Description
By (author) Hodge Nathan
Short /annotation
The Art and Craft of Chocolate is a celebration of a beloved ingredient, from bean to bar, offering the enthusiast an understanding of how to make chocolate with household tools.
In The Art and Craft of Chocolate, world-renowned chocolate maker Nathan Hodge takes you on a grand tour of chocolate—from its processing, history, and trade to how it”s made, bean to bar. The book includes the basic principles of chocolate-making at home and recipes for traditional moles, drinks, baked goods, rubs, and more.
The Art and Craft of Chocolate opens with the very basics, beginning with the cacao tree, and explains the
process of growing cacao and the many hands it takes to process it.
For centuries, chocolate has been used for many purposes all over the world: from a currency during the Mayan empire, to homemade beverages consumed by farm workers in Central America for energy, as well as in moles and other dishes in Mexican cuisine. The Art and Craft of Chocolate covers the
cultural history of chocolate, as well as the birth of the chocolate bar.
The co-founder and head chocolate maker of Raaka Chocolate, Nathan Hodge, then shows you how to hack the
basic principles of chocolate-making at home using tools as simple as a food processor, a hair dryer, and a double boiler. In addition, he offers
recipes for traditional moles from different regions of Mexico;
traditional Mayan chocolate drinks; cocoa as a
meat rub; and various
baked goods.
An expert in the
bean-to-bar movement and a leader in
sustainable chocolate sourcing, Hodge introduces the concept of bean to bar chocolate—a process that starts with whole cocoa beans, which are roasted, ground, and smoothed into chocolate—and discusses sustainability and social consciousness, along with his own chocolate making philosophy.
The Art and Craft of Chocolate is your resource on all topics chocolate.
Table of contents
1. Chocolate Comes From A Tree
a) What is Cacao?
b) Where Cacao Grows
c) How Cacao is farmed
2. Cacao Takes Many Hands to Process
a) Genetics and Terroir
b) Harvesting and transport
c) Fermentation and flavor
d) Drying and export
3. A Brief History of Chocolate Culture
a) The Olmecs
b) The Aztecs
c) The Spanish Empire
d) Early European Chocolate
e) The Chocolate Bar is Born
4. Complexities of the Cocoa Trade
a) Early Dutch Trading
b) The Commodity market
c) Economic Challenges of Cacao Farming and Global Trade
d) Growing Specialty Cocoa Market
e) Wild and Heirloom Cacao
5. Chocolate Making Process
a) Selecting beans
b) Roasting and Winnowing
c) Refining and Conching
d) Tempering and flavoring
6. Bean to Bar Chocolate
a) Brief History of Bean to Bar
b) Chocolate Making Philosophy
c) Sustainability and Social Consciousness
d) Great Chocolate Factories of the World
7. Tasting Chocolate with Experts
a) Meeting the Experts
b) How to Taste Chocolate
c) Great Chocolate Pairings
8. Chocolatey Recipes
a) Chocolate Drinks
b) Chocolate as a Savory Ingredient
c) Unique Chocolate Desserts
Biographical note
Nathan Hodge is the co-founder and Head Chocolate Maker of Raaka Chocolate, a nationally distributed bean-to-bar chocolate company in Brooklyn, New York, founded in 2010.
Hodge appears as a featured subject in the film, Setting the Bar (2017), a documentary that focuses on the leading role Raaka has taken in the craft chocolate movement’s focus on sustainable cocoa sourcing.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.