Mike Nolan
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The USDA database used to give you weights for various amounts of products, like a cup of peanut butter. These days they don't give volumetric measurements at all, just 100 grams.
Their 'serving sizes' aren't always useful, either. While it is probably true that there are 30 grams of flour in a serving of bread, that doesn't help you use the nutritional data when it is in grams. The difference between 3 and 4 grams of protein in a 30 gram serving is pretty large, especially when you consider that anything from 2.50 to 3.49 grams is considered 3 grams.
Pullman pans have the same problem, you can't see how its doing. Most recipes for bread in a Pullman pan suggest removing the lid for the last 5-10 minutes of baking time.
A lot of pages come up when you search for 'baking bread in a cloche', but it looks like about half of them are places trying to sell a cloche. How good the ones that actually talk about baking bread in a cloche are is a separate issue. 🙂
We're having burgers on the grill. I mixed up some five bean salad and will probably taste it at supper, mainly to see if I need to adjust seasonings, but it probably needs to marinate for a day.
We had soup-and-salad tonight.
I'm looking at bean salad recipes, because Sams isn't currently carrying the Paisley Farm bean salad we've been getting there for several years.
I'm looking at trying a variant of tangzhong bread done in the style of New England hot dog buns, but without the special pan. Might be something I try on Tuesday.
In the past week we've had hot dogs, burgers, tacos, sub sandwiches, gyros and tonight we had BLT's, so I think we've successfully kicked off the summer menu. 🙂
We had takeout.
I made my potato salad tonight, might have over-cooked the potatoes a little, so it may be a little mushy, but my mother did that about half the time, too. It tastes right, and that's the important part. It may firm up a bit overnight, it's always better the day after it's made anyway.
I'm getting started on making my mother's oil-and-vinegar potato salad, something my mother always made for Memorial Day (the first picnic at our grandfather's cabin outside of town), the 4th of July and Labor Day (towards the end of the picnic season).
Today is National Burger Day, so that's what we're having for supper.
I don't think the dial ones are very useful, I find them hard to read through the oven glass. Sometimes I can't tell if it says 325 or 350 and that's a big difference. If you have to open the door and bend down to read them, you're letting out the heat.
The CDN grill surface thermometer looks like it might have some potential, though. It looks like the range might be easier to read with more precision.
I find opening the door as little as possible and using an infrared thermometer on the side walls, back walls and other surfaces (like a pan or baking stone) gives me a good idea what the temperature is like in several places.
In engineering classes, we used to talk about the distinction between accuracy and precision. And with ovens the question of exactly where the temperature is being monitored is a separate issue, there will be areas that are noticeably hotter than others. The use of a convection fan is another factor.
A chef friend once told me about the bread test he runs whenever he starts working in a new kitchen, he toasts bread in the oven at several different temperatures and rack positions and that way he knows where the hot spots are.
Most ovens controls measure the temperature in one place, usually along the side wall. You can't always see where the sensor is located though.
Some possibilities for alternatives to dial thermometers: Search for Taylor 5921n or Comark OT600K. The Comark one say it uses mercury, if so I'm surprised it is still available for sale.
I have a Maverick digital oven thermometer with a probe that is designed to hang from one of the oven racks. It gives an 'average' reading rather than instant readings, which is kind of weird. The cables on digital probes tend to wear out especially if subjected to heat over 400 degrees.
I've used it along with my CDN candy thermometer a couple of times, setting the probes side by side to see how they compare. Both gave similar readings, but the average temperature reading tended to lag the instant reading one by several minutes, which is logical, due to the hysteresis effect.
My son gave me a 'meater plus' thermometer with a cordless probe which you stick inside your meat. It gives you an internal temperature as well as an oven temperature on your phone. (The fact that most of the electronics is below the surface of the meat seems to protect it.) They say not to use it with bread, though, that probably doesn't insulate the electronics enough.
The GrillEye looks interesting, it appears to have an operating range up to 300 degrees C (572F). It comes with two probes but it says you can use up to 6 at a time.
How long did they proof at room temperature after coming out of the fridge? The most common cause of blowouts is under-proofing before it goes in the oven, though if the surface develops a crust or it isn't slashed enough that can also contribute to expansion in undesirable places, which is what a blowout is.
I did try Ginsberg's Danish rye bread recipe, mainly because there was a BBGA forum thread on it that piqued my interest, but I had several problems with it that I attribute to things I did incorrectly. (I also ran short on a couple of ingredients.) I'll try it again before I write a formal review of it here.
I do want to get back into testing Ginsberg recipes more frequently. Hopefully this will re-start the project.
I did put the Danish rye bread back in the oven for about an hour, parts of the top are now decidedly overbaked, but the middle is still somewhat soft and gummy. It still tastes interesting with some cheese, even with some butter on it.
I'll try this recipe again in a few weeks, but I plan to review some other Danish rye bread recipes to see if I can find some ideas to make it turn out better.
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