreciated by the chocolate makers, who take steps to prevent this. It will interest public a.n.a.lysts and others to know that Cadbury's have had no difficulty in making it a stipulation in their contracts with the vendors that the milk supplied to them shall contain at least 3.5 per cent. of b.u.t.ter fat, a 17 per cent. increase on the minimum fixed by the Government.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FACTORY AT FRAMPTON, GLOUCESTERs.h.i.+RE, AT WHICH MILK IS EVAPORATED FOR MILK CHOCOLATE MANUFACTURE.

(Messrs. Cadbury Bros., Ltd.).]

SPECIMEN OUTLINE RECIPE.

Ingredients required for _milk chocolate_:

Cacao nib or ma.s.s (from 10 to 20 per cent.), say 10 Cacao b.u.t.ter 20 Sugar 44-3/4 Milk solids (from 15 to 25 per cent.), say 25=(200 parts of milk.) Flavouring 1/4 -------- 100

Milk chocolate consists of an intimate mixture of cacao nib, sugar and milk, condensed by evaporation. The manner in which the milk is mixed with the cacao nib is a matter of taste, and the art of combining milk with chocolate, so as to retain the full flavour of each, has engaged the attention of many experts. At present there is no general method of manufacture--each maker has his own secret processes, which generally include the use of grinding mills, _melangeurs_, conches, moulding machines, etc., as with plain chocolate. We cannot do better than refer those who wish to know more of this, or other branch of the chocolate industry, to the following English, French and German standard works on Chocolate Manufacture:

_Cocoa and Chocolate, Their Chemistry and Manufacture_, by R.

Whymper (Churchill).

_Fabrication du Chocolat_, by Fritsch (Scientifique et Industrielle).