Bread Makes The Meal

I will have something else up later today; after all, I do plan to make bread of some sort. I just thought I would offer a few brief thoughts on my (continued, but still not complete) reading of The English Bread Book . So, here are my thoughts. The "German yeast" used in 1857 seems to be like the yeast variously called "fresh yeast", "wet yeast" or "yeast cakes" that are often available (though I personally use the dry yeast). This seems to have been only available for sale in bakeries. If you've never seen fresh yeast, here's some (actual size about 1 inch by ½ inch by ½ inch): Fresh yeast. (Image courtesy of ElinorD, via Wikimedia Commons). Since German yeast was relatively expensive and didn't last long, the yeast in common use was that which would have been used in brewing beer; and there's considerable discussion of how it can be affected by hops, gentian, and other ingredients used to flavor beer or ale; also of...

Nancie has been making the discreet suggestion for a while that I should do something with the sourdough starter or else get rid of it. I eventually decided that I had to agree with her; I really am not using the starter often enough that I can justify taking up the space and the mixing bowl. So tonight I took a couple of final (unfortunately very blurry) pictures: and then washed the bowl out. I haven't given up on sourdough; but I have to be practical: it's not my favorite bread, or Nancie's. On another note, I've been meaning to tell you about the next recipe I'm looking at from the Eliza Acton cookbook I told you about Thursday . I found another recipe for "Good Family Bread". Unfortunately, this one I would have to more than halve before I could bake it manageably. The subheading reads "Sufficient for a week's consumption for ten persons." Presumably that includes the family and the servants. The recipe begins ...

No garden for me tonight. Instead, I'm going to dive back into the historical bread cookbooks and see what I can cook up! I must admit to being slightly taken aback by the older use of the word "receipt" for what I would call a "recipe" - apparently "recipe" first appeared in 1743, but wasn't common for quite a bit longer. I found a book called "The English bread-book for domestic use", written by Eliza Acton in 1857. As a start, I turned to the section labeled "Very Plain Directions To A Quite Inexperienced Learner For Making Bread." Unfortunately, this recipe calls for "half a gallon of flour", that is eight cups. Maybe I can halve the recipe? It's a possibility. And of course there's always my Milk And Water Bread. I'd like to try this recipe though, so I can show it off with plenty of pictures! God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

So tonight with Nancie busy I'll have the kitchen available to do a mid-week bake. Question is, should I do standard white bread baking? Or should I try that "Milk and Water Bread" I found in the cookbook from 1917, the one I put up a recipe for a while ago ? I still haven't developed a "formal-style" recipe for that, but I might just go with it and see how it starts off. I found another book with recipes, this one from 1903. The recipes seem to call for a bit more ingredients than I have on hand, though: "We will take for this process 10st. (1401bs.) of brown meal or flour, 14oz. of compressed yeast, and 11b. 6oz. of salt." Um, I think that's for more than one or two loaves? :-) It turns out this is primarily intended for commercial bakers. But hey, it was worth a look. I'll post again tonight to let you know what I did (and provide pictures!) God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

I'm just going through some of my websites today. I thought I was going to be baking bread yesterday; then I would have had pictures for you. But we wound up running a few errands instead, and I was Just Too Tired. So instead, I went to The Fresh Loaf (.com) and looked into their lessons . What I learned is that no one seems to mention the "roll out the dough, then roll it up" approach that I learned from my Pillsbury recipes. Hmm. Next time I'll try just forming the dough into more or less the right shape. I'll keep going through this. In many ways, I still feel my lack of experience, and I know that what keeps me going is not my certainty of the result so much as my joy in the process. God speed, and remember: All sorrows are less with bread .

Herself and I were out from 7:00 AM until after 9:00 PM yesterday, and when we got home I was way too exhausted to write anything. Apologies. I'm not sure I like The Complete Book Of Bread & Bread Machines , the cookbook that my neighbor gave me the other day. It's got lots of pretty pictures in it, but there are two big faults: Although it gives recipes for bread made from sourdough starters, it doesn't tell you how to keep the starter going. Surely that's the point of having a starter? It has a lot of descriptions of traditional regional breads, but It Doesn't Give All The Recipes . What's with that?? So instead, I'm going back to the Bilderback. Everything Bread has a good-looking sourdough starter recipe, and a rye bread made with it. In keeping with the best sourdough blogs :-) I'll post pictures as the starter develops. According to the recipe, the starter takes about two weeks to develop; but don't worry—I'll be baking (and pos...