Cleaning Chocolate Molds

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Permalink Reply by Greg Gould on November 6, 2012 at 2:44pm

Tried it again with very very hot water and doubling the lye and I still have a film, just not as thick.  I wish I had access to whatever solution you're using Brad, as I just have food grade lye, and now I'm out of that.  A few questions:

Do you soak your molds in the Sodium Hydroxide solution for some amount if time or do you just swish them around in it?

I'm rinsing the molds in a bucket of hot water.  Maybe I want to run hot water from a sprayer?

I'm using a solution of 5 oz Sodium Hydroxide to 15 pints of water, or about 2% Sodium Hydroxide.  Clearly that's not enough.  What % do you think your solution comes out to?

I can't get any food grade lye around here, I have to order it.  I can get pure Sodium Hydroxide crystals, but I don't know if it's food grade or what that means.  It's sold as a drain cleaner.  But if I rinse it, SH should be gone either way.  Do you think that's safe?

What's the brand name of the product you use?

What is the film? Is it soap (sodium hydroxide+fat from the cocoa butter=soap)?  Can I just polish it off or should I clean the molds with Dawn?

I'm about to try a 4:1 solution of Greased Lightning on one of my molds that has the film.  I'll post how it goes.

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Permalink Reply by Greg Gould on November 6, 2012 at 4:32pm

Greased Lightning leaves a scent on your molds so don't use it.  I tried it on a mold I never use.  Dawn and water got rid of the film.  
I'll try Sodium Hydroxide again later.

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Permalink Reply by antonino allegra on November 7, 2012 at 12:22am

Hi All, 

being absent for a while..busy re-locating my factory.

We buy SH directly from a chemical factory in liquid for (40% concentration), the crystals are just 100% pure so you need to be careful with the amount used and take enormous precautions while handling it!

We fill our sink with hot water and add SH, we soak for a while the molds and then rinse in hot water while gently scrubbing. Our results are not yet 100% but we are happy with it so far.

We are going to test a higher solution (till water turn pink as per Brad instruction)

Definitely is a matter of creating a "recipe":

X % SH @X% concentration for X amount of Liter of Hot water... 

Let's see who can crack this mystery of cleaning!!!

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Permalink Reply by Julie Hinton on December 5, 2012 at 2:59am

I once had difficulty getting my molds clean.  However I bought a standard Bosch dishwasher which has a disinfectant cycle that gets hotter than most dishwashers.  I believe that the heat factor is important for the complete elimination of the cocoa butter.  I use Cascade Advanced Power liquid and voila... clean molds.  Immediately when washing and rinsing are finished I hand dry them with a soft cotton cloth which both dries them and polishes them.  The results are fantastic!  I use primarily molds with smooth shapes and get excellent shine.  

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