Working with one chocolate manufacturer or company, a pastry cook may be familiar with a name or varietal of chocolates in that chocolate company's family. When switching manufacturers, or finding an equitable replacement from another company, a pastry cook will want to be sure to find a chocolate produce with the same cocoa solids so that the finished product will be similar.

Therefore, it is helpful to know what the cocoa percentage is of the chocolate you're working with to guide you in handling and preparation. A higher percentage will give you deeper notes.

Here is a simple chart of different chocolate manufacturers with the name of the chocolate or varietal and the percentage of cocoa inside. Not all the chocolate products are named but some of the more popular are listed, along with noting what type of chocolate it is, such as dark, milk, etc. The percentages come from manufacturers' literature or the blocks of chocolate themselves; you may find some distributors list a few of the chocolates as having a different percentage.

The key to substitutions with chocolates in enrobing or dipping, or in recipes such as mousses or other entremets, is to find a chocolate with a similar percentage so the finished result will be the same. You may find chocolates of the same percentage from different companies wildly different in smoothness and fluidity, but generally (and for example), if you are using a chocolate of 70 percent in a mousse recipe list of ingredients, you can easily substitute another brand with the same percentage without too much difference in the setting up of the finished product.