[Mike Nolan]

I consider parsnips the missing secret ingredient in chicken soup, so I always put in a couple of parsnips when making chicken broth or stock. Parsnips add a sweetness to the liquid. Before sugar beets, parsnips were sometimes used to sweeten things

[Mike Nolan]

Looks like it is very similar, it uses a sponge, has molasses, an oil (Ginsberg uses butter), and an egg. Ginsberg has you make football-shaped loaves, I made ones that were more of a cylinder so that the slices will be about the same size, which is better for sandwiches. The loaves are cooling, the molasses smell is still pretty strong, I'm hoping it fades a bit. The caraway seeds aren't sticking to the outside very well, I may not have had enough egg in the egg wash.

When we were living in Chicago in the 70's, there was a packaged rye bread at the store that was a fairly ordinary rye bread, until you put it in the toaster. Then something magical happened, probably a result of the Maillard Reaction. It developed a complexity that was completely absent before toasting. I would toast and eat several slices at a time. I still consider the toast test to be the ultimate way to judge rye bread.

[Mike Nolan]

Report on Sauerkraut Bread (The Rye Baker pps 212-214):

This recipe made two loaves about 7 inches in diameter and 3 inches high. The baked weight was 787 grams (27 3/4 ounces.)

I wound up adding a bit more flour than the recipe called for, I think I mis-measured the water, but the dough came together fairly well. However, the dough weight was still a little less than what the recipe suggested, so maybe I worked less flour into the dough during shaping.

It slices better after sitting overnight.

I didn't have Polish sauerkraut so I used what I had, the kraut isn't overly assertive but it does add to the aroma of the bread when toasting it and the flavor is reminiscent of sauerkraut that has been cooked with sausage.

I tried it in a Reuben sandwich, the flavor of the baked sauerkraut clashed a bit with the raw sauerkraut, and I think the biggest challenge with this bread might be figuring out what foods pair best with it.

It tastes good toasted with a little butter, but the sauerkraut flavor probably wouldn't pair well with things you normally spread on toast, like jams. I probably would not make this bread unless I had a specific meal I wanted to make that the sauerkraut taste would pair with.

For comments on the preparation of this recipe, see Sauerkraut Rye Comments

Followup: I tried a slice with some cheddar cheese spread on it today, it was very good. Either the sauerkraut has mellowed or it pairs quite well with the cheese spread.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by Mike Nolan.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by Mike Nolan.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by Mike Nolan.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 5 months ago by Mike Nolan.

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[Mike Nolan]

Sometimes the best quiz questions are things we all think we know.

[Mike Nolan]

Great height, Len.

I'm making the Old Milwaukee Rye bread from TRB today. (No, it doesn't use beer.)

[Mike Nolan]

Parsnips get very soft when cooked, parsnip mash is a common side dish in England.

[Mike Nolan]

We had reubens. My wife didn't want to wait until the sauerkraut rye bread was cool enough to slice, so she had hers on some marbled rye bread from the freezer.

I'll comment more on the sauerkraut rye bread in the 'Coming Through the Rye' thread after I've taken some pictures.

[Mike Nolan]

I wonder which has more LAB, yogurt or buttermilk?

[Mike Nolan]

Having some idea of weight-to-measure equivalents for ingredients is very helpful in planning menus, shopping, and preparing meals. I'm told that at cooking schools like CIA they have students memorize long lists of equivalents and test them on their knowledge.

[Mike Nolan]

Most catered events like weddings serve food that is of at-best average quality. That's especially true if the food is brought in to the hall, the kitchens for hotel events tend to be slightly higher quality, but generally still not great. Part of it is that producing large numbers of meals served at the same time requires some compromises in the kitchen.

But there are exceptions. Years ago my wife went to a national conference for her sorority, at a hotel in Minneapolis. She said the meals were so good that when the chef came out at the last event, he got a standing ovation.

I've only been to one catered event that had a truly outstanding meal, it was the bar mitzvah dinner for the son of a business associate of my wife's father, held at the old Cafe La Tour Restaurant in Chicago, on the top level of a Mies van der Rohe designed high-rise on the shore of Lake Michigan just north of the Loop.

We lost count of the number of courses at around 10, and they were still bringing out additional rounds of desserts as we were leaving.

[Mike Nolan]

There's a whole class of recipes for very soft rolls, often called pillow rolls. I used to eat at a Ryan's Steakhouse in TN when I was there for work, they had these really soft (and quite tasty) pillow rolls that had a honey-butter glaze on them.

[Mike Nolan]

As I understand it, the rennet is extracted from both the stomach and upper intestines (ruminants have stomachs that have several sections, so the distinction between stomach and upper intestines is different in ruminants than in humans), so I don't see the Wikipedia article as being that different. Vegetable rennet comes from a variety of sources, maybe that'll be another quiz question some day.

[Mike Nolan]

I started the process of making the sauerkraut rye from TRB last night, and am continuing it today with the soaker. Not sure my rye sour is active enough, as I'm not seeing much bubbling, but it's got a nice sour smell. This recipe includes some commercial yeast, so I'm less worried about the strength of the rye sour. It strikes me that the preferment isn't as wet as the starter (80% vs 100%), I don't know if that is having an impact or not.

I hope it comes out well, the plan is to use this bread for supper tonight.

[Mike Nolan]

In the front matter, he says to unpan breads immediately, odd that this one doesn't follow that.

[Mike Nolan]

Sour cream might have worked well, too, the cultured stuff is a lot like yogurt for cooking purposes.

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