>Jack Elliott writes "Somewhere on the Internet I recently saw an article that
>discussed the proper amount of water. I do not recall where I saw this and
>do not recall with certainty the ratio. I think the weight of water was
>around 70% of the weight of flour. Can someone cast some light on this?"
Jack,
I double checked with my King Arthur 200 Year Anniversary cookbook, and found
the following (this is a direct quote for you):
"The key to being an intuitive baker lies in knowing what the key ingredients
are in whatever you're baking, and the ratio they have to each other. In
yeast baking, there are just the three alluded to above: the flour, the
liquid, and the yeast. In most breads you'll use three parts of flour to one
of liquid, by volume, not weight. Our recipe for hearth bread, which will
make two loaves, callls for two cups of water and three times that, or six
cups, of flour. For this much flour and water, we'll use 1 packet, or a
scant tablespoon of yeast."
Given the KA comments above, I would agree wholeheartedly with your comments
that the local restaurant's recipe would create a slurry. However, I got out
my trusty calculator, and I THINK that the restaurant is giving you
proportions be weight, rather than by volume, and if that is the case, the
recipe would work (unless, of course, I goofed up on the math, which is a
distinct possibility!). Here's what I calculated: 6 quarts of water = 192
ounces = 24 cups of water. 9 pounds of flour = 144 ounces = 36 cups of flour
(flour weights approximately 4 ounces/cup). Therefore, the recipe calls for
24 fluid cups of water to 36 cups of flour, for a ratio of 67% fluid to water.
I THINK that's right, although math was never my strong point. I do most of
my baking utilizing a scale (it's way faster, and more precise), and my guess
is that the restaurant didn't make it clear that they were giving you weight
measurements. The King Arthur quote would also support this. Of course, to
paraphrase Dennis Miller, that's just my theory: I could be wrong! LOL.
Let me know if this is any help, and happy baking!
Sherri