HighExtraction.com
In Consideration of Flour: Cooking By Hand
There is a lovely cooking book I purchased a few years ago called "Cooking by Hand" by Paul Bertolli, then executive-chef/co-owner of Oliveto in Oakland, California. (He may still be the chef/co-owner but I believe he is now involved in a sausage company called Fra Manni.) The book is very nice, full of pleasant black and white (and some color) photographs of food and its making. Mr Bertoli is a thoughtful writer on food and without actually counting, I'd say the essays could account for at ... Read>>>
Food
There is a lovely cooking book I purchased a few years ago called "Cooking by Hand" by Paul Bertolli, then executive-chef/co-owner of Oliveto in Oakland, California. (He may still be the chef/co-owner but I believe he is now involved in a sausage company called Fra Manni.) The book is very nice, full of pleasant black and white (and some color) photographs of food and its making. Mr Bertoli is a thoughtful writer on food and without actually counting, I'd say the essays could account for at ... Read>>>
Food
The Gliadin-Glutenin Ratio
In the process of researching material for a presentation on Ancient Grains I have become increasingly interested in protein quality, especially as it relates to why modern wheat (T. aestivum) is so good for bread making. The term 'protein quantity' is fairly easy to grasp and, in fact, our whole wheat marketing system here in the US (and throughout most of the world) is based on it: producers are paid based on the protein content of their wheat. But 'protein quality' is a bit more elusive fo... Read>>>
Baking
In the process of researching material for a presentation on Ancient Grains I have become increasingly interested in protein quality, especially as it relates to why modern wheat (T. aestivum) is so good for bread making. The term 'protein quantity' is fairly easy to grasp and, in fact, our whole wheat marketing system here in the US (and throughout most of the world) is based on it: producers are paid based on the protein content of their wheat. But 'protein quality' is a bit more elusive fo... Read>>>
Baking
Double Hydration
I wrote an article awhile ago (<a href="http://www.straightgrade.com/articles/6">Red Hen Baking Company's Baguette</a>) and in it I covered some of the techniques used by a small wholesale bakery in rural in Vermont. They make fantastic, if not entirely traditional, organic hearth breads which they distribute across a wide swath of central Vermont. Here is what I wrote: <br /> <blockquote> Their production also employs some interesting techniques that, while not unique to Red Hen, are not... Read>>>
Baking
I wrote an article awhile ago (<a href="http://www.straightgrade.com/articles/6">Red Hen Baking Company's Baguette</a>) and in it I covered some of the techniques used by a small wholesale bakery in rural in Vermont. They make fantastic, if not entirely traditional, organic hearth breads which they distribute across a wide swath of central Vermont. Here is what I wrote: <br /> <blockquote> Their production also employs some interesting techniques that, while not unique to Red Hen, are not... Read>>>
Baking
Doughnut Plant, NYC & Another: Il Forno
Doughnut Plant in NYC is about as cool as it gets. It's down on the east end of Grand St in Manhattan. If you were setting out from the corner Broadway and Grand you past through Little Italy, and on through Chinatown. Then you'd keep going and eventually, once you were wondering if you had missed it, there it would be on the right at #379. <p /> What makes it so cool is it's unassuming nature. Yeah, it needs a good scrub, and it needs a new neighborhood, but do they ever make a great dough... Read>>>
Finds
Doughnut Plant in NYC is about as cool as it gets. It's down on the east end of Grand St in Manhattan. If you were setting out from the corner Broadway and Grand you past through Little Italy, and on through Chinatown. Then you'd keep going and eventually, once you were wondering if you had missed it, there it would be on the right at #379. <p /> What makes it so cool is it's unassuming nature. Yeah, it needs a good scrub, and it needs a new neighborhood, but do they ever make a great dough... Read>>>
Finds
Baker's Percent
Perhaps this subject of baker's percent has been written about so much that not one more once of ink needs to be spilled on the subject. But perhaps not. I still go into so many bakeries where the formulas are written out based on 'gallons of water' or there's a notebook somewhere near the mixer where someone has, through trial and error, written down all of the relevant batch sizes, but with no way to scale them up or down. I will say that in bakeries no one, that I have seen, uses volumetri... Read>>>
Baking
Perhaps this subject of baker's percent has been written about so much that not one more once of ink needs to be spilled on the subject. But perhaps not. I still go into so many bakeries where the formulas are written out based on 'gallons of water' or there's a notebook somewhere near the mixer where someone has, through trial and error, written down all of the relevant batch sizes, but with no way to scale them up or down. I will say that in bakeries no one, that I have seen, uses volumetri... Read>>>
Baking
Over at straightgrade.com
Me and Ollie's: Anadama Bread
One bread that I have grown fond of while living in New England is Anadama Bread. It is one of those regional breads that no one seems to be able to agree on the 'real' recipe other than it should probably have cornmeal and molasses in it. Having worked in the baking industry for the past 15 years I've accumulated a fair number of baking books, so in order to get a consensus on how this bread is made I pulled them all out in an attempt to find a formula. It turns out I had t...
Read >>>
One bread that I have grown fond of while living in New England is Anadama Bread. It is one of those regional breads that no one seems to be able to agree on the 'real' recipe other than it should probably have cornmeal and molasses in it. Having worked in the baking industry for the past 15 years I've accumulated a fair number of baking books, so in order to get a consensus on how this bread is made I pulled them all out in an attempt to find a formula. It turns out I had t...
Read >>>
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