slkinsey
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Posts posted by slkinsey
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Having played around with instant and dry active over the weekend, I am going to declare my recipe best with fresh yeast. While my dry active result was good, it was not up to the fresh yeast dough standard. There is apparently more to yeast than mere leavening.
Oh, I'd agree. Different strains of yeast -- and fresh yeast is certainly a different strain from those used in instant and active dry yeasts -- will always produce different results. If one has a ready and convenient supply of fresh yeast, I think that would always be the best choice. Instant yeast is merely a convenience as one can have a reliable supply in the freezer available at a moment's notice.
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...almost no one knew what an "expresso" was and they surely weren't going to pay 3 dollars and change for a cup of coffee...
Never mind, of course, that an infinitely better cup of espresso can be had on most any Italian street corner for about a buck.
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I should have said "something they called Veal Marengo" because, believe me, it bore no resemblance to the original.
Oh, I know what you mean. It's just not the same unless the air smells of blood and gunpowder, and there is some guy two tents over having his leg sawed off before gangrene sets in.
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There is no way you can get enough thujone from drinking absinthe to experience any of its mind-altering effects. You would be unconscious from alcohol poisoning before that happened. Any such perceived effects are purely psychological... much like such canards as "the mellow buzz you get from wine as opposed to the hard buzz from bourbon" or the often observed phenomenon whereby someone gets "high" smoking something they think is marijuana but in fact is not.
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The food. Lots of mystery meat, most memorable of which was something called Veal Marengo that had olives strewn about.
This is a variation on Chicken Marengo, which is a classic dish. According to legend it was created on the battlefield on June 14, 1800 after Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Austro-Hungarian army at the village of Marengo in northern Italy. It is chicken sauted in olive oil and braised with garlic, onion, tomatoes, olives, white wine or brandy, and sometimes garnished with crayfish or eggs ("Italian poached eggs" -- eggs poached in olive oil -- if you're lucky).
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Well, I declared Course 9 at the end of my freshman year, around the same time I realized I hated math, science, and computers and decided to transfer elsewhere to study film. I did take a few Media Lab classes that were pretty cool, though.
Ah... my father is a physical chemist, so I doubt you would have crossed paths with any of the people I know over there.
Growing up as the son of two academic research chemists, I was lucky enough to figure out at a very early age that I hated most math and science (although strangely enough I have come back around to an appreciation of amateur science). Just recently I was reminded of how I developed my befuddlement with and hatred of math when my father attempted to explain to my 9 year old nephew what was so cool about doing the proof showing that the square root of 2 is not a rational number.
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MIT, 95-96.
Edited to add that the Falafel truck was right in front of 77 Mass Ave. There were two, and I believe still are- I used to eat there when I moved back to Boston in 98-00, though I sadly can't remember which one was the better one.
Rock on. What were you studying at MIT? My father was faculty there for around 25 years, so I know the school and a lot of the faculty quite well.
The falafel truck, BTW, has been legendary for years. I can remember hearing about it perhaps as early as the late 70s -- certainly by the mid 80s.
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Poke through this recent thread for some good ideas and suggestions.
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If you lived in the dorms, a meal plan was 100% mandatory.
Why was it mandatory? (Sorry if this is a silly question.)
For a lot of smaller schools, such as the one I attended, residence on campus and participation in the meal program is mandatory. If the school has, say, 1,100 students it needs to provide the housing/eating facilities to accomodate right around this number of students. If half the students then decide to live/eat off-campus, the school would end up taking a significant financial hit. Also, for many of these schools, again such as the one I attended, having all the students live/eat together on the college campus is a big part of the experience/philosophy.
I was able to live in an on-campus fraternity house most of the time I was at school. The university would give us the board portion of the comprehensive fee for each of our members, so we were able to hire a cook, eat much better food than the cafeteria was serving and still have plenty of money left over for parties, beer, guests, etc. Marion cooked fairly standard Wisconsin fare for the time (heavy on the meat and starches -- her ides of the four food groups was "meat, bread, potatoes and pasta"), and we cooked for ourselves when she had the day off (usually more of the same). It was on these days off that I was able to hone my formidable bratwurst grilling skills and, somewhere along the way, almost blew my arms off starting a charcoal fire with gasoline.
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But this -- THIS! -- is my next pizza:a regular pom/mozz with a few eggs cracked on the crust to "fry" in the oven
There's drool on my keyboard, dude.
That's always a fave around the Kinsey household. The trick is to pull it out of the oven while the yolks are still runny. I like to do it with thinly-sliced home-roasted red peppers and a sprinkle of minced parsley when it comes out of the oven.
I don't know if it's terribly traditional, but I got the idea for it from the "Pizza Big Ben" at a friend's Marchegiano trattoria "Big Ben" in the little mountain town of Urbania near Urbino.
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...do not forget the Zen of pizza topping. Less is more...
Bill, I like your thinking. We must make pizza together some time.
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Tuna and onion! Be still, my heart!
I know! Isn't that the greatest? I also like it with a few capers added.
See... you say that to most Americans and they say, "um... I don't know... tuna on a pizza? I'm not so sure I'd like that... sounds weird... are you sure people in Italy eat this?" More often than not, the people who say "ick" at the suggestion of a "strange" tuna and onion pizza are the same people who might think very little of a chicken barbeque and sweet corn pizza (something that sounds truly strange to me, and no doubt to you as well). 99% of the people I have made tuna and onion pizza for have loved it despoite their initial reservations. The other 1% -- well, one guy really -- have trouble with anything more adventurous than KFC.
Some of my other favorites are ruccola, bresaola and strachino (no tomato), and also a regular pom/mozz with a few eggs cracked on the crust to "fry" in the oven. Have even made a "pizza Rossini" a few times in honor of my favorite composer (hard cooked eggs and, strange as this sounds, a few drizzles of homemade mayonnaise at the table).
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Allright, maybe I'm a closet traditionalist! The single-person, 10-12" thin pizza seems so much more civilized than the 16-20" monsters sold by most American pizza joints. Cooks quick, served fresh, hot and individually tailored to the consumer...
Oh... I feel the same way. I make big rectalgular ones from time to time when I have pizza parties at my apartment. Then I like to get 10-12 people and turn out 10 or so pizzas using ingredients with which I am familiar from Italy but which are relatively rare in the US on a pizza (tonno e cipollo or fresh porcini with a drizzle of olio di Cartoceto at the table, for example). That way everyone gets to taste a bunch of new things.
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I kneaded the 00 dough about 6-7 minutes by machine and let it rise in the refrigerator for about 20 hours.
No reason to take up room in the 'frige if you are only fermenting for 20 hours. Just try cutting the amount of yeast in half and let 'er rip. Punch down the bowl every so often whenever you think about it.
I don't have any figures for commercial baker's yeast, but I do know that sourdough yeast is severely inhibited at refrigerator temperatures. I assume that similar things may be true for commercial yeast. I think there are good things to be gained by fermenting at cold temperatures, but the tradeoffs involved when you are talking about only 20 hours of fermentation favor room-temperature IMO. If you were going to go to 40 hours, then I'd think it would make a lot of sense to retard the dough for, say, 16-20 of those hours.
It is also possible that I was trying to make too large a pizza.It's possible... although I have been able to make very large pizze with 00 flour. One thing that my pizziaolo friends do in Italy, and which I have adopted in my own practice, is to give the dough an extra rest. I'll take a lump of dough, stretch it out until it is around 45% - 55% as large as I want it to be, then let it rest for an additional 10-15 minutes or so before stretching it out to the final size. This allows the gluten to relax again, and makes the move to the final size a lot easier.
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Ironically, the observed tearing when using low gluten flour may be due to over kneading, which can cause tearing. If one kneads an 00 flour dough for the same length of time as one would knead a American bread flour dough for full development of the gluten, the 00 dough certainly could end up overworked -- especially with the addition of a long rise. I find that low gluten doughs that are going to be given an 18 - 24 hour rise do not need, nor benefit from, all that much kneading. Maybe 5 minutes by machine.
When going to the absolute limit of paper-thinness as in phylo dough or translucently thin pasta, the dough does benefit from the strength of having more gluten. These products are also thin enough that they are inherrently tender and do not suffer from the toughness of texture and unpleasant "breadyness" of flavor that all too often accompanies bread flour. This does not mean, however, that it is easier or necessarily "better" for doughs that are not taken to these extremes. Pizza dough may be thin, but it ain't that thin.
YMMV, of course.
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Two things here:
1. Bill is correct about the long rising. There is a certain amount of gluten development that takes place over time via chemical reactions simply by allowing the wet dough to sit. In addition, the mechanical action of multiple risings encourages further crosslinking and gluten development. I know several people who are able to make quite excellent bread with all the characteristics we would associate with good gluten development using a very long rise and without kneading the dough at all.
2. All this talk about gluten development and pizza dough is mystifying me somewhat. Unless one desires thick, bready pizza crusts I cannot quite see why maximum development of gluten is particularly crucial. Indeed, the whole reason many of us suggest using 00 flour or cutting AP flour with cake flour is precisely to reduce the gluten in the resultant dough. Similarly, one reason for a long fermentation is to relax whatever gluten does form. Doughs that are high in gluten tend to be very springy and resist the baker's attempts to spread them out. The way to compensate for this is to give the dough more hydration (higher gluten flours absorb more water). Even then, a high gluten dough has to be wetter than a low gluten dough to achieve the same amount of pliability. Once you have added enough water to make a higher gluten flour suitably extensible, you end up with a wetter dough that -- in my opinion -- doesn't taste as good as one made with a lower gluten flour.
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I have had very good results using SAF "Red" Instant Yeast. I buy 1 pound bricks from the King Arthur Flour Catalog and store the yeast in a jar in the freezer. This yeast has done great for me even after sitting in the freezer for several years (it takes a while to finish a pound of yeast).
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I put the pizza stone in the heating to 500 degree oven and left for the grocery store to get stuff for tomorrow night's meal. Got back and the thing was smelling up the kitchen. It must have been dressed with something in the factory which, when heated, let off a horrid chemical stench! No wonder it was a freebie. Let the oven cool back down and took the stone out.
Give the stone another try. Much like a new oven or a new car, new pizza stones can sometimes have some funny smells the first time they're heated up. You can wash the stone off, if you like. But make sure you let it dry out for several days before you put it back in the oven or it may crack.
Other advice: If your oven goes up to 550F, turn it up to 550F. Also, if it's a gas oven, make sure you put the stone on the floor of the oven so the oven burner fires directly into the stone.
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I would be interested in trying the 24-hour rise. But at what temperature? If too warm, it must ultimately play out the yeast, which doesn't keep reproducing forever.
I do mine at regular NYC room temperature... probably somewhere around 75F.
If you're going to do a long ferment, I would recommend starting with half the yeast or maybe even less. I've not had any problems with the dough losing steam after 24 hours. Although it isn't too terribly active, the dough still rises considerably over the course of a pizza party (I typically make a ton of dough and turn out around 10 large pizze).
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I can assure you that there is not too much yeast, nor do I have any sense that my yeast population is growing over time.
The population of yeast in dough does grow over time until there is a growth-inhibiting condition. This is a biological fact. A growth limiting condition can include such things as pH below a certain threshhold, a lack of certain vital nutrients or the lack of sufficient food.
A second thought is that the compressed yeast in Italy is added by weight, not by tablespoon, so maybe the 4-tablespoon indication in my recipe does not work. (It clearly would be too much active dry yeast, and if I broke up the Italian yeast, it might not yield 4 tablespoons.This may be a big part of the misunderstanding. According to Peter Reinhart in Crust & Crumb, 1 ounce (~30 grams) of fresh yeast = 1 tablespoon. Further, 1 tablespoon of fresh yeast contains the same number of yeast cells as 1.25 teaspoons of active dry yeast and 1 teaspoon of instant yeast. According to your recipe, you are using the equivalent of 2 teaspoons of instant yeast. While this is double what I use, it is still a relatively small inoculum for this much dough. Given that I seem to favor significantly longer fermentations (I really prefer 24 hours), we likely come out just about the same.
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GREAT stuff, Bill!
A few thoughts about the dough, however:
I know that fresh yeast and active dried yeast and instant dried yeast differ as to the number of yeast cells per unit of volume. Maybe it is the case that the fresh yeast has less than the others? I don't know... just speculating. The reason I ask is that your recipe seems to call for an awful lot of yeast -- certainly compared to the recipes I use. In general, I tend to use less yeast rather than more when I make doughs that will rise for a long time (my recipe has the same amount of flour as yours, and I use 1 teaspoon of instant dried yeast). I found it interesting that your recipe calls for so much yeast and a long rise, as I have always operated under the rule of thumb that longer rise = use less yeast. As the yeast works on the dough over a long rise the yeast cells are multiplying, and will tend to reproduce to just the right concentration that the dough needs. At the end of a long fermentation, a dough that was started with very little yeast should end up with the same population of active yeast cells as a dough that started out with a lot of yeast -- the main difference being that the latter will contain a much higher level of dead yeast cells. I feel that starting with very little yeast results in doughs that taste of wheat rather than tasting of yeast (although some people like a "yeasty" flavor -- maybe this is what you are going for?). A longer, slower rise starting with a smaller yeast inoculum also allows the proteolytic enzymes naturally present in the flour a longer period of time to degrade gluten and relax the dough. I also find that long-risen doughs often seem to run out of steam (i.e., fermentation activity) if I start off with a large inoculum, as the large inoculum doughs seem to eat up all the food in a relatively short period of time.
I just thought it was interesting that our dough recipes seem incredibly similar except for the size of the yeast inoculum and the form of the yeast. I like to start with around 1 tsp of instant dried yeast and ferment for at least 12 hours, often 18. In the end I get a very relaxed dough that is still fermenting quite actively. Part of the difference, however, may have to do with the form of yeast we are using. I think (although I am not sure) that fresh yeast is much less concentrated than dried.
Anyway... just my two cents worth of observation.
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Hmm... sounds interesting. And right after my birthday too.
Too bad you're not still going to be here on the 29th. There's a Bears/Packers game on MNF...
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Last week a friend of mine emailed me that he was in paris, and did I want any kitchenware. I said, half jokingly, sure, if you have the space, pick me up one of those 30 cm, 2.5 mm thick copper stainless lined fry pans at E. Dehillerin.
Well, wouldn't you know it, he did--and they wouldn't let him carry it on the plane, and it survived being simply wrapped in plastic bags and tossed in the cargo hold from paris to philadelphia, and didn't get lost. And here I am $95 or so later, with a really really nice pan.
You are definitely hanging around with the right people!
The question is: considering that I've never owned a copper pan before, is there anything special I need to do to take care of a copper pan? I know that if I don't polish it up the copper will tarnish--I don't care about that unless it makes a difference in performance somehow. And I figure since copper is as soft and reactive as it is, I shouldn't put it in the dishwasher, which is fine. But is there anything else I need to consider?There are a few considerations, yes. Copper doesn't have to be more of a maintenance hassle than other materials, but it can be. It all depends on aesthetics.
As you correctly surmise, you shouldn't put it in the dishwasher as this could cause extreme oxidation of the copper. So that's out... Also, new copper cookware often comes with a coating of lacqueur to protect the copper from oxidation in the showroom. This needs to be removed with acetone, nail polish remover, 91% rubbing alcohol or some other suitable solvent before you put it on the heat.
So... now to the important stuff. When you use your copper pan, the heat will cause the copper to discolor. Then you have several choices:
1. If you like, you can simply let this discoloration build up over time and allow the copper to develop a natural patina with use. The performance of the pan will not be affected in any way, and some people like this appearance. If you want to do this, simply wash the exterior of the pan with a sponge to remove any food stuck to the outside and leave it at that.
If you prefer a bright exterior, it will take a bit more work.
2. If the exterior has a mirror (shiny) finish, you will need to polish away the oxidation using either copper polish or strong vinegar. The tradeoff is that the polish will need to be washed off when you want to use the pan again, and vinegar has only limited effectiveness. Since copper is soft, you have to be very careful about the exterior surface if you want to keep the smooth and shiny finish. If you use scouring powder on the inside of the pan, you need to take extra care that none gets on the mirror finished copper or it will mar the finish with scratches. This is an example of mirror finished copper cookware.
3. If the exterior has a brushed finish, on the other hand, your options are a lot more open. You can still use polish or strong vinegar, but you can also use scouring powders. Barkeeper's Friend and a Scotch Brite pad will take the tarnish off a copper pan in right around the same time it takes to make a stainless steel pan shiny-clean. The inevitable result of using these abrasive products, of course, is that it will leave tiny scratches in the copper. However, if the exterior has a brushed finish, all you have to do is scour in the same direction as the "grain" of the brush marks. Any new scratches will end up being parallel to the original scratches, and the finish will look more or less the same. Brushed copper is therefore much easier to keep bright, which is exactly why some makers have gone over to brushed exterior finishes. This is an example of brushed finish copper cookware.
4. Suppose you have some mirror finished copper cookware that you want to keep bright, but you don't want to go to all the hassle of polishing it with a polish. You can convert the mirror finish to a brushed finish at home. This is what I have done with all my mirror finished copper cookware. All you have to do is get a Scotch Brite pad and some Barkeeper's Friend and carefully scour the copper exterior in the same pattern that is used for brushed finish copper cookware: Run the pad around the sides of the pan (parallel to the lip of the pan) making a big circle all the way around, then turn the pan over and run the pad across the entire bottom of the pan always in one direction (perpendicular to the handle of the pan is my usual choice). At this point, you now have a brushed finish.
All copper pans need to be dried promptly after cleaning or they will have water spots.
Hope this helps. Please follow up here if I can clarify further.
eG Foodblog: SobaAddict70 - The horror! The horror!
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
What I want to see is how often you need a "fix" of buckwheat noodles. And I want to hear where a true soba addict goes to score.