288307 Wed Jan 23 04:02:51 -0800 2002 10 27 General Chowhounding Topics 0 1555002 Repeating my question here. Anyone knows anything about Carob? Are they good replacement for chocolate and how about their nutritious value say calories per 100g? Wed Jan 23 04:02:51 -0800 2002 0 Ronnie 1 1555007 Carob looks like milk chocolate. A person could charitably say that it has very little flavor. I think it's one of those foods that only someone who give a high rating to the abstract notion of "healthfulness" in determining their preferences could claim to actually "like". (I bake with wheat flour...do I therefore "like" it? No, it's a neutral thing, neither liked nor disliked.) The nutritional content of carob flour is comparable to other flours. The carob bar is a factory-made junk food, more so than chocolate. Its fat is more saturated than cocoa butter, as carob is basically a very low-fat food, which needs a great deal of saturated fat added to make it appear like a chocolate bar. For specific nutrition information, just pick up a package of any particular product and read the label. You could probably use the carob flour as a substitute for cocoa in a recipe, but the finished product wouldn't taste at all like chocolate. I would hesitate to used carob bars in cooking for any reason, but it's your time and money. My mother used to feed us this all the time, and I think it tastes like dirt. Wed Jan 23 10:04:30 -0800 2002 1555002 0 ironmom 2 1555009 Tastes like dirt? Yup. Wed Jan 23 10:27:18 -0800 2002 1555007 0 Mimi 3 1555043 The funny thing is, my mother doesn't eat chocolate because she says her father pointed at a chocolate bar melting on the pavement and said it was dirty. ("Don't touch that!") Since then she's always associated chocolate with dirt. Wed Jan 23 14:10:46 -0800 2002 1555009 0 ironmom 4 1555227 One of life's little ironies.... Fri Jan 25 15:20:51 -0800 2002 1555043 0 lissar 2 1555014 sometimes carob is just like you describe it. :P. i like to use it to make cocoa, though. just heat a bit of whole milk and sift some carob into it as it heats (the sifting is very important). then add sugar to taste. it makes a very earthy cocoa. i love it! grate in a bit of fresh nutmeg to finish, if ya like. Wed Jan 23 11:42:05 -0800 2002 1555007 0 grouchy chef 2 1555051 Ironmom is right, carob, when processed into candy, etc is as much, if not more, of a junkfood as chocolates. I think of all the "carob" bars and brownies that "health food" stores have carried for years it's funny. I love chocolate, the purer the better! It does have stimulant properties, for me a handful of Hersheys kisses before bed can keep me from falling asleep. This might be why carob was popular to those on diets restricting stimulants, such as coffee, tea, chocolate, a separate issue from calories. I do keep a jar of carob powder, and what I like it for is in shakes with dates, bananas, nutmeg, lowfat milk, or yogurt. I think this is just a nostalgia thing for me as I grew up in Laguna Beach drinking smoothies, a real California beach life staple. Not a substitute for chocolate!! Wed Jan 23 14:46:20 -0800 2002 1555007 0 ciaolette 1 1555008 Sorry, Ronnie, I never saw your original post. From the 3rd edition Nutrition Almanac by Lavon J. Dunne: 1 tablespoon carob flour weighs 8 gms, has 14 calories, .4 gms protein, 6.5 gms carbohydrate, .64 gms fiber, 28 mg calcium, .33 mg copper, 6 mg phosphorous, and .1 gm total lipid (fat). Carob flour, aka St. John's Bread, has its own unique flavor and some people find it quite delicious. It is an acceptable substitute for people who are allergic to chocolate and desperate for the chocolate experience. But it's definitely not the same. The taste and texture are different and (personally) should not be used as a substitute, since chocolate seekers are hunting for something else. If you want to bake with it, find a recipe that you know will work and that you are already familiar with (many cookbook recipes unfortunately do not work!) and try substituting 2 Tbsp. carob for each 2 Tbsp. flour, for each cup of flour in that recipe. Or try substituting carob for the equivalent amount of cocoa, and add a little more liquid - carob tends to be drier than cocoa. If you like the basic concept/flavor, make recipe adjustments. Good luck. Wed Jan 23 10:22:52 -0800 2002 1555002 0 Mimi 1 1555010 Remembering when I was six or eight (30 years ago), my mom used to buy me Carob Milk to get me off of chocolate milk. I recall drinking a whole quart in one sitting. Then I remembering getting the worst case of Montezuma's Revenge that lasted two days and kept me from school as I spent more time with the porcelain throne than anything else... Wed Jan 23 10:28:39 -0800 2002 1555002 0 Renee 1 1555082 Carob... kind of like the inverse of Proust's madeleine to many of us who grew up in the seventies. Brings up lots of bad memories. I don't know what you're planning to do with carob, but if I may make a suggestion, DO NOT try to give it to children as a substitute for chocolate! First of all, it smells bad. Not to adults, of course. But I distinctly recollect loathing the smell of carob bars, powder, etc. when I was a kid. In particular, there was this brand of carob/honey ice cream that was very popular at least in Southern California back then. My mother used to buy it for my little brother and me. Hateful stuff. Bad enough they tried to get rid of the chocolate, but then they had to go and replace the sugar with honey! What were they thinking? Probably tasted fine if you were stoned, but not if you were seven. Wed Jan 23 20:41:53 -0800 2002 1555002 0 Sheryl 1 1555194 I think the only thing that carob is really good for is if you can't have chocolate due to dietary restrictions, e.g. if you're the family dog and will get very very ill from eating chocolate. It's sort of like mediocre decaf coffee; the taste is sort of there, but it's missing... something. Taste any of the carob candies out there and you will likely find yourself longing for a bar of Valrhona (or maybe just a Hershey's bar). Fri Jan 25 04:34:40 -0800 2002 1555002 0 JK Grence (Cosmic Jester)