While I try to keep my various topics to no more than a week, sometimes the subject is so broad that I simply can’t. So it is with starters and yeast, though there was and is the Michael Pollan diversion (which has pushed readership through the roof, by the way…you people love it when I’m […]
READ ONWell, my second whack at Woodford Pudding and it’s like so. Not much to write home about, since it’s not a big improvement over the first one: However you can see there are marked differences. What did I do differently? Compared to the original recipe (#1 on the list) I simply took out the cup […]
READ ONSeems I developed something of a froth over the weekend. Funny how that happens with Michael Pollan, since at the end of the day I actually quite like him (and respect the hell out of his journalistic ability). The same thing will probably happen next weekend though, since I’m planning to post a review of […]
READ ONGot something of a nasty-gram last night (not entirely unexpected) that in essence said: you tell us to grow our own starters, bake our own bread, make our own pastry dough, ice cream, even soda water, yet you defend the industrial food establishment. What the heck are your politics? I’ve answered questions like this before […]
READ ONFirst, I should point out that his name isn’t pronounced like “pollen” as I’d assumed until today. It’s PO-lan, with a long “o”. Just in case you get asked on the street. All in all I have to say the session I went to (and I call it that because it’s wasn’t a lecture per […]
READ ON…over at the University in a little while. If you don’t know Michael Pollan, he is the very talented author behind Omnivore’s Dilemma and The Botany of Desire. While I hold his work in very high esteem, I confess that his politics irritate me greatly (as many of you know, I detest politics in my […]
READ ONWatching a starter grow is a wonder…oh wait, I said that yesterday. It’s just that it is. Last night as I left mine contentedly bubbling away in its bowl, I headed to bed with a grin. “We have a lovely starter,” I mused to the wife. Distracted, she asked me a moment later what it […]
READ ONSo, now that you know something about the process of fermentation you can probably guess what that brown liquid is that collects on top of a bread starter. Yes, that’s right, alcohol. A very impure form of alcohol, otherwise known as hooch. Sure, you can drink it, but one taste will demonstrate all too clearly […]
READ ONA very natural question when you set out to randomly culture fungus and bacteria. How do you know you’re not getting something dangerous? There are some pretty deadly microbes out there, especially bacteria (though several kinds of molds and fungi will kick your can too, now that I think about it). What’s to keep the […]
READ ONOne notable exception to the starter microbiology I sketched out below is San Francisco sourdough. Set out a bowl of flour-water slurry there, and a different thing will likely happen. Namely, that your starter will very likely culture a very different and interesting yeast by the name of Candida humilis (formerly called Candida milleri, formerly […]
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