[Mike Nolan]

French (and European) farming is much more of a cottage industry than in the US, especially for things like corn or wheat. There are more strains of wheat grown, and the wheat could almost be described as artisinal.

I'm not sure the small US mills are going to be that much different from the bigger ones, because they're all getting pretty much the same strains of wheat grown on similar ground.

What the bigger mills can offer (and I include KAF in that category) is consistency. A common thread on the BBGA forum is this: "I just switched from brand X flour to brand Y flour, and my breads aren't coming out the same, how do I fix this?"

Prof. Calvel didn't always have kind things to say about North American wheat, but he still thought a skilled miller and baker could produce good bread from them.

What I find interesting is how many articles and books I've seen that talk about how much bad bread is being produced, even in France. (And I'm not talking about the mass-produced factory breads, which are almost uniformly awful.)

[Mike Nolan]

I declared my celery and carrot vinegars done this weekend, the final pH on the celery vinegar was 3.2, the final pH on the carrot vinegar was 3.45. (Carrot juice is sweet enough that next time I might try the traditional two-stage process for making vinegar, first fermenting the carrot juice into alcohol then turning that into vinegar.)

In any event, I may get a refractometer to measure the process more precisely.

I'm going to let them settle for a day or two before I decide if I need to rack them to get rid of more sediment.

Looking forward to trying these in salads and recipes. I've got some nice bottles for them that I got at Hobby Lobby, and I'm going to print up some oval labels.

I'm thinking I may try an onion vinegar next. That's not one the Noma book suggests, but they do a black garlic balsamic vinegar, so alliums must work. This fall I may try a butternut squash vinegar. A cucumber vinegar is another possibility.

[Mike Nolan]

Easter pizza, the mind boggles!

[Mike Nolan]

Sounds like a good deal and a rather enterprising store manager. I'm not a fan of lima beans and my wife doesn't like corn except for corn-on-the-cob and cornbread.

I wonder what the local Sysco office is doing these days? I may have to give my former neighbor (he runs the office) a call next week.

The reports about milk and other items being dumped are distressing, but the problem is that the items aren't in a producer channel that normally deals with consumers, so they don't have things like packaging that meets labeling requirements and is consumer-sized. An experienced baker probably wouldn't flinch at at 50 pound bag of flour, but neophyte bakers would.

[Mike Nolan]

My second batch of sauerkraut is coming along nicely, it should be to the tasting stage by next weekend.

I've ordered a 4 gallon crock, because a one gallon crock just doesn't make enough kraut. It should be here around Wednesday, so I'm looking around for the lowest price on cabbage. Most of the time it is in the 75-80 cent per pound range, ahead of St. Patrick's Day it will often go on sale, this year I bought some for 28 cents per pound.

[Mike Nolan]

There used to be a cake supply store in Nashville near Opryland that had all sorts of pan sizes, but it changed hands (and name) and the new owners seem to be taking it in a somewhat different direction. The last time I was in Nashville it was still closed while they reorganized. (Their new name is Sweet City USA.)

There's one I've been to a number of times in the Pittsburgh area, too. (K&B Candy Supply, but I haven't been there in a few years and their web page doesn't seem to show a lot of what I've seen on their shelves in the past.)

I think the Fat Daddio pans have pretty vertical corners in their cake pans.

[Mike Nolan]

Firefox's print button has a 'simplify page' feature, but it does something really weird for this menu, it doesn't show the recipe at all, just some kind of disclaimer block.

[Mike Nolan]

I took the pan of hot cross buns over to our neighbor this morning, she had wondered yesterday if we were making them again this year.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm not sure ANY recipe site gets printing right (and my own site is currently a good example of how NOT to do it), and most seem to waste at least one page at the end, but theirs is one of the more annoying ones.

I find if I want a printed copy of a recipe I found online I often tend to do a cut and paste into a word document and only print what I want.

[Mike Nolan]

Acids in cookie doughs cause the proteins in the flour to firm up more, producing chewier cookies. The acid would also react with the baking soda, increasing rise.

I've seen some cookie doughs that use cream of tartar (or baking powder) for similar reasons, but lemon juice should also pair well with the chocolate.

[Mike Nolan]

Fat Daddio makes an 11x11 pan, either 2" or 3" deep. Not sure what stores carry them but they're available on Amazon. They're anodized aluminum. (I'm not a big fan of coatings on pans, but anodized aluminum pans aren't as bad as the 'non-stick' ones.)

I've looked for stainless steel 11 x 11 pans, haven't found any yet.

[Mike Nolan]

Back when we were in college, a local pizza place (Gullivers, on Howard Street at the north end of Chicago) made the best pizza bread I've ever had. There was nearly always a long wait for a table, and diners would put in one if not multiple pizza bread orders while waiting, and sometimes finish them before a table opened up.

The restaurant changed hands some time around 1980, and I've been told the new owners changed the pizza bread recipe to make it cheaper, and many people stopped buying it. (Evanston also went 'wet' around then, so there wasn't as much reason for Northwestern students to travel to Chicago to order alcohol.)

I like making pizza with sandwich rolls, but I've done it with baguettes as well. I haven't tried it with Challah yet.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm stumped on the no edit button problem. Try logging off and back on.

[Mike Nolan]

I, too, made Hot Cross Buns today, two 8" pans of them, 16 small rolls (1.5 ounces each) per pan. I'm going to call our neighbor and offer them one, but won't feel insulted if they decline.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm not sure if date syrup and date molasses would be identical, molasses is what's left after removing most of the sugar. You can buy date sugar, it reminds me a bit of maple sugar in that it has a much more complex flavor profile than sucrose.

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