Mike Nolan
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I'm having some vision issues lately (difficulty focusing on close-up items, like books or recipes), so if I'm working from a recipe it is sometimes more of a work (and eye-strain headache) than I'm up for. I've got an eye doctor appointment scheduled, it may be time for me to have cataract surgery.
This new computer does a better job zooming in on things so I can read them, but the touchpad is so sensitive I wind up clicking on things I didn't mean to click on. I've lost a few posts that way already, and had to retype them.
Yes, that's a pre-ferment, my guess is it would be closer to a biga than a poolish, because it is pretty close to 100% hydration.
But as the articles more or less points out, in Italy any preferment is called a biga, just like in France all sourdough cultures are called levains.
Pate Fermentee sort of falls in between the cracks here. Sometimes called 'old dough', it varies from other preferments in that it often has most of the ingredients in the final dough, most notably some salt.
Salt is the friendly enemy of yeast, use enough of it and it will pretty much kill off the yeast. Salt is hygroscopic so it sucks up water that the yeast can't use to grow. (So does sugar.) But slowing down the yeast a bit can be a good thing if it allow more time for enzyme action, which breaks the complex starch in the wheat down into simpler sugars, generally maltose.
Peter Reinhart and others have written about the trade-off decisions bakers, especially commercial bakers who have a production schedule to meet, have to make, preferments trade a bit more time for more flavor. (A full-fledged sourdough starter is the ultimate preferment.)
Chad Robertson's Tartine Bakery books talk about acid balance in a sourdough, referring to the balance of lactic acid producing bacteria (LAB) and acetic acid producing bacteria (AAB). The AAB prefer colder temperatures, so if you refrigerate your starter, as most home bakers do in between baking sessions that may be a week or more apart, your sourdough is going to have more AAB and less LAB. (I have a tendency to get this backwards, but the LAB prefer higher temperatures.) Acetic acid produces a harsher more assertive sour flavor in bread.
One way around this is to prepare a young or immature starter by using only a very small amount of the mother starter culture (Robertson uses 5%) when making the levain for a batch of bread that is kept at room temperature. This way the LAB have their preferred growing conditions.
I wonder if they've changed suppliers or if someone holds a trademark on 'vermont cheese' that they have started enforcing?
My wife wants bagels for supper, so I've got bagel dough rising.
I was going to do an eye of round but both of us were feeling a bit off today, so we wound up just having oatmeal. I'll do the eye of round another time, I threw it in the freezer for now.
The Bread Lab folks at Washington State are IMHO focused more on commercial bakers than home bakers. They've got some very talented people, but this is NOT a recipe I would recommend to inexperienced bakers.
A step called 'full development' with no further detail might confuse even some experienced bakers.
We had creamed tuna on some croissants we bought at the farmer's market on Sunday. (Biscuits would have been better, we both agreed.)
Personally, I think they were something that wasn't ordered (at least for that store) and they really didn't know what to do with. I've only seen the baby ones in Nebraska a few times in 40 years. Most of the time they only have the jumbo ones, which are a lot more work to prepare and not as succulent.
There was a vendor at the farmer's market who was trying to grow artichokes last year, they only got a few tiny ones really late in the season. I don't know if they tried them again this year, we haven't been to the farmer's market much this year with the COVID-19 issues.
We had sandwiches with some of the last of the tomatoes from the garden.
You're assuming supermarket managers have any idea about who their customers are or what people do with flour and other ingredients. IMHO, they buy bleached flour because they can put it on really cheap specials, like 99 cents a bag.
I remember a few years ago I found some baby artichoke hearts at the nearby 'discount' grocery chain location. Once folks found they had them, they disappeared from the shelves quickly. (People were coming from across town to get them once the word got out.)
About a year later I asked the produce manager if they were going to get them again and he said no, because their customers are mostly 'lower income'. FWIW, this part of town has some of the most expensive real estate in the county.
We had been planning to go to a family gathering in Omaha for Thanksgiving, but even if it is held this year, I don't know that we'll go. I was suppose to make an apple pie for it this year, last year I brought an assortment of breads and made the gravy after I got there. (Some people find making gravy a distraction, I enjoy making gravy, I just don't get a chance to make it that often here.)
FWIW, I saw an article in the Wall Street Journal that says turkey ranchers are producing more small turkeys this year, assuming that there won't be as many big family gatherings needing a big bird. I haven't looked in the stores to see if the local supply reflects that trend.
Unbleached flour was hard to find before the shortages started around here. Some stores carry mostly bleached flours. I do keep some on hand, mainly for cookies.
I made some chicken salad, which is probably not the best thing to pair with ratatouille.
I saw the same article, I think on the WSJ but it might have been on the wire services so it could have appeared in several places.
There are limits to how long they can hold products, and of course that won't work for perishables. In some states there's an inventory tax, too.
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