"Chembake" > wrote in message
oups.com...
>
> JMF wrote:
>> Here in Italy I was given to taste, for the first time, "Cioccolato di
>> Modica". (Modica is a town in Sicily.)
>>
>> They said "It's different, it doesn't use cocoa butter." And it seemed
>> very
>> grainy. This version also had orange peel.
>>
>> Anybody knowledgeable about this type of chocolate and can tell me a bit
>> more?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> John
>
> No cocoa butter ? then its an ersatz chocolate....a compounded
> 'chocolate' made with sugar,cocoa butter substitute fats., cocoa
> powder, sugar,emulsifier SMS/STS/LC.

You know, after years and years it still doesn't occur to me often enough to
just Google something.

So I Googled "Modica Chocolate" and here's what I got:

The culture of a people includes diverse elements such as history,
traditions, customs and foods.

The Sicilian Cuisine is well-known for numerous unique specialties, for its
large use of important agricultural typical products like pistachio, carobs,
prickly pears, and for other traditional products like D.O.P. extra-vergine
olive oils, D.O.C. wines and citruses.

The pastry-making is perhaps the best celebrated of all Sicilian
specialties, with a range of products able to satisfy the most exigent
gourmet. More and better than any other foods, our pastry specialties show
the signs of the many dominations that have ruled over this Island
throughout the centuries. The pastry-making is considered a realm of
fantasy, that gives life to much elaborated and often symbolic shapes.

The Modican Chocolate is one of the best appreciated products of the
Sicilian pastry. It has a rectangular shape, 15cm long, and can be divided
into four smaller bars. It is prepared according to a traditional recipe
dating back to the Aztec ancient civilization and handed down to us by the
Spaniards.

Upon entering a traditional "dolceria modicana", you'll smell delicious
flavours coming from the genuine ingredients used in the chocolate-making,
such as bitter cocoa paste, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and cocoa butter.

The basic ingredients are 500gr of sugar semolato, 500gr of bitter cocoa
paste, either a cinnamon or a vanilla roll, and a cocoa butter bar.
The latter is specifically required to amalgamate all ingredients.

In the past this chocolate was prepared using some specific utensils, like
the "spianatoio", an half moon shaped tool, made of lava stone, where all
ingredients were low-heated and mixed. They were also rolled with a stone
rolling pin, whose weight varied according to the different working steps.

Today the chocolate-making uses modern saucepans, but has preserved the
traditional pans which are commissioned to the fewest tinsmiths left.

The traditional recipe requires ingredients to be rolled three times in the
refining process.

The mixture obtained is placed into rectangular forms that give the
chocolate their well-known shape. Before it solidifies the forms are lined
up on a large wooden tray that is beaten against a marble table top, serving
to expel air bubbles and leave the top side of the bars shiny and smooth.
Then chocolate is left to cool down for about 24 hours.