We had tuna melts tonight, using havarti and gouda cheese.
In Dan Jurafsky's book, The Language of Food, he talks about words that appear in menus and how that relates to both the quality and price of the food. If the menu describes something as luscious or tasty, that's a key descriptor of a lower quality restaurant, because a really good restaurant doesn't need to tell you their food is tasty.
I think the same logic may apply to menus that go into detail about their technique.
We had BLT's and sweet corn.
Always great to hear from you, Cass.
I've been told there is a coal-fired pizza oven at restaurant in the Minneapolis area, built by a transplanted New Yorker, but I haven't found specifics on the name of the restaurant.
I've also heard that permits for new coal-fired pizza ovens in NYC have been routinely denied for many years, and most if not all of the coal-fired ovens in NYC were built before the 1940's. (This is a tangent, but the Poilane family opened a bakery in London a few years ago and had to get a special permit to build wood-fired ovens like the ones they use at their bakeries in Paris, because London fire codes don't permit large wood-fired ovens.)
I ate in a hotel restaurant in Dallas a few years ago where the menu bragged about the 1100 degree gas-fired appliance (I think they called an oven) they used to cook steaks. I thought their steaks were mediocre, and their pizza was even worse, though I don't think they used the 1100 degree heat on them.
Coal-fired pizza ovens, of which there are a handful in New York City, get even hotter than wood-fired ovens. The pizza is done in about 90 seconds.
I could see how humidity and air pressure might both affect how well jars seal, but I've not seen any specific research on it other than the USDA guidelines on high altitude canning.
The bread tastes fine. I didn't get as much oven spring as I usually get, probably due to the yeast issue. It is a bit darker crust and more of a cream colored interior as opposed to white, I assume that's largely due to using first clear flour instead of AP or bread flour. I'm guessing my wife won't notice or taste any difference. We'll probably use it for BLTs for supper.
It will be interesting to see how this bread comes out. I forgot the yeast until nearly the end of the kneading. I added it, but it wasn't rising well, so after an hour I added a teaspoon or so of water and then kneaded in a little more sugar and flour to get the dough back to the right texture. After that it rose properly. It'll be going in the oven shortly, a good 2 hours later than I had originally planned.
Tonight we had chicken on the grill with grilled peaches and fresh melon.
I'm making Vienna bread using the Clonmel Double-Crusty recipe, and with first clear flour instead of AP.
The idea of making black bread by baking it in a 200-250 degree oven for 24 hours is one I've been hoping to try when cold weather gets here.
Sirloin steak with some steamed broccoli tonight.
I bought 15 pounds of canning tomatoes at the farmer's market on Sunday, they made around 3 quarts of tomato sauce. I tried boiling them for about 8 minutes before putting them through the food mill, that cooked them enough that the sauce didn't separate.
When it get really hot, I do my baking late in the evening, usually going into the oven after 10PM.
Made a stir fry tonight.
