jackal10

If you look on http://www. wine-searcher.com ther are some 400 wines and spirits listed often at quite modest prices, although the prices will reflect condition and drinkability. Wine of that age is always a lottery. I have some lovely 1947 Ch Caillou, but then sweet wines age a lot better.

Personal choice. Oil, or oil and butter usually, but I'd cook them in goose fat

Yes, I get big holes at 66% hydration. Very wet doughs give large holes, but have thick webs, and a more pudding like texture. If you get full gluten development the webs are much thinner as well. There are three seperate processes going on, all with different dynamics: gluten development, conversion of the starches to sugars (which also makes the dough wetter as it proves), and gas production. The bakers art is to optimise them.

Ramps growing in the woods next to my house in UK. Not even I can eat that many...

Is this the time of year for herring? We must also see some tulips (they are out in my garden in the UK), although I don't expect you will have time to make it to Keukenhof... Oh, and windmills, and Genever, and Hopjes, and cheese...

You'd do better to do it in two steps a) 8-12 hour make the sponge (before you leave for work) b) mix, bulk ferment 1 hour, proof for 1-2 hours, depending on temperaure, bake 40 mins. This assumes you are using abou 33% of he flour in the recipe inthe sponge. If you use half hat (say 16%) double the proof time.

All these posts, and no one has mentioned crackling???? Whats the point of pork roast without the crackling? Score well, anoint with salt and EVOO, then LTLT cook (60C for 12 hours), then hot finish - 250C for half an hour. Sage and onion stuffing, apple sauce, roasties (with roast onion), parsnips, carrots and some member of the cabbage family...followed by the first of the early rhubarb and custard. What to do with the left-overs, besides sandwiches? Char sui bao of course, but also cubed for other asian dishes, like sweet and sour pork, or even curry.

PX is alredy very sweet. Its a desert island wine: keeps forever. Liquid Christmas pudding. Sherry is made in a Solera systems, where each barrel is diluted with newer wine, so the date is that of the founding of the solera. Alvear, an PX Montilla wine from Andalucia, closely resembles Sherry but is unfortified. It attains very high alcohol levels 14-16% without fortification. Astonishingly rich, complicated and fantastic value - a 1927 Solera retails for around $15 a bottle. Even stands up to chocolate.

Look up under "Schav" Makes a wonderful cold borscht, or cream soup with oatmeal Otherwise use like spinach. Souffle or with eggs is good

I'm sure other and better experts will join in but here is my understanding: Most bread formula are in terms of Bakers, percentages, that is relative to total flour. Different bakers have different formulas. The amount of levan can vary from typically 20% to over 200% (200% means half the flour is in the levan). A typical formula for white bread might be: Liquid levan: Flour 20% (200g) Water 20% (200g) Mother starter 1% (10g) Ferment for 8-12 hours at 30C Dough All the levan 40% (400g) Flour 80% (800g) Water 45% (450g ) Salt 2% (20g) This formula has 65% hydration with the water in the levan. Varying the amount of water by small amounts will make big changes to the viscosity of the dough and hence its ease of handling, and to a lesser extent the hole size in the finished dough. Don't forget the dough will get much wetter as ferments and proves, as the acid attacks the starch and converts them to sugars. Different flours adsorb differnt amounts of water. Wholemeal will adsorb more, say 55%/550g/75% hydration. You can compensate for a smaller sponge by fermenting longer, but it will make a different bread. There are many different processes happening, and very long fermentation stages tend to weaken the gluten. Crudely, I think the sponge step develops the flavour, and dough step the texture. I'm sure that flour will make fine bread. I think here is often too much emphasis on the exact paramters of the flour, since technique is more important. Better to choose one or two typed of flour you can easily obtain, and work with those. Oneof the problems is that millers and supermarkets do not always supply an identical product: the same flour packet may contain subtly different flour in the spring or the autumn, or on damp days and dry days. You raise a large subject here, and if you can, go and find books on cereal chemistry. Flour is complex stuff, and there are many more parameters than just protein content, which is used as a surrogate for gluten. although it says nothing about the quality of gluten, and can be misleading for wholemeal flours since the bran contains protein. The amount of gluten is often referred to as strength, but you can (and I do) make good bread from weak flour. In France baguettes are made with weak flour. Each culture has ended to evolve local breads that make best use of the flour locally grown and available. Other parameters people measure. Many of these interact, and none really tell you what the flour is like to bake with: Moisture content Colour Grade of grind and particle size Milling temperature Milling method Wheat variety and type (spring/winter etc) Extraction (percentage of the whole wheat) Enzyme content Hagberg Falling number (measure of amylase activity) Gel protein test Damaged strach granules (Farrand units) Water adsobption (Farinograph) In France and Germany ash content is quoted, used as an indication of mineral content. My loaves more than double in the oven. I get bigger final volume from less expansion in the feremention and proof stage and more oven spring. Try and see what happens if you bake directly after shaping. You will certainly get some rise. Retardation (putting the bread in the fridge) is another issue, The cold slows some proceses more than others. I reckon (for me) overnight int e fridge is about equivalent to two hours proof, and sometimes I shape, put the dough in the fridge, and then bake next day from cold. Another complex subject. Vitamin C combines with the help of an oxidase enzyme present in the flour wih the oxygen in the dough to form dehydroascorbic acid, which then oxidises anothe enzyme in the flour that would otherwise attack the gluten, and also appears to assist forming the bonds inthe gluten structure. Its more important for freshly milled flour, and for high intensity mixed doughs. If you are mixing by hand its less important - people have made fine bread for years without it. Some bread flours (King Arthur, for instance) have it already mixed in at the millers - check the fine print on the packet. You can just add it when you make the dough. I'm experimenting with some success with mixing the dough flour, water and vitamin C together and letting them stand for about an hour beforehand. Absolutely. I only maintain one basic white starter that I use for all my breads. A baker I know just maintains a rye mother starter that he uses for all his breads, so that he can make gluten free breads without changing starter. Hope this helps and welcome to a great adventure. Please don't take these remarks as gospel. They are only my current opinion, and you should not beleive everything you read on the Internet! Jack

Welcome to the wonderful world of sourdough and bread baking. a) If the dough is that wet you need to support it in a battenton (linen lined basket) during proof. You might find it easier if you scale down the water a bit, to say 65% or so. b) The effect of the steam is to gelatanise the outside to give a shiny crisp crust. Oven spring is governed by many thing, one which is not to overprove the bread, but also by the rate of heat transfer, especially bottom heat. Thats why putting the bread in direct contact with the hot stone helps - bread dough is a bit like a souffle, you are trying to make the gas and steam expand before it cooks and sets.

The Ivy Ottolenghi

Cleopatra topped all these, a long time ago. For those that don't know, she and Mark Anthony had a competition as to who would serve the most expensive dish. Mark Anthony served a feast of rare and wonderful foods - larks tongues, and the equivalent of truffles and kobe beef of the day. Cleopatra served plain ordinary food and a glass of vinegar...into which she dropped one of her priceless exquisite pearl earrings to dissolve...

Can alien races be Jewish? What would they eat, or the equivalent of say Knaidlach?

24 hours in a mild dill pickle - for example use the juice at the end of a jar of gherkins

Any one make cinnamon balls? 6oz ground almonds 8oz sugar 3 egg white beaten 2 tbs cinnamon Mix, roll into balls, low oven until the outside dries but the inside is still soft, Roll in icing sugar

Honey and Balsamic (with butter, of course) Carrot Foam Roast Mash with potato

Are we by chance related? That is exactly how I and my family make Matzo Kleis. I made some yesterday, as it happens. Accept no other. Much better than those solid lumps of knaidlach! Might add that I leave the rolled kleis in the fridge to set up for an hour or two before dropping them in the soup to boil. Less likely to break up. They will also store uncooked in the fridge for a day or two. Also maybe a little more parsley, and no nutmeg. You can find a very similar recipe in Florence Greenberg's Jewish Cookery, the classic Anglo-Jewish cookbook as Matzoh Ball 1. She adds a little ginger.. "The Rabbi's wife made Matzo Kleis, She made them once, she made them twice and then no more..." My family is from Alsace originally.

Another thing I am currently experimenting with is the amount of the flour that is used in the preferment. I've had good results with doubling it, thus the preferment is 200g flour, 200g water, and the dough is correspondingly 400g flour, 220g water. Softer flour (use ordinary pastry flour) will also give you bigger holes. Be warned...bread making and good bread is addictive

It lives! It could be a bit underproved still - I guess you just have to experiment as to what suits your environment. The crust is very red, which indicates there are still fermentable sugars. Other things that help get bigger holes: Hotter base - maybe bricks or tiles or a pizza stone in the oven Wetter dough if you can handle it You can also try 10 mins in the stand mixer - the dough should pick up on the hook, then release and start sticking to the sides. At that point its ready. Then fold and shape it straight away, no need to pause. Alternatively (and this may be better for you) mix for one minute or less just until everything is incorporated and even, without developing the gluten. Then fold, rest, fold, rest, fold, shape as now. Enjoy the Billecart-Salmon Rose. One of the nicest Champagnes I think, Will you use a sabre to open it?

Don't overprove! The dough should barely double. It will double again in the oven...

Yes, a baking stone will help lots, especially if you bake directly in contact with it (or on baking parchment on the stone). It provides thermal inertia, and good heat transfer to the base of the bread. That helps the spring. You can use a rye starter to bake both rye and wheat breads. I know bakers who maintain their primary starter using rye. Since you only use a little in the bread (10g in 1.2Kg) it doesn't speckle the bread much, and allows them to make wheat-free breads. However I would start with wheat doughs. Rye dough is much stickier and harder to handle.

Phew...I was getting cramp from crossing finger toes etc Interesting the stretch and fold had the biggest rise. I must do a side by side comparison...of course the biggest rise might not be the biggest loaf, since oven spring has a lot to do with it. There is a thread on BBGA about how yeast needs oxygen to multiply, and that a food processor introduces more air than gentle methods. Desiderio: The reason why you are confused is that the books are not clear. Professional bakers, who bake everyday keep their starter out of the fridge and refresh it every 12 hours, usually by 2/3rds (1/3rd old starter, 1/3rd flour, 1/3rd water). Amateurs, like myself, keep the starter in the fridge, and use high dilution rates - the preferment or occasional refreshment is typically 10g starter, 100g flour, 100g water To store the starter put it in the fridge. Take out a tablespoonful when you want to make bread, and use that to make your preferment. When the jar of mother starter in the fridge is looking a bit empty, make a double lot of preferment and put half back in the fridge. You need only refresh the stored started every few weeks. The reason for the high dilution is to dilute a lot of the acid and other by products of fermentation that can have an inhibiting effect. It works well, but this is heresy to some professionals, including Jeff Hamelman and followers of the late Prof. Raymond Clavel (A Taste of Bread), who refresh everyday, and claim their starter is somehow better, although side by side tests show there is no difference after one or two refreshments Ther has been a recent impasssioned debate on the BBGA mailing list http://groups.yahoo.com/group/breadbakersguild. A stable starter is pretty tough, and it will adapt to your regime, providing its fairly regular.

Very strange. 40% preferment (200g (100g flour + 100g water) to 500g flour) should be plenty. If you have only used 100g that will about double the time.. I guess just wait and see...it must move eventually...

Wow! You might want to mark a line on the label in the test jars to indicate the initial volume.. Those temperatures are well within tolerance