For chocolate to possess the desirable qualities necessary for use in mass production, it must go through a process called tempering which encourages the crystals in cocoa butter to form and harden into a specific crystalline pattern. Once melted and cooled, the fats in chocolate can crystallize into any of six different forms, and only one of these has all the desirable qualities we try to achieve in tempering chocolate. Beta Crystal or Form V hardens into the solid, shiny chocolate we know. Untempered chocolate often does not fully solidify at room temperature, and if it does, it may become susceptible to fat bloom or become cloudy on the surface with a somewhat spongy texture. Fat bloom refers to the fats in the chocolate migrating to the surface and creating white-looking streaks and spots. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Cocoa butter is a fat composed of three or four glycerides of fatty acids. What complicates things in chocolate making is that each of these different fatty acids solidifies at a different temperature. Once a chocolate bar is melted, the fatty acid crystals separate. The goal in tempering melted chocolate is to bring the different fatty acid crystals of the cocoa butter into a single stable form. Tempering yourself is like organizing the individual dancers at a party into a Conga line. In chocolate, temperature and movement are the party hosts that bring together all the individual dancing crystals of fatty acids in long rows and, in the process, create stable crystallization throughout the chocolate mass. In the tempering process, the melted chocolate is first cooled, causing the fatty acid crystals to form nuclei around which the other fatty acids will crystallize. Once the crystals come together, the temperature is increased to prevent them from solidifying. Most culinary literature advises against heating chocolate above 49°C (120°F) for fear of burning the cocoa solids or causing the chocolate to irreversibly separate into solids and fats. But chocolate melting curves in technical literature indicate that most of the fats in cocoa butter do not melt until 50°C (122°F), and some manufacturers recommend heating the chocolate even higher, up to 55 °C (131 °F). C). Cocoa beans from different places vary: at the same temperature, cocoa butter from Malaysian beans grown near the equator will be solid, while cocoa butter from Brazilian beans grown in a cool climate will be very soft. General steps of ALL tempering methods: Step 1 – melt all cocoa butter, changes for each manufacturer Step 2 – rapid cooling, crystallization of good beta crystals and some beta-prime begins Step 3 – gentle heating, held for a few minutes, continuous formation of beta-crystals Step 4 - final heating, dissolves unwanted beta-primes Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay Tempering methods: Sowing - adding already tempered chocolate at room temperature to melt chocolate to lower the temperature and encourage the formation of beta-crystals. Marble Slab: Using a marble slab and constantly moving the chocolate is considered a traditional tempering method nowadays. Use of the microwave: considered highly effective, even preferential by some. It can burn easily.