[Mike Nolan]

I picked a small bowl of tomatoes yesterday, probably 2-3 pounds. I could probably pick another bowl about the same size today. In a week or two I should have enough to consider making sauce or something else with them.

[Mike Nolan]

The 'old dough' method was used primarily by people baking frequently, every day or two. I'm not sure what refrigerating old dough would do, I've had refrigerated dough become unusable after about a week.

I don't recall where I read it, but I have read that it takes quite a few iterations of using old dough before it produces a consistent product. In that respect, it is similar to the process of creating a sourdough starter.

My guess is the Poilâne recipes are aimed more at occasional bakers than ones who maintain a sourdough starter for years, like the Poilâne bakery does (theirs goes back to the 1930's, I believe.) I was disappointed and surprised that the book didn't offer alternate instructions for those who have a starter to work with.

[Mike Nolan]

I have the Poilâne book, I was disappointed to find that in her recipe for recreating their famous miche, she uses a combination of an overnight levain and commercial yeast, something I'm sure they don't do in their bakery.

Farmer's markets aren't the best venues for keeping bread in peak condition, a local artisan baker has told me that they don't bring all their breads to the farmer's market because some just don't travel well. (Personally I find their sourdough too sour, though.)

There was a post, on the BBGA forum, I think, recently lamenting that San Francisco sourdough has gone 'commercial' as most of the bakeries have been bought by corporations rather than passed from one artisan baker-owner to another. I think Chad Robertson is still one of those baker-owners, though.

But with the pandemic and the way airlines treat you, I don't know if I'll ever be back to San Francisco to check out the Tartine bakery. (And I've just about given up on my goal of doing a boulangerie crawl through Paris.)

[Mike Nolan]

Hoshizaki is primarily into commercial ice systems, I know a guy who does commercial refrigeration work (mostly restaurants and bars), he recommends it over Scotsman these days. They started making a home-sized unit a while back and I put it in on Nick's recommendation, it has been very reliable.

[Mike Nolan]

We currently have a Hoshizaki ice maker that makes 'top-hat' shaped clear cubes.

We've had 2 other types of icemakers in the last 23 years, both ones that make a clear sheet of ice then cut it into cubes using heated wires. two that were probably Kitchen-Aid that developed coolant leaks and one that failed due to some kind of processor board failure.

The big advantage of having a 15 inch wide ice maker is that it holds about 50 pounds of ice, more than enough to load a big cooler for a long trip or to fill a sink with ice water to cool down 10 quarts of stock quickly. Also, since the older ice at the bottom melts, you never get stinky ice.

If I had space (and an unlimited budget), I'd put in a blast chiller.

BTW, slow-melting ice cubes also mean you get slower cooling from the ice, because there's less surface area exposed to the liquid. Plusses and minuses.

[Mike Nolan]

Oreo filling always reminds me of American 'buttercream', it tastes mostly like shortening and sugar. I've never really understood those who like the double-stuf ones, I buy Oreo thins these days.

[Mike Nolan]

i always thought Hydrox had the better filling and Oreos had the better outer cookie. Hydrox are just a memory these days, along with too many other foods from our past.

When we're past the pandemic crisis (in 2-3 years?), it'll be interesting to look back and see how many products have bit the dust since March.

[Mike Nolan]

Len, have you considered getting a critter-cam? They are motion-activated and they're fairly inexpensive these days.

We have several outdoor security cameras and sometimes see a fox running through the yard, but I have to admit I'm tempted to get a critter cam that covers my vegetable garden.

[Mike Nolan]

Here's a shot of the interior. The crumb is fairly tight, maybe not quite as tight as the last one I made, but I can get thin slices from it.

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[Mike Nolan]

Last night my wife thought there were several cantaloupes ready to pick, by morning one of them had been half-eaten by critters and another two of them were almost too ripe, but we picked 3 of them, gave the best of them to our neighbor and had one for lunch, along with some tomatoes fresh from the garden.

I think we'll get 2 or 3 more melons in the next few days, there are a bunch of smaller ones but I'm not sure they'll get big enough to ripen, the vines are already dying back.

The variety we planted was 'Hearts of Gold', and I'd plant it again, sweet and reasonable sized. Most of the stores tend to have Athena or Kandy. We've grown Athena once, it produces these HUGE melons, one of them was about the size of a basketball!

[Mike Nolan]

Canning jars and lids are in short supply, more so than usual for this time of year.

It will vary, wherever they put most of the BRM flours is where you'll likely find the semolina, at Hy-Vee it is in their health/organic aisle, at Super-Saver it is next to the other flours.

[Mike Nolan]

North Dakota Mill is the miller.

Here's the semolina/Austrian malt bread, it doesn't make a very tall loaf compared with the way it rises without the semolina, not quite 3" high, just barely above the rim of the standard loaf pan I used (which is behind it in the picture.)

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[Mike Nolan]

I've never tried minced dried onion in a rye bread, if you try it let me know how much you can taste it.

[Mike Nolan]

Well, I had some big containers I could put it in. And my guess is I'll go through it in six months or less, especially once cooler weather comes and I start making pasta more frequently.

I've been making the malt bread with 10 ounces of semolina and 10 ounces of AP or bread flour (haven't decided which I like better yet), so a 50 pound bag would make around 80 loaves. I've been making a loaf about every 4-6 days.

Semolina doesn't cause my wife's blood sugar to spike as rapidly, so I'll probably be making other breads with some semolina in them. I may have to try a rye bread with semolina, for example:
Semolina Rye Bread

Here's what 50 pounds of semolina looks like in containers:

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[Mike Nolan]

I'm doing a loaf of semolina/Austrian Malt bread today using the new semolina.

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