Complex Recipes: Flavor Sub-Compounding?

[muranternet]

So there's this bakery near my house that makes an amazing fruit torte. Strawberry, hint of raspberry, butter cream frosting, yellow cake, light chocolate mousse, shaved almonds, all well-balanced without being too heavy or cloying. In a fit of optimism I ordered some flavors I thought would go into a mix like this, but I haven't dared open most of them yet. I need a process.

Does anyone here do subcompounding? I know some people use flavor bases like Milkstone, but for this recipe I thought it might make more sense to isolate the components of the overall flavor profile, i.e. get the fruit filling, get the icing, get the hint of almonds, get the mousse, maybe the cake (I haven't had much luck with cake flavors and could probably just toss in a touch of vanilla). I do individual flavor testing but mixing the estimated 12 or so flavors in my head is beyond me at the moment. Of course I'm going to jump in and try it anyway, but if anyone has experience with this style of mixing I'd appreciate advice that might save me some wasted flavoring and frustration. Thanks.

 

[Norrin]

Well you could....er......um.....you know just......GOOD LUCK with that. Due to the time it takes for flavours to mature in e-liquid I think this is going to be a long process and hard to get a small quantity done that will allow adding extra of what you think is lacking. If you do get it though please post the results because it sounds nice.

 

[MonicaRae]

I know this may not be very helpful but I belong to a few DIY groups of FB and lately they're are all about Milkstone and Fruitstone Recipes!

Quite a few members have posted theirs - I'm not sure if your on FB or would be interersted in the recipes but if so shoot me a PM and I'll get you the names of the groups.

They seem to be using this really cool new calculator where you can add a ton of flavors to your mix and it'll help you figure out the recipe. Don't have the link off hand but it was just posted in the group either last night or this morning

 

[aikanae1]

I'd be interested in that calculator. Does it allow 0 PG mixes?
This is the way I'd like to mix also but a reciepe is a much easier way to go.

 

[Istand]

I will be interested in that calculator too,
I usually mix a few flavors but is really hard to get it done.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Soignee]

I'd like to take a look at the calculator too.
TIA

 

[readeuler]

I've always wanted to try what you described - get each component right individually - but I think it works better for "fill in the blank" recipes, where you make a custard base (for example), then add a fruit of your choice. With a recipe as complex as your own, I think the flavors are going to play off each other. So even if you perfect the chocolate, and perfect the buttercream, I think combining them will be different from "the sum of the parts".

I think your best bet is to mix small 100 drop batches. 1 drop = 1%. With many ingredients, its likely that your mix will be a considerable percentage, 20% at least. This should be enough to taste immediately to know if you've got a potential winner. Potential winners get made into a bigger batch and let aged for a day or two, to see what happens.

Even if you have to do 10 of these 100 drop tests, I imagine you'd use less than 1 ml of each individual flavor.

That's definitely an ambitious task you've got for yourself, but it will be delicious when you pull it off!

ETA: And by those 100 drop tests, I did mean an attempt at the full recipe. Within the first couple tests, you should know what needs tuned down, and what's not coming through, etc. I made 5 of these tests yesterday, trying for a nice french toast with strawberries and whipped cream Didn't get a perfect match yet, but found some decent juices along the way!