chromedome

Congratulations on your new hire, Mel! Hopefully you can get your own work week back down under 100 hours now...I feel like hell because mine got up to 70 or so, this week (so happy they didn't need me at my other job this weekend...). Onwards and upwards! I may have light at the end of my tunnel, too...interviewed a young'n from the baking program at the local (highly regarded) trade school, has both formal training and field experience. Keen to work graveyard, since he's something of an introvert. Just need to decide what to do about my current graveyard baker.

If the repairman hasn't already been, Bill, pop your microwave's hood and check the fuse. More often than not, that's all it is...$2 or less at your local Radio Shack, and you're good to go.

I remember one year when I was at Radio Shack...we needed just one decent staffer for a high-volume store. A place where everyone made decent money, within the context of that particular organization. We began advertising in June. We had our first *decent* applicants the last week of October. Now understand, we're not talking rocket science here. People who came into the store properly dressed, with a decent resume, and knew enough to say the right things in the interview. That's all we wanted. It took four friggin' months. Then we got two of them on the same day, and hired them both ('cause we'd figured out by then we couldn't afford not to). Both of them were managing their own Shacks within a year. In between, we had a steady parade of absolute losers. The kid who slouched in wearing a "Kill Cops" t-shirt, no socks in his runners, and a resume handwritten in pencil on a torn piece of newsprint. The ones who looked good until the personality testing ("Everybody steals from their employer...Strongly agree. Everybody is stoned at work sometimes...Strongly agree." etc). We used to joke that it would at least be nice to get some smarter dishonest people...

Context is key, for sure. Any question can sound dumb when taken out of context. Having said this, I'm sure Mel's done enough interviews to know who's asking an intelligent question (albeit badly) and who's just a dumbass. Mentoring vs babysitting? I hire and train the pizza person at my day job. The current one is a young woman who started with us as a cashier in the area she now runs. We moved her to a different spot with some prep duties and greater responsibility; and eventually gave her the current assignment (that's where I started, in fact). She had no cooking experience, and needed some assistance during the first few weeks, but she's settled in and does a better job than anybody we've had in there since me (he says modestly). That's mentoring. One of her predecessors, on the other hand, came in with lots of experience. Didn't matter, he was a chucklehead. During the six weeks he was there, I never went two days in a row without having to jump in and help him out. Anything...and I mean anything that took him out of his routine was a major crisis. That's babysitting, and I don't have time for it.

No-one's mentioned banana bread yet? Tsk tsk. Most cakes, in fact. Oh, and waffles...heck with that "there's enough fat in them already" crap. In Newfoundland, a traditional bachelor's/fisherman's meal is just a slab of bread with a slab of butter and a generous pouring of molasses. For anyone else, that's one of the sides...or dessert. Unfortunately, in recent years margarine has become the standard-issue table fodder with the disappearance of the family cow.

Golf's...holy crap, I think that's where I worked as a busser for all of two weeks when I was 18. I remember being rather amused by the old-school trappings, even then (1981, IIRC).

Some off-the-cuff offerings... Little-known factoid: Saskatchewan is a major producer of coriander. Some local producers here in Alberta are trying to promote a line of "cold-pressed extra-virgin canola oil." It looks absolutely gorgeous, thick and viscuous with a rich gold-green colour. Unfortunately it has the same window-putty taste as regular canola oil, only more so. Emanuela Leoni, in Canmore Alberta, makes an artisanal Parmesan-style cheese called Leoni Grana. It is of very high quality, and is a favourite with local chefs. I'm told that they do a very good tour, as well.

I've added a few in recent months: Magic in the Kitchen, Jan Bartelsman Dori Sanders' Country Cooking And my wife's grandmother's 30-year-old copy of The Mennonite Treasury of Recipes, in a practical coil-ring binding. I picked it up when it arrived, and opened it at random, and was terribly amused to find myself looking at a recipe for gefilte fish!

Oh, and less facetiously, it's the greatest little item for burning pinfeathers off the fowl of your choice.

How do I like my falafel? On the street, half-cut, in Halifax <sigh>. Fresh pita from Fancy Lebanese Bakery, decent falafel from any number of places, nice garlicy tahini, some of that "Israeli salad" (I never heard it called that, but that's what it is), some pickles, and of course it has to sit on top of a ridiculous quantity of local craft brew from the Granite Brewery or Propellor Brewery. And I have to have it down by the waterfront, somewhere near the Maritime Museum. Now I'm gonna cry. I'm so f*g homesick...

Makes a great lock de-icer... Also pretty good for starting a small amount of charcoal in a hurry.

My parents found, in their semirural location in Nova Scotia, that Sunday was invariably the busiest day of the week. Between the Sunday drive, the church lunch, and the obligatory visit to Aunt Fanny, an awful lot of people were on the road past their bakery. Most of them, having stopped once, were back every week thereafter. There was even a family from New Glasgow (a couple of hours away, which in Nova Scotia is pretty far) who drove up to visit their aunt every second week, and uhhhh...drop into the bakery. Their aunt, who was no dummy, joked that we should go the retirement home and offer to send samples to far-off relatives of the residents.

For what it's worth, my company usually goes 3:1 red:white for catering purposes. We seldom bring home any red, invariably bring home about half of the white. YMMV.

I have to say, right up front, that I've never really cared much for Cabernet Sauvignon in unadulterated form. Although I can appreciate, intellectually, what's going on in my glass; I'm not personally keen on this varietal. I mean, there's a reason they blended the damned stuff in Bordeaux all those years, right? Or at least - as I conceded, having this conversation with a colleague - none of the Cabs I've had in my admittedly meagre price range have appealed to me. Fortuitously this colleague was the new manager of our next-door sister store, the wine cellar. Perhaps, he suggested, part of my problem (aside from the obvious one of budget) was that I was drinking newly-vinted bottles of what is quintessentially a wine meant for aging. So, he steered me to a bottle of this Chilean cab, buried and forgotten in a back corner of the store until he'd taken over. "There's your ticket," he told me confidently. "Already five years in the bottle, ready to drink now, and a well-made representative cab in the price range. Give that one a try, and let me know what you think!" So tonight I opened it, and gave it a go. It was after supper, so there was no food pairing to complicate matters; just me and the wine. I decanted it, and sipped at my glass for a good hour and a half as it opened up. I still have half the bottle left, which I'll revisit tomorrow for followup purposes. Being still a novice in these matters, I don't know how possible it is to muck with the Cab's varietal character; but with this wine the "Cab-ness" is unequivocal from the first sniff. The nose was very dark and pungent; the alcohol was very forward, and there was a definite hint of tobacco (a nice, mellow cigar, maybe). My initial impression, at the first sip, was of the alcohol. I hadn't expected that to be so noticeable in a wine with five years on it, but I guess five years is a drop in the bucket...hey, I'm still a newbie, what do I know? The tannins and acidity were forthright but balanced, and not overbearing. Again, I'd expected more mellowness. There was lots of depth to the flavour, though; well-aged leather (my wife said "barnyard", but agreed that "leather" sounded better), the tobacco again, and a very dark concentrated fruit. My best comparison was black currants, but that doesn't quite cover it. I thought of an old-school cordial, but without the cooked flavour...just very, very concentrated. At this point, my impressions were similar to other cabs that I'd tried. Ordinarily I like pungent, forceful flavours, but the cab sauvignon flavour profile has always left me cold. <shrug> I dunno, I just live in this head. The passage of an hour, however, worked quite a change. As the wine became more oxygenated, the flavours opened up dramatically. The leather-and-tobacco notes were still there, but they'd faded gently into the background; as had the tannins and acids. The fruit came well to the fore and changed character. Where the currant flavours had been dark and concentrated previously, they now were expansive and much fresher-tasting. I was also picking up faint herbal notes which hadn't been there previously. I was sorely tempted to pour another glass, but that would have meant cutting into tomorrow's ration, so I restrained myself. Overall impression? Grudging respect. I'd still be inclined to reach first for a Cotes du Rhone, maybe, or something Italian, but I'm certainly more open to further research than I'd have been before tonight. This wine has lots of structure to it, and I think (admittedly, I have little to base this judgement on) that it would age well for several more years. I'll be back tomorrow to append a followup, after the second tasting. Anyone else tried this particular wine? I'd be interested in the opinions of more experienced palates.

Online version Can't read the recipes, though.

Machismo?.....maybe. Medieval?.....maybe. Unfortunately, the bedrock reason for all of this is not overly susceptible to amelioration: it's a damned hard business, with very tight margins. It would always be nice to have a few more people on hand ("many hands make light work") but unless you have an unusually tight-knit family, or perhaps a religious cult of your very own, people will expect to be paid their work. It would be even nicer if we could offer our staff (the deserving ones, anyway) a good living in exchange for their efforts. Unfortunately, that would generally mean the end of the business.

I tend to favour the wet caramelization, simply because I'm doing a whole bunch of other things while I make caramel and it reduces the amount of attention I need to give it. All of the above explanations are excellent, but I'll take one thread of this discussion and amplify on it; that being the role of the lemon juice. Adding acid to your sugar converts part of the sucrose (ie ordinary granulated sugar) into invert sugar, which resists crystallization. There are other ways to do that; you could use cream of tartar or vinegar in similarly small amounts, or add an already-extant invert sugar such as corn syrup or glucose (you'll see recipes calling for these). You'll still want to watch out for buildup of crystals on the side of your pan, but the acid makes things a bit easier. If you should wind up with a pan full of nicely caramelized sugar, but somewhat marred by undissolved lumps, just add the rest of your liquids in their due course and stir vigorously. Often they'll dissolve, if not you can just strain the s.o.b. when nobody's looking (blushing as I reveal a guilty secret). This doesn't apply to straight caramelized sugar, of course, which will just turn your strainer into non-functioning sculpture. An important point to remember, as Wendy pointed out upthread, is that this all boils down (sorry) to the laws of physics. Heat sugar to the appropriate temperature, and it *will* caramelize. Candy thermometers aren't necessarily expensive, and can save you a lot of aggravation. Even a fully-crystallized skillet full of sugar will re-melt as the temperature comes up. You want to get your sugar to - but not past - the desired fashion. The slower you go, the richer the colour will be and the less likely you are to burn your sugar. Of course, this presupposes that you have time to do it slowly. If you do overcook your sugar, don't throw it away. Dilute the tarry-looking stuff with a bit of water and store it in your fridge; it's a great browning agent for sauces (or rye bread). I make this deliberately on occasion, it's sometimes called "blackjack." A handy cheat to have in your arsenal.

Here's a hot tip for you, Rosebud. Go down to Home Depot, or whichever other buildings supplies outlet is convenient for you. Tell the helpful dude in the orange apron that you're looking for square dowel. He'll take you to a rack where they have pieces of wood in various lengths. It'll be square in cross-section, and they'll have it in a variety of sizes. Get yourself two lengths each of, say, the 1/8", 1/4", and 3/8" dowel. Set them on your work surface. Put your rolling pin across them. Move them apart until they are almost at the opposing ends of your rolling pin. Dust flour between the wooden rods, and plop your dough in there. Roll. Your rolling pin will ride on its wooden guides, and your dough will be perfectly even. Every time. Okay, it's cheating, but so is using a mandoline instead of knife skills. Who cares?

Glad it worked for you! I've coaxed a few acquaintances out of their "I can burn water" hidey-holes by explaining how easy and impressive fish in parchment can be.

Yowza! Over three hundred customers/day in a neighbourhood bakery is DAMN good. I'm in downtown Pedway Hell, with office towers all around, in a place that serves the only decent takeaway hot meal in the vicinity, and we get maybe 1200-1400 on good days. What's your average sale/transaction coming in at? I have given your address to a couple of people who'll be vacationing down that way soon; they'll be passing it on in turn to their resident friends and relatives. Unfortunately, I don't know any experienced bakers who are looking to move Stateside. Hell, I'd settle for finding one who'll take a graveyard shift here in town. I'm soooo tired of having my teenage night baker underbaking/overbaking a couple hundred dollars' worth of product every week.

It is a widespread truism that some thoughts are best expressed in certain languages. Apparently Friedrich Engels, Marx' longtime collaborator, had a real problem with this when he got older. Having sixteen or seventeen languages at his disposal, he was said to drift from tongue to tongue in the course of any given sentence or manuscript, creating vast difficulties for his less-erudite acolytes.

All of the above is excellent advice, and I cannot add substantially to it. As a starting point, though, I would recommend picking *one* book, and selecting *one* not-too-outrageous recipe that you'd like to have in your repertoire. Buy the smallwares you need to make that one recipe, and make it three or four times. After you've made it three or four times, you'll have some confidence to build on. Pick another recipe with similar methodology, and do that one a few times. Repeat as necessary. After you've made three or four recipes that share a basic method, you'll have a good enough understanding of that method to pick up any other recipe that uses the same technique. When you're really good, you'll be in mid-recipe and say to yourself, "Hey, that's not right"...and adjust accordingly. Really, there are only a few basic recipes. If you've done one sponge cake, you can make all the others readily enough. If you can make a basic yeast dough, you can make any bread with a bit of practice. If you can make one laminated dough, you can pick up the others. If you can make creme anglaise, you can make any custard...and so on. That's about it, when you strip baking to its essentials. Some advanced projects require a large number of disparate skills, but you gain them all one by one, in pretty much that fashion. Dig in, have fun, and don't stress yourself. Most of the time even your mistakes will be edible, and if they're not, well...not many things are cheaper than eggs and flour. Come to think of it, some of my current "standards" began life as mistakes, and turned out to be improvements on the original item.

I've used whole kamut to make pilafs, and enjoyed it. It would be a little chewy for most tastes, admittedly...if I was making it for company I'd probably break up the grains a bit. I've cooked millet quite a bit, and enjoy the flavour. It's better if you dry-toast it first, and doesn't "puff" quite as much. Quinoa I haven't used quite as much, but I've both cooked and baked with it. I like it well enough, and appreciate the little "snap" that the grains have even if I've absent-mindedly overcooked them. When I do that, I'll generally put them into porridge or baking. Cornmeal and quinoa waffles turned out quite well. They're a good combination for yeasted breads, as well. I use buckwheat in porridges, crepes, and breads; occasionally pilafs. I make barley risotto quite often, as well. Wheat berries are iffier, I've only used them occasionally (my sister-in-law gave me a coffee can full of them once). Teff is just too damned expensive, at least in my neck of the woods. I guess you could say that I've used whatever grains came to hand. I like them all, really.

You go, girl! Hang in there and keep swinging. Hopefully, once the Easter "spike" is over, the level of new business you've gotten from the holidays and the article will justify adding a baker AND GETTING SOME DOWNTIME.... Damn, it'd be nice if you could do that at such an early stage.