[Mike Nolan]

I made some egg salad for lunch, using Dijon mustard and some of my celery vinegar. The celery vinegar gave it an interesting acid undertone, quite different from the usual lemon juice.

[Mike Nolan]

There used to be a restaurant in Evanston IL that had caviar on their Sunday brunch buffet back in the mid 70's. There wasn't a lot of it and it was kind of at the back where it was hard to reach.

One of my college dorm-mates brought some tins of caviar that he had purchased in Switzerland over a break. (His dad was a senior pilot for Pan Am, so he pretty much flew for free.) He also brought in some fresh Brie cheese, a lot different than the aged stuff they allow through customs these days.

So I've had it a few times, but not for a long time.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm thinking this coming Friday or Saturday, say, 6:30-7:00 PM Central time. Sunday is Mother's Day, maybe Friday would be the better choice?

[Mike Nolan]

You may be able to watch and listen despite not having a camera.

My wife (who works with Zoom at UNL) says a free home account has a limit of about 10 people and around 45 minutes. There are other options.

[Mike Nolan]

Found out some more about the French flours.

T65 is pretty much what I expected it to be, a flour that is often used for baguettes. (A number like '65' in French flour grades refers to the amount of ash remaining in the flour, so it is a measure of how much wheat germ and bran is present.)

Kapnor is intended to produce a 'Nordic' loaf and it has sunflower seeds, yellow flax seeds, brown flax seeds and sesame seeds in it, as well as some deactivated dehydrated rye sourdough culture and roasted barley malt.

Campaillou does indeed have rye flour in it and is intended for a rustic loaf.

Now I have to decide which of these I try first.

[Mike Nolan]

If you haven't seen the Luann strip from today (May 1st), been there, done that!

Luann

See Uncle George and the (Pepper) Dragon

[Mike Nolan]

I'm making burger buns for tonight's supper, the Hamelman soft butter rolls recipe again. I"m going to make them a little smaller this time, 2 ounces each, since the burger patties are only 3 ounces each, almost sliders.

[Mike Nolan]

Sounds good Kimbob, we're doing burgers on the grill tonight, assuming the buns get done in time.

[Mike Nolan]

If you had a bale pot (the kind that hang over a fire), the handle probably holds the lid on somewhat, though if you buried the pot that should solve the problem. My Dutch Oven has a curved enough lid I think it'd stay pretty secure, but I could see some lids getting pushed off onto the oven shelf with a big clang.

As to the butter question, you can make butter from sheep's milk, but I don't know what it'd taste like, I see it for sale online but I don't think I've ever seen it in a store. Maybe they had some cattle on their drives as well?

[Mike Nolan]

If you've never made Tuscan bread (no salt), making it is an interesting project, you'll learn a bit about yeast doing it. The bread is a bit bland on flavor but good for dipping in strong sauces, which is what it's intended for.

See Tuscan Bread

Years ago a friend took me to a Basque restaurant in Reno, served family style, you ate what they brought and there were several groups at the same long table. They served an interesting bread there, a huge loaf that you ripped off hunks of, this recipe looks like it might be close. I love the bit in the instructions for how to know when it is ready to bake, I suspect the recipe needs to be sized to your Dutch Oven fairly closely.

See Basque Sheepherders Bread

[Mike Nolan]

The 2 1/4 tsp packets date back to the 50's when active dry yeast was a lot touchier than it is now. Unlike the incredible shrinking tuna fish can, it hasn't gotten smaller over the years.

[Mike Nolan]

Most of the Ginsberg recipes use just a small amount of rye starter, often less than an ounce, to inoculate an overnight sponge. As a result, the starter I"m keeping is fairly small, under 8 ounces right after feeding.

[Mike Nolan]

My new rye starter is reading a pH below 3.7 now, so I think it's fully developed. Now I need to figure out what to try it on.

[Mike Nolan]

testing

[Mike Nolan]

There was an interesting discussion on flour mills on the BBGA forum recently, in doing some research I found that according to the national association for millers there are 166 flour mills in the USA, the largest of which can process over 3 million pounds of flour a day.

By comparison, there are 8 mills in France, and the average US mill process 13 times as much flour as a French mill. In general, the flour processed at a French mill comes from farms within a 60 mile radius, and the grower cooperatives decide which farmer grows which type of wheat, so that they will know what they have to work with when blending.

I recently got a small amount of French traditional T65 flour, along with two specialty flours, some Kapnor and some Campaillou. I'm looking forward to researching them some more then trying them out. (I think I know what T65 is, Kapnor appears to be a bread flour, Campaillou appears to be a blend of wheat and rye.)

• This reply was modified 6 years, 2 months ago by Mike Nolan.

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