So then, what is the precise difference between commercial yeast and a starter? If both came packaged, with microbial ingredients labels on the side, you might not think there was much at all, for both contain many different kinds of yeast and lactic acid bacteria. Yet as in all things relating to microbial leavening, the […]
READ ONMy Woodford pudding is standing up. The challenge now is to get some fruit back into it. And that’s not as easy as you might think, since fruit is pretty wet stuff. Mixed into a batter and baked, it releases its moisture, creating sogginess at best and undermining structure at worst. Which is why, at […]
READ ON…make for an odd intro to a feature on silicone bakeware. But then the traditional media is really hurting for readership these days. I myself like this kind of bakeware, especially for fussy little cakes and chocolates that can be difficult to unmold from metal forms. I’m not as big a fan when it comes […]
READ ONSo, the Woodford pudding is standing on its own. Now all I have to do is teach it to walk (I have a few ideas on that). So what did I do differently? The big change, as mentioned, was whole eggs instead of yolks. I also swapped a 1/2 cup of whole buttermilk for the […]
READ ONYes you can, since wine-making also produces cultures of yeast and other bacteria as a by-product. However it’s pretty musty, strong-tasting stuff and makes fairly foul bread. Beer barms can be pretty rank too, especially if they have a strong hop flavor, hence the reason why the invention of compressed yeast was greeted with such […]
READ ONSo how do you get from sourdoughs, starters and barms to packaged yeast…and what’s the difference anyway? Both good questions, the answers to which, pleasantly enough, start with beer. Brewing, as many of you already know, is an extremely ancient art. It dates back at least as far as the Egyptians (likely much further, though […]
READ ONWhile 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 ON