[Mike Nolan]

My guess is if you had given it a good hard tug, it would have come loose, I've had the cherry pie filling spill over a couple of times, and the pecan pie I made in the Norpro pan spilled over the side onto the oven deck, but it came clean with a good hard twist.

[Mike Nolan]

Ash content is measured by burning the flour and measuring how much ash is left over. The ash comes mainly from the bran, germ and outer part of the endosperm.

If a flour is 100% starch from the inner endosperm, the ash content is low, Calvel's book says the finest quality French flours, type 45, have an ash rate below 0.5% while whole meal flour is over 1.4%. Removing all the bran and germ is essentially impossible, no matter how finely you separate it (called bolting, because it originally used bolts of cloth), there's always going to be a little bran or germ left in the flour. So it measures the extent to which the flour is refined.

Another way to think of ash rate is as the opposite of extraction rate, how much flour is extracted from the wheat berry, type 45 French flour or American patent flour has an extraction rate around 65%, a whole meal flour is in theory 100% extraction, but in practice more like 90-98% due to removing broken or immature berries, stones, twigs, etc. from the grain before grinding it.

Since rye is not white in the middle, there isn't as much cosmetic value in extracting only the endosperm, so most rye flours are medium or dark flours. White rye flour is only the endosperm (or as little bran and germ as possible), and it isn't all that white.

[Mike Nolan]

Report on Munich Penny Rolls (The Rye Baker pps 198-201):

This recipe made 16 rolls about 3 1/2 by 2 1/2 by 1 1/2 inches, with a variance of about 1/4 inch. They weighed 75 grams each (2.65 ounces).

This is one of the recipes in The Rye Baker that lists first clear flour as an option in place of bread flour, and I used first clear flour in it. My experiences with other breads using first clear flour seem to suggest those breads can go moldy faster than ones made with bread flour, I don't know if that will be the case here yet.

It calls for red rye malt, which you make by toasting rye malt. I got some chopped rye malt from a home brew supply store and ran it through my impact mill before toasting it.

I had to add about 1/3 to 1/2 cup more of both rye and wheat flour than the recipe called for, not sure if that was a liquid measurement issue, and it took a while before the dough came together. This is the first recipe I've made where the scale weight (83 grams each) was above that suggested in the recipe. It didn't pull a very good windowpane, but it was pretty stiff after about 10 minutes of machine kneading, so I declared it ready. It rose well both in the bulk rising and after scaling and shaping.

The rolls are baked in sets of four arranged as shown in the top picture. Ginsberg calls this a herringbone.

They're a bit milder in flavor than I was expecting, but they taste very good plain, with a little butter, or as a sandwich roll. I haven't tried toasting them yet. I was expecting more of a crisp outer crust, it is stiff and a bit chewy (like a lot of sourdough breads), but not really crisp. Maybe they'll crisp up some overnight.

I would make these again.

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[Mike Nolan]

I can taste and smell the difference between ordinary powdered milk and the baker's special powdered milk in baked products, I really dislike the former. I didn't like it when I was growing up, either, and sometimes that was the only milk we had on hand.

[Mike Nolan]

Just be sure not to slice it in the pan, that could damage the non-stick finish.

[Mike Nolan]

KAF doesn't go into specifics about what makes it artisanal, other than it being higher in minerals than 'ordinary' salt. I guess that makes it a sea salt. (Some people claim that all salt is 'sea salt', and with some justification.)

I know there are people who swear by a particular type of salt, such as French sea salt, Himalayan salt, Hawaiian salt, etc, but I can't really tell the difference between them in baking. Those may be the people who swear they can detect a bitter taste in iodized salt.

We've been using sea salt in a salt grinder as our 'table salt' since the 70's, I think the added minerals do give it a different taste on food, I know we use less of it than we did table salt. But I can't taste the difference in baked goods. I do use pretzel salt on baked goods like pretzels, and it does make a difference as it is less likely to dissolve. I"m not sure why.

As I have noted more times than I care to count up, Morton Salt recommends against using kosher salt when baking, because the larger crystal sizes might not dissolve and disperse in your dough as evenly as a finer grain salt. That hasn't dissuaded many baking authors from climbing on the kosher salt train.

[Mike Nolan]

I think we're having sandwiches on the rye rolls, which are quite good, a bit milder than I expected. I'll have a full report on them up by tomorrow, with pictures.

[Mike Nolan]

Fans of the original Star Trek show will get that reference, of course.

Star Trek's second season was my first year in college. NBC had announced it would not be renewed for a third season that fall, and college campuses across the nation started a petition to get NBC to renew the show. It was successful, and there was a third season before NBC pulled the plug. After the renewal was announced, a number of the organizers of the petition drive, including a friend of mine at Northwestern, received a package from Gene Roddenberry, with a Tribble in it.

I haven't spoken to my friend in many years, I hope he kept his Tribble.

[Mike Nolan]

Some of the competition shows are interesting, like Chopped, if only because they come up with ingredients I've never heard of and combinations of ingredients that really challenge the contestants. But the time limits are way too short for serious cooking. I think you can learn a few things from it. But most of the Food Network shows are just silly, and I've never been a fan of Guy Fieri, who seems to be on most of the time.

Not the Food Network, but I gave up on Top Chef at least five seasons ago and Hell's Kitchen lost me a year or two ago, though I always liked the episodes where Gordon cooked something, his skills are amazing.

I am not at all a fan of the kids cooking competition shows, I think they're exploitative. I haven't been able to follow the more recent Great British Baking shows, but without Paul and Mary I think they would be less interesting.

I make my pasta from scratch, I start the water boiling then start mixing the dough, by the time it is ready the water is boiling, so putting the pasta in cold water wouldn't save me any time. And I'm not sure that procedure is as good for fresh pasta as for dried pasta.

I'm kind of surprised no TV network has tried to create a show around Kenji Lopex-Alt.

[Mike Nolan]

UNL isn't one of the institutions in the Kernza project, so I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a sample of it to try, I've been trying to make a contact at KSU, which has a world-renown grains program. (When Prof. Raymond Calvel decided to take a sabbatical in the USA, he did it at KSU.) They run a number of week-long training programs, but they're a bit pricey, $1800 for the one on grain milling.

I've got some triticale coming this week from the grains researcher in my wife's department.

[Mike Nolan]

I always have mixed emotions on Alton Brown. I thought he sold out on The Food Network, I was glad to see him resuming Good Eats, though I haven't watched it much. (I don't watch The Food Network as much as I used to, just not much worth watching.)

Some of his ideas are interesting, others not so much. I tried his popovers recipe, WAY TOO SALTY! Susan Reed at KAF was one of his instructors in cooking school, she says he knew back then what he wanted to do in the kitchen after completing his training.

Kenji is always an interesting read, and I've found very few of his ideas I've disagreed with. His take on science is usually fun, too. Wish I was an invitee to some of his experimental dinners.

[Mike Nolan]

Well, I toasted the malted rye after grinding it up, and it has an interesting fragrance. (I like it, my wife doesn't.) It does turn pink as you toast it.

[Mike Nolan]

I've been to several GFS, there is some variance in what they carry. The first one I ever went to was in Indianapolis, when I was there for a chess meeting. Their fresh meats section was excellent.

[Mike Nolan]

I wonder if pureed stewed prunes would be similar to plum baby food? I made a prune/chocolate ganache once to put in macarons, I thought it was delicious.

[Mike Nolan]

We had BLT's on semolina bread tonight. I gave my wife several choices, that one sounded best to both of us.

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