Two great food people, one great loaf

[trillium]

I've mentioned how much I love Ken's bread here before (I think it beats Pearl...heresy I know) so I have to point out this cool article on Ken by Jim in the Willamette Weekly. (hmmm...had to look up how to spell Willamette and I've been here nearly a year). Ken is fun to talk geek bread with, he didn't even mind when I told him the country brown was too sour one week, but proceeded to fill me in on why it had happened and what he was doing about it.

regards,

trillium

[Jim Dixon]

trillium,

Thanks for the promo (your check is in the mail). I have a longer version on my site.

last Friday night Ken started his evening hours. I had a nice plate of sausage and lentils, charcuterie, and the flight of butters (as Ken said, "The bread is free, but we charge for the butter.").

You get a plain butter (Raven's creamery classique, high butterfat...not sure if it's available retail, but comparable to plugra and fresher) and two compounds...ome with toasted filberts (aka hazelnuts) and salt, the other with herbs...very nice and only $2.

Jim

[LaurieA-B]

Matthew was in Portland over the weekend and he brought home a loaf of Ken's country blonde that he picked up at the farmers market. OH, was it good. SO SO GOOD. Very dark, crisp, flavorful crust, wonderful stretchy/creamy crumb. (I was pleased to run into the French word alveolage, "the inner structure of holes and bubbles", while reading Steingarten last night, since I'd run out of words to describe how much I liked the texture of Ken's bread.) My purpose is simply to remind you all that when you go to Portland, you need to EAT KEN'S BREAD.

[trillium]

I bumped into Matthew while he was buying that loaf, and I was too spaced out from the market madness to mention that it also freezes really, really well as long as it is well wrapped and thawed with the wrapping still on (I use a Tilia foodsaver). Next time you all could come over to my house and vacuum-pack some if you want. The other thing I didn't mention (I know, but I'm alway shell-shocked at the market) is the while the normal loaves are fantastic, the big-ass boules ARE EVEN BETTER! They ferment differently then the smaller loaves and have an even more flavorful crumb.

regards,

trillium

[ExtraMSG]

I want to know how small a loaf of Ken's gets during vacuum packing. I want before and after pics.

[trillium]

I have the fancy foodsaver where you can seal it before it reaches full vacuum, so it doesn't get smaller at all. I just stop it when the plastic has sort of wrapped itself around the bread but before it's sucked all the air out of the bread.

regards,

trillium

[ExtraMSG]

I couldn't do that. I'd have to see how far I could shrink it down at least once. In fact, I've thought about getting a foodsaver, but I think I'd waste all my plastic on "scientific experiments" to see the results of pressure changes on various different things around the house until finally I get put in jail for testing it on the neighbor's cat that always shits in my yard. My friends and I did some wicked things when I was kid with our extra microwave.

[Tremors]

Foodsaver advises that you freeze the bread first and then vacumn seal it - that way it doesn't lose its shape.

I missed this important detail when I first got my Foodsaver and the bread shrinked up in a really cool way and then when I defrosted them a bit later they came out great - reinflated and all. But MSG you are right - it is pretty fun to see the bread practically suck into itself!

[ExtraMSG]

Good advice. I almost bought those vacuum sealing cannisters they sell on infomercials just for the fun of seeing things shrink and expand. Plus, you can test whether Newton was right and a feather will fall as fast as a lead ball.

[Jill-O]

Nick, Newton WAS right, but if he had some of those containers and some marshmallows, he would not have been outside under that apple tree, he'd have been in his kitchen playing with them!

And Nick, my brother-in-law, when microwaves were a fairly new thing in the kitchen, tried various items in them...not HIS of course, but my mother's. The grape was only slightly amusing, but the egg...well, the egg, now THAT was impressive! All that remained of the shell was a very fine grit...and it took Marc about an hour to fully clean my mom's micro afterward.

Wow, they have bags big enough to fit a cat inside? ;o)