The reason for the chocolatiers choosing the use of a tempering machine instead of doing tempering by hand is that manual tempering is very difficult. Another reason is if the chocolate is tempered with the tempering machine, the chocolate remains tempered for more time, even all night.

But even now, artisanal chocolatiers refuse to be tempted by tempering machines and stick only to tempering by hand, using tabliering, because they know manually-made chocolates do attract a huge segment of chocolate lovers. Tabliering hails from France and in this method melted chocolate is cooled on a heat-absorbing plane like a marble slab.

Moisture is an enemy to tabliering. All the equipment and the surfaces for doing tabliering must be kept dry. Even one or two drops of moisture may cause “seizing”, due to which the chocolate will become a hard lump and you won’t be able to design or create with it. Seizing may result even if you do rapid heating as well as freezing.

For tabliering, you’ll need a pound of chocolate as base and cooking gear like a knife, chopping board, spatula, mixing bowl, a double boiler and a thermometer capable of measuring even low temperatures like 82F and a cookie sheet. Note that all these must be moisture-free.

Cut the chocolate into thin ribbons, placing these on the upper pan of the double boiler. Use the lower pan to boil water on low heat. Regularly stir the chocolate ’til it melts to 108-115F, depending upon the type of chocolate. The molten chocolate, otherwise called the mush, is poured into a dry mixing bowl; watch that it pours cleanly without being lumpy.

Spread, scrape and work two-thirds of the melt on a marble slab with the spatula, until heat has lowered to about 80-82F. The remaining mush in the bowl should not harden and should retain a 100F temperature.

After the cooling temperature is attained, integrate the remaining one-third of the chocolate into the mixed mush and work as before ’til the whole mush reaches cooling levels. Dark chocolates must then be reheated to 86 to 90F; semi-sweet chocolates to 86 to 88F; and white chocolates to 82 to 84F. To check if ideal tempers have been reached, dip the end of the spatula into the chocolate and let air for 5 minutes. If you observe that the chocolate has hardened and become shiny, then it has tempered well. You can now dip, sculpt, mold or design after this.

But during the whole process of tabliering and while working, you must monitor and maintain the specific temperatures because otherwise, chocolate will lose temper and you’ll need to re-temper it. You can set the mush on a bain-marie for some time, ensuring that there is no moisture.