Tempering without a thermometer

Melt two-thirds of your chocolate gently until just fluid — no hotter than feels barely warm on the lip. Take it off the heat and stir in the remaining third, chopped fine, a little at a time, until it stops melting into the mass.

The unmelted third is carrying Form V crystals and is seeding them into the melt. When added chocolate stops dissolving, the mass has cooled to working range. This works reasonably well and it is what to do when there is no thermometer in the house.

Chocolate at working temperature — around 31–32°C for dark — feels slightly cool against the lower lip, because it is just below body temperature. Chocolate that feels warm is too hot; chocolate that feels distinctly cold is too cool and thickening.

It is a real technique used by working chocolatiers, and it is accurate to perhaps a degree or two with practice. That is enough for coating and not really enough for moulding.

Whatever method you use, verify: dip a knife or a strip of baking paper, set it aside at cool room temperature, and look at it after three to five minutes.

Properly tempered chocolate sets in that time with an even gloss and no streaks. If it is still wet, dull or streaky at five minutes, it is not in temper — remelt and start again rather than committing a batch of pieces to it.

The windows involved are about two degrees wide, and the difference between Form IV and Form V is a couple of degrees of rewarming. A digital probe thermometer costs less than the chocolate in a single failed batch.

The thermometer-free methods are worth knowing because they teach what the temperatures are for. They are not a substitute for a working chocolatier's precision, and nobody working professionally does without one.