Posted by jan harper on March 31, 1999 at 20:06:42:
Hi, I have been in the business for 8 years and have never had a problem like this with buttercream at this new job. Maybe Gerald has some ideas. It is Italian Buttercream, and every single batch I make crystallizes, I have washed the syrup pot, put a lid on it, loveingly washed the sides with a pastry brush, and it still doesn't work. The last place I made it the chef said to cook the syrup to 120 C. Here he insists on 116 C. Here we do not add any cream of tartar. Here we do things slightly different again, after we add the syrup, he insists that too much volume is lost and we have to shut the machine down after it has whipped for 5-10 minutes, and let it cool down, before we incorporate the butter mix. This seems to take forever. He says that if the meringue and butter are not throughly mixed it will crystallize. This 20 qt mixing bowl is not in the best of shape, it has rust patches in it, could that cause some damage? I worked in a hotel and never had this problem it use to be a 45 minute job and now it takes about an hour and more, I enjoyed making butter cream now I dread it. One of my co-workers also never encountered this in all the places he worked, we need HELP, please and thank-you.