[Mike Nolan]

There was a post on the BBGA forum recently on a home-brew kit for monitoring your sourdough culture, it really doesn't surprise me that someone's selling a similar item. It strikes me as information overkill, not that I haven't been guilty of that at times myself.

But most sourdough bakers know their starter about as well as they know their pets, if not better. I can look at mine, and smell it, and know whether it needs to be fed, whether it is ready to be used for making bread, whether it is developing problems, etc.

In fact, I take it back. I know more about how my sourdough culture is behaving than I do about my cat's behavior.

[Mike Nolan]

Paint chips is actually a pretty good description of what dried starter looks like.

[Mike Nolan]

I find there are a lot of dishes that are just too big for two people, but the freezer helps out a lot. Even when I make an apple pie, we tend to give a third of it away, just so we don't eat it all!

I'm planning another lavash pizza tonight, the last one was excellent.

[Mike Nolan]

Cheese, especially a strong cheese like a sharp cheddar, tends to overpower the delicate nature of fish. There are exceptions to the "don't mix fish with cheese" rule, the tuna melt is one of them. I think the tomato acts as a buffer between the tuna salad and the cheese, though.

Shellfish doesn't count as fish, which is why something like a crab alfredo or lobster mac and cheese is OK. (I'm sure there are shrimp and cheese dishes, but I don't eat shrimp.)

We had reubens tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

That's a strange way to 'cook' meat. I think I understand the physics behind it, I just don't think it's something I'd be likely to do.

I looked at the conference, it is primarily aimed at cottage-industry bakers. That's not in my current plans.

[Mike Nolan]

Of course the government will tell you inflation is under control. But with politicians, you want to pay attention when they start hand-waving, because their other hand will be picking your pocket.

I have to say I'm really worried about these 'wealth tax' ideas, not that I give a fig about whether Jeff Bezos has to pay it, but because the two largest pools of individual wealth in this nation are homes and retirement funds like IRAs and 401-K's.

I already pay around 2% of the cost of my home in real estate taxes every year, the largest chunk of which goes to the school district, where 80% of the budget is payroll.

[Mike Nolan]

The bread is good enough to eat, but it really isn't a boule, it's more like a ciabatta or a focaccia for shape. It would probably make a good bread for bruschetta or dips.

As to my scoring, it isn't really visible. I'll try a different dough in a few days.

The crust is chewy, like I would expect of a sourdough bread.

[Mike Nolan]

We've added a lot of things to macaroni and cheese over the years, including meats and veggies.

We used to add a package of frozen chopped broccoli, it was pretty good. Tuna fish, on the other hand, was not great. The old rule about not mixing fish and cheese exists for a reason.

I still like making it with a can of mushroom soup and some ground beef, it is a good way to use up left over ground beef from when we make tacos.

I haven't been to a Shoney's in a long time, but I've had their cabbage soup, it was pretty good, though I've had better.

[Mike Nolan]

Was the corned beef and cabbage in the macaroni and cheese, or just a separate course?

I can't really say I'm all that fond of corned beef and cabbage myself, but that's largely because the only corned beef you can get is so fatty.

I like cabbage in soups, but my wife doesn't really like cooked cabbage. She'll eat sauerkraut, but doesn't really care for cole slaw, either. Sometimes I'll just eat a wedge of cabbage with some salt, but that's a way to get way too much sodium in your diet, not that sauerkraut is especially low sodium.

I'm going to be starting a batch of sauerkraut in the next few days, though.

[Mike Nolan]

Regarding today's less successful bread, I think it is important to show failures as well as successes. I know there are baking sites where only the successes get shown. We all HAVE fails, and I think we learn more from thinking or talking about what went wrong.

[Mike Nolan]

Not sure, but I find it hard to keep bagels more than about 3 days, too. Maybe it has something to do with how boiling them gelatinizes the surface? Or maybe it affect how much or where moisture is retained?

I did get some micro-perforated bags and bagels and baguettes both lasted longer in them, but they got kind of dry after a couple of days, kind of like keeping them in a paper bag.

Bagels freeze well, and it makes life easier if you slice them before freezing them. Leave them out for a few minutes and they're ready for the toaster.

[Mike Nolan]

Today's bagels came out looking good. I made two with havarti cheese.

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[Mike Nolan]

It has enough of a sourdough taste for me to be aware of it, but it isn't overwhelmingly sour. The internal structure is fairly open, so the new starter seems to be coming along well.

We'll see what my wife thinks of it later today. Sourdough and her don't always get along.

[Mike Nolan]

Well, the dough for the scoring practice loaf was a high hydration (75%) no-knead formula. High hydration doughs usually don't work well for me, and that was the case again today. The loaf flattened out when I dumped it on the counter after the final rise and though I tried to reshape it into a boule it still flattened out a lot in the Dutch oven. I probably needed to do more stretch-and-folds on the dough before the final rise.

The scorings didn't hold up well in the oven, either, though the blade did a decent job of cutting.

We'll see how the loaf tastes, it was the first I've made with my new rye starter, and it seemed active enough.

Bagel dough is rising, so I should end today's baking with a win.

This loaf is about 9 inches in diameter but only about 1 1/2 inches high.

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[Mike Nolan]

I told my wife we're going to have that classic Irish dish tomorrow, corned beef on bagels. 🙂

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