Most chocolatiers start their ganaches with a certain chocolate flavor profile and visualize mixing different chocolates to achieve their goal, For instance, if the primary chocolate is a dark chocolate with 80% cocoa solids, then an addition of some milk chocolate might be necessary. The amount of milk chocolate addition is therefore always with respect to how much primary chocolate there is in the recipe. Therefore, the secondary chocolate percentage is always with respect to the weight of the first chocolate and not the total ganache weight.

For instance, one of the milk chocolate choices is designated as 40/21 Milk. This means that chocolate has 40% cocoa and 21% milk. 40% cocoa means the sum of x% cocoa butter and y% cocoa solids. In case of white chocolate; say 35/32,White, 35% indicates the total cocoa butter percentage (since white chocolate does not have any cocoa solids) and 32% milk.

No Cream: provides a ganache formulation which does not contain any cream. Please do not confuse this option with low calorie ganache formulations; Total AMF (Anhydrous Milk Fat) amount does not change with this option.
Caramel: some recipes require caramelization of sugars. To this end if the Caramelization option is selected then the algorithm replaces all crystalline sugars with sucrose. This option does not impact syrups in the recipe; they remain.
Sucrose Only: option is provided for those who do not have access to various syrups such as glucose and invert sugar or crystalline varieties such as sorbitol and dextrose. The algorithm solves the state equations considering only sucrose.

Well, there are three reasons:1) Water activity of the ganache, 2) mouthfeel, 3) crystallization behavior
When a mixture of sugars is used in a recipe, its overall water activity is lower then if an only single type of sugar is used
Mixing sugars results in a smoother more accessible mouth feel for the ganache
Mixing syrups and different type of crystalline sugars results in a ganache which over a period will retain its moist mouth feel and less likely to end up with sugar crystals that are not very pleasant.

Salt: a tiny quantity of salt, below the point where you might think there is salt in the ganache. Usually somewhere around 0.02% of the total ganache weight. It enhances the chosen flavor profile.
Citric acid: Sometimes it is sold as lemon powder. A small amount used with fruit ganaches significantly enhances flavor. Generally, somewhere around 0.08% weight.
Extracts: All sorts of extracts of fruit and herbs are available. These should be used in small quantities. Also important is to be aware of whether your extract is oil or alcohol based. When you are getting ready to mix the ganache ensure that oil-based extracts go into the chocolate container (discrete phase) and alcohol-based extracts are blended into the liquids (continuous phase). If you are unsure then put the extract in while the ganache is being homogenized.

Stripped ganache is a type of ganache that does not contain any chocolate. It replicated traditional ganache's mouthfeel but imparts fruit or other flavors that are more intense without chocolate dilution.

Ganaches are solid particle stabilized Pickering Emulsions. In a traditional ganache solid particles originate from the chocolate (i.e. cocoa solids). Since stripped ganache does not include chocolate the "particles" will have to be added into the emulsion. This is achieved by addition of whey or casein powder.

A small amount of alcohol helps in stabilizing this type of emulsion. This is the reason to add up to 3% alcohol in the recipe unless more alcohol is chosen.

This happens because the amount of fluids chosen by the user does not lead to a balanced ganache for the hardness value chosen. The algorithm adjusts the liquid levels in the ganache to achieve a balance. If your end use allows then you can try to reduce the H value.

The fundamental assumption on fruit purees is that they are 100% pure without any additions or subtractions. In certain instances the manufacturer adds invert sugar to the puree to adjust its flavor profile. Those are indicated with the "+" signs since in certain cases it is possible to buy the same fruit puree either as pure fruit puree or as sugar added version.

Such a practice is strongly discouraged. The reason is simple; if you are thinking in terms of percentages of ingredients in a ganache, if one element % is increased then the relative percentages of all other elements need to be adjusted. This is highly likely to lead to a ganache formula that is not properly balanced. This does not mean your ganache will immediately split. But it will deviate from the best it can be. It is of course up to you.

Yes, indeed there are. These limits are artificially imposed and are not derived from the theory. The min and max limits for various compounds are as follows: secondary chocolate: [min=5%, max=100%], nut paste: [1%, 30%], fruit: [1%, 40%], sweeteners: [1%, 20%], alcohol: [1%, 15%], oils: [1%, 15%], added liquids[1%, 20%]. As well, the overall sugar content of the ganache is limited at 40%.

You can use any spice but spices that are not in powder form are preferred since they are much easier to remove from the continuous phase (liquids; cream, milk, fruit puree etc.) of the ganache after being steeped.
If you must use a powdered spice, then use a damp cloth to filter out the spices from the continuous phase after steeping. Failing to do this will have an impact on the hardness of the ganache. Whether this will increase or reduce the hardness level chosen for the recipe will depend on the hydrophobic/hydrophilic sites ratio of the powdered spice grain. As well, a spice powder mixed with ganache will have a gritty mouthfeel.

You can substitute any liquor as long as it has no cream or sugar. Sugar content of the liquor increases the ganache's sweetness, and the cream content affects ganache hardness due to the liquor's AMF content.

First of all, please take a look at the question 20 below "What are the sources of error ....". It has relevant comments about yogurt. From the perspective of its constituent elements, yogurt is similar to milk and hence can be substituted instead of milk. But please make sure that you are using normal, whole milk yogurt. Here "normal" means a yogurt which retains all its whey content. In recent years yogurts with reduced whey content (water drained) became popular such as Chobani and others. Please do not use these yogurts since they have significantly less liquid content then the algorithm is expecting hence it will lead to an erroneous non-optimized recipe.

Yes you are right. We could have eliminated the small percentages, but if you are making a few kilos of ganache then the small percentages will amount to measurable and scalable amounts. So on the whole We decided to leave them in.

Let's start with dairy; cream 36%, whole milk 3.3%, skim milk 0.2%, butter 86% AMF. Fruit puree choice is based on Brand name "Les Vergers Boiron". For full disclosure; Sextant Chocolates have no formal or informal relationship with the company. Their product information provides more technical data and hence better suited for the Ganache Master algorithms. For nut pastes the primary assumption is that it is 100% ground nut without any additions such as sugars and sometimes replaced nut oil.

Emulsifiers are not needed for properly balanced ganaches since The type of emulsion within a ganache suspension is generally referred to as Pickering Emulsion. These emulsions are stabilized predominantly by particles and proteins . Although many commercial chocolates come with declared or undeclared lecithin. In chocolate making lecithin is not used as an emulsifier, since chocolate is not an emulsion. It is used to increase the flow properties of the chocolate by binding water (moisture). Lecithin alternative for improving the flow properties of chocolate is of course cocoa butter but the cost difference between lecithin and cocoa butter is so large that most manufacturers opt for lecithin instead of cocoa butter.

This is because many of the flavor profile elements such as chocolates, fruit, nut pastes and syrups contain sugar. If the Ganache Master algorithm cannot accommodate all of the requested sugar amount then the it provides the highest possible syrup amount for the recipe.

There are several parameters that are difficult to find accurate values for in the literature. The most annoying is the purposefully confounded chocolate composition data from almost all couverture producers. They do their utmost to translate the basic data into other forms so that the primary compound amounts are not disclosed. The more accurate numbers we can obtain, the more accurate ganache formulations Ganache Master can create using their own brand name.

Another source of error originates from not having good estimates on the densities of various compounds. This issue is more acute for powders. For instance, a fruit puree consists of water, sugars, and fibre. Density of different fruit fibres are hard to find in the literature. For other ingredients such as nut pastes, various dairy product options and other branded additions to the ganache this situation is even more annoying. For example, if you want to add yogurt to the recipe you can visualize the problem simply recalling the supermarket yogurt isle. Sextant Chocolates simply do not have the technical and financial resources to chemically analyze such diverse options and create brand named flavor options in Ganache Master.