Maybe the biggest thing that prevents home bakers from striking out and making their own pita bread is the fear that getting the “pocket” to form is somehow difficult. Actually, pita “pocket bread” is a great example of a fault being turned into a feature. If any of you remember my focaccia and ciabatta escapades, […]
READ ONIf Neolithic man could make flat bread, odds are just about all of us can too. If you’re convinced you’re one of those people who’s simply not capable of making palatable bread, your self-image is about to change. The formula is: 16 ounces unbleached all-purpose (AP) flour (substitute whole wheat four for up to half […]
READ ONHow is it that flat breads came before loaf breads? Simply because hot rocks came before ovens — and flat breads bake up beautifully on them. The first foods prepared on these sorts of proto-griddles were simple grain-and-water gruels, the predecessors of today’s pancakes. Leave a nice wet grain gruel sitting out a little too […]
READ ONPita bread is just about the easiest bread I know, so I’m all over this week’s request. The thing is, I spent most of my life thinking I hated pita bread. The reason, because I’d only ever eaten the dry, flavorless, almost brittle stuff that comes in plastic bags. It never occurred to me to […]
READ ONThought it might be fun to end my Week O’ Waffles with a demonstration of how waffles have been made since just about forever. As it happens, cooking irons of the kind that have been used since classical times are still being made. Check it out: Twenty bucks at any camping outfitter (if there’s a […]
READ ONThere’s good news for all you Michael Pollan fans out there: he has a new book coming out. How do I know? Not by reading his publisher’s calendar or the trade press. Rather, by reading the portents. Every time the New York Times Magazine gives him 8,000 words of space, you can bet a full-length […]
READ ONReader Angela (who seems to have some expert knowledge in this area), weighs in on the linguistic connection between the Greek and Mexican names for waffles: In some 16th century Portuguese texts it’s common to find the word obreia or obrea, meaning “communion bread”. And of course, back then the Portuguese and the Spanish had […]
READ ONHang on, are those chicken livers? Maple-glazed chicken livers, yes. I chose to present waffles this way to underscore the point that — in the immortal words of Ms. Jane Russell — they’re not just for breakfast anymore. Waffles work in a whole range of contexts, just ask any southerner. From fried chicken to turkey […]
READ ONIf, like me, you’re weary of being shamed over the foods you eat (think HFCS, think veal, think foie gras, think hand-caught baby harp seal en croûte), you might be comforted to know that the practice of shaming others over their dietary choices is nothing new in America. Cane sugar is perhaps the archetypal politically […]
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