[Mike Nolan]

We have a butler's pantry with lots of cabinets for storing china (we have a very large collection of Fiesta, for example) and some other kitchen items.
Recently I added a 4 foot high metal shelving unit there to hold flour containers. I can't say it has created significantly more working space in the kitchen, though. Kitchen space is like Parkinson's law, stuff expands to fill the space--and then some.

[Mike Nolan]

Churros are made from dough that is essentially a choux paste. There are so many bad versions of churros out there (fast food Mexican places generally ruin them) that I seldom buy them any more, the street food vendors actually seem to do them better.

[Mike Nolan]

Actually, I was up late and decided to go ahead and post the weekly topics.

[Mike Nolan]

If you think about a kitchen as a gathering place during parties and a place for serving food rather than preparing it and cleaning up afterward, having a working kitchen and a show kitchen makes a little more sense.

We have a kitchenette in the basement: 2 burner electric range, microwave oven, dishwasher. I've thought about turning it into a canning kitchen more than once by using a standalone induction cooktop, but that might require some rewiring to add a 220 outlet to support an induction unit large enough to handle a 24 quart canning pot. I should have put an exhaust fan there, but that might not be easy to add at this point.

[Mike Nolan]

We picked quite a few eggplants today, and didn't pick them all. The plants are still blooming, but as cold weather moves in we are likely nearing the end of the eggplants and tomatoes.

[Mike Nolan]

I got some chili out of the freezer, probably will have it in a couple of days. It looks like we've got one more warm spell coming but I see a 30 in the forecast for the next week.

[Mike Nolan]

I like ground lamb in a gyros, but my wife prefers all-beef gyros meat, and she won't eat other types of lamb, either.

When I was in college we had roast mutton more times than I care to count, it was one of the 'mystery meats' the dining halls served.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm canning tomato juice today, should have close to 6 quarts.

[Mike Nolan]

Shape definitely affects taste, though the effect can be subtle.

As an extreme example, consider making a boule (maximizing the interior) and a flatbread (maximizing the exterior) from the same batch of dough. If you want to take it one step further, make crackers or carta di musica.

We concluded this when we took a batch of dough (Reinhart's Pain de Campagne) and tried a variety of shapes: boules, baguettes, epis, fougasse, courunne. After baking we gave samples of them to friends, they were astonished to know all the loaves came from the same batch of dough.

A small boule can be a snack, like a pretzel bite, or a dinner roll. As the size increases, a large boule (like a miche) becomes a completely different experience.

I've been working on a taxonomy of bread shapes and techniques, separating out various factors, including things like bread pan vs free form breads. (A Pullman loaf is distinctly different from an open top pan loaf, too.) Dough that touches a solid surface bakes differently from dough that touches only air.

Braiding also seems to have an impact on taste, and there are literally dozens of braiding techniques. I can think of at least a half dozen 6-strand braids, and that's not yet counting the one from Deli Man, which Jeffrey Hamelman says is the same as one of the 6-strand braids in his book, though I still have my doubts.

Slashing and wash treatments may enter into it, too. (An epi, for example, starts out as a baguette.) I'm hoping to include toppings as well.

I'm working with a friend who is an expert in graphic analysis, what I'm hoping is to develop mathematical models of the major shapes so I can measure things like surface area and volume. This may allow me to compute the amount of outer crust, inner crust and interior, among other things.

I've discussed my theories on bread shape with a number of bakers, Peter Reinhart, among others, they're hoping I can pursue this to some kind of logical conclusion as to the effect shape has on taste.

[Mike Nolan]

Fresh Thyme is a chain, like Natural Grocers. We had one in Lincoln for several years, but it closed, I don't think they really rebounded from the pandemic. They had decent produce and cheese, I wasn't as impressed with their meats.

[Mike Nolan]

Cutting a soft loaf, especially while still warm, without smashing it flat is a bit of an art. Getting even slices is also an art. Some years ago I took a sliced loaf of asiago bread baked in a shaped tin to dinner at my sister-in-law's house, the slices were uniform enough that they asked me if we had a bread slicer.

Semolina is by definition a coarsely ground flour, durum flour is more finely ground, both made from durum wheat. As a practical matter, most semolina seems to have a fair amount of finely ground flour in it. Hodgson Mill, which I can't find locally any more, used to call it 'semolina and durum flour'.

[Mike Nolan]

25 pounds of BRM semolina is currently $43.49 plus shipping at Webstaurant.

Oddly enough, 50 pounds of Durakota semolina is $34.99, plus shipping.

[Mike Nolan]

The last time I was at Costco, a 12 pound bag of KA AP, which I think is the same as Sir Galahad, was still under $8, but spot wheat prices are going up again, though they're still below the high from early summer. The hot dry summer has to be impacting yield, and the situation in the Ukraine is affecting the whole world.

[Mike Nolan]

This video of baker Jimmy Griffin commenting on the slashing techniques of his students is interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u_KiTP0BfQ

[Mike Nolan]

Shaping is one of those things that requires attention to each loaf, otherwise you can end up with a set of loaves that don't even look like they came from the same recipe. (But I still say shape is the hidden taste dimension of bread, and one that few bread books discuss.)

Your loaves look good to me. I don't see major problems comparing them, either. As to the cross-section, I can't tell if it got squished a bit while slicing and/or if you didn't let it cool and the starch gel long enough. A different slashing pattern might change the cross-section profile, but just because a loaf is asymmetric or not slashed dead center, that's not a problem, even at a bakery. There are a lot of bread shapes, like a tabatiere, that are very asymmetric.

I often lose patience waiting for loaves to cool. Besides, eating warm fresh bread is such a sensual experience, very different from eating a fully cooled loaf. (And reheating bread doesn't bring back the earlier experience, I'd rather just toast it and enjoy that different experience.)

Ginsberg has one rye bread that he recommends be wrapped in plastic and allowed to age for 48 hours before slicing. I think I'd have to make some other bread at the same time to keep from tearing into the rye loaf as it ages!

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