Monday, May 24, 2010
Pacojet vs. Batch Freezer
I have worked in some of this countries top restaurants and they have all had some type of machinery to spin ice cream. Which machine works better batch freezers or the Pacojet? Well I believe it is a matter of opinion. You have to look at a few variables when thinking about this topic. First and foremost how much money are you going to have to purchase your machinery? What types of products are you going to be making? How much space do you have available etc.? There are a lot of things that you must consider when purchasing. When it comes to functionality, both machines will produce a quality product. You have to look at the pros and cons of each machine and think about which will be the best fit for your business. If you are not familiar with the Pacojet I will give a brief explanation. It is basically a tabletop machine that weighs about 30 pounds and has a very small footprint on the counter. The way this machine works is that it uses beakers specifically designed to fit as the vessel to put your ice cream/sorbet base into. You place the beaker filled with your base into a freezer and freeze the liquid solid. After it has frozen completely you place the beaker into the Pacojet machine fitted with a blade attachment. Basically what happens is that a blade drills down into the frozen ice cream and “shaves” the base so fine that it appears to be “churned.” The texture and mouth feel of the finished product is very smooth with very small ice crystals. The way a regular batch freezer works is that you poor your base into the machine and a paddle aerates the ice cream while a cooling element chills the mixture. There are certain machines that you can adjust the speed of the paddle to create more or less overrun (amount of air that is incorporated into your base as it is churned). There are many factors to choose from when purchasing an ice cream machine. I just wanted to touch on a few things that I thought are of importance. I believe that every establishment serving plated desserts should have at least one type of machine to produce frozen confections.
I'm so torn on the subject, I love the ease and functionality of the paco but I find myself missing my old Taylor at times because I had so much more control over the consistency of the finished product... especially when it comes to sorbets. For now I've settled for keeping my ice creams/sorbets ect. in a deep freezer next to my station; which actually keeps the product too cold and pacoing a la minute... our kitchen is just too hot to keep them in the stand up
ReplyDeleteWow sounds like you need to start saving for a new batch freezer. I have also had problems keeping my IC's and sorbets in temper,just another lesson in organization I guess. Just imagine a world where all IC's and sorbets were kept in a place where there would be no need for re-pacoing, re-tempering etc. That would just be too easy.
ReplyDeletei'm curious to know how the ice creams/sorbets made in a pacoject hold up over time? for example, if I froze the final product in a pint container??? thanks for any help you can offer!
ReplyDeleteIce creams and sorbets made in the pacojet will hold up the exact same as they would when spun in a traditional batch freezer. The great thing about the pacojet is that it comes with metal canisters in which you would fill with your ice cream base. After spinning your base in the pacojet you can just place the whole canister in the freezer, there is no need to transfer your finished sorbet or ice cream base to a pint. Hope this helps Rebecca.
ReplyDeleteI am always glad to help
ReplyDeleteThe pacojet definitely, caught my eye, as it seems very versatile, in other kitchen applications. I have found Pacojet is great, for making fresh fruit sorbets but ice creams are grainy and extremely inconsistent, in texture.
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