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>
>From: "Allen Cohn" <allen@cohnzone.com>
>Subject: RE: Looking for crusty & chewy rolls
>Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:20:34 -0700
>
>...
>
>Home ovens (especially most gas ovens) have a harder time creating
>and holding steam in. Most bread baking books describe a variety of
>methods to do so with a home oven.
But I've never found any of them to work :-)
Mary
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>
>From: "Allen Cohn" <allen@cohnzone.com>
>Subject: RE: starter
>Date: Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:30:51 -0700
>
>Yes, it's not "necessary" to feed your starter regularly...but to
>create the very best results you should.
>
>If one really wants to perfect a recipe and procedure for a
>particular bread, then you should measure and optimize every
>variable: amount of each ingredient, temperature of dough,
>temperature of oven, mixing speeds and times, folds, fermentation
>time, proofing time, etc. The more you measure and control, the more
>consistent your results will be. (And, as you can imagine,
>consistency is vital in a professional bakery.
Of course it is - but not at home. Here at least we enjoy variety.
That's the difference between standard products which supermarkets
say customers demand, they are always the same texture, flavour and
colour. I'm not thinking just of bread but, for instance, honey.
Supermarket honeys are blended so that what you buy one month or even
year is exactly the same as the last. Only large producers can do
that. Local beekeepers' honeys vary sometimes weekly, according to
the crop the bees have worked and you can never deliberately
reproduce it. That's the way I like my honey, eggs, bread, cakes,
jams ... even meat. We buy ours from a daughter who has rare breeds
and the variety between them is noticeable as is the difference
between seasons, whether they've fed on rich pasture through the
seasons or hay in winter - and of course the sex and age of the animal.
Variety is the spice of life :-
>...
>
>I'm not thrilled about "wasting" flour by throwing out the unneeded
>starter... But I bough some Gold Medal flour on special for $2/5
>lbs. bag. I use 6 oz. of flour each time I refresh the starter. $2
>*6 oz/80 oz = $0.15 for each refreshment cycle. So it's not that
>extravagant a waste.
It's not a matter of economy, it's a matter of not wasting the
product of others' labour. As well as the environment ...
Mary