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Wrapping Chocolate
at Mon, 19 Apr 2004 20:31:06 GMT in
>, (Reg)
wrote :
>Alex Rast wrote:
>
>> First, wrap the chocolate in parchment (it's about the lowest-odour
>> non- sticky paper.
....
>Alex,
>
>I take it from your description you are against wrapping or vacuum
>packing in plastic wrap? Is this bad under all conditions?
>
Packaging in plastic is a disaster. Plastic off-gasses, and so any
chocolate wrapped in plastic will take on a plasticky odour. It's always a
"few points off" in my opinion when a manufacturer chooses to wrap
chocolate in plastic. The worst is when companies making organic chocolate
wrap in plastic, and then proudly advertise on the plastic wrapper -
"without aluminum". As if wrapping in plastic made the situation better!
No, of course, it makes it WORSE. Much worse.
A few companies use cellulose, which looks a lot like ordinary plastic but
is much kinder indeed. Cellulose doesn't off-gas and doesn't permeate the
chocolate with its own flavour. I've seen a few health-food stores who sell
small cellulose bags, and that's another practical way to store chocolate.
The disadvantage is that unlike aluminum you can't get a gas-tight seal.
Most of the top-end manufacturers use a double-sided foil, the inner side
being coated with brass (or is it gold?) Anyway, that's a pretty good
solution as well. Actually, the very, very best coating would be iridium,
which is hideously expensive per oz but since you'd only need a few microns
thickness could probably be achieved practicably.
--
Alex Rast
(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)
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