Pequod

Interesting. Is that 73% hydration with 100% extraction flour? That seems very low for whole, unsifted flour.

10 hours ago, Syzygies said:

Alas I noticed. We'll meet there, if not sooner. Oddly, Tara Jensen's web site makes no mention that I can discern as to the location of her upcoming workshop?

Tara relocated to Hamilton, VA about two years ago. This puts her about 2 hours north of me, and just west of Dulles Airport.

Desem also appears in Tara Jensen’s book “Flour Power.” The workshop I’m taking with her next month includes different levains, so I’m expecting some discussion on desem (or I’ll be raising my hand to ask). She did a stint in Asheville, NC, home of Carolina Ground, hence the lineage from Robertson to Scott to Lapidus to Jensen. Asheville also has a biennial Bread Festival: https://www.ashevillebreadfestival.com. Next one is Spring 2025. I’m thinking I need to make that pilgrimage — Asheville is just about 5 hours drive south of me.

13 hours ago, Syzygies said:

In defense of "no pics", my last two loaves of sourdough have radicalized me. They looked like I'd been set back five years, and they tasted the best I've ever made. Now I'm on a Desem bread bender.

I shouldn't have stopped by here today. I recently came across Desem in the "Southern Ground" book and am trying to resist the need to develop a Desem starter. Resistance is futile, it seems.

Southern Ground tells the story of Carolina Ground, which works with farmers to restore historic grains, mill them, and supply the flour to regional bakeries. One of my favorite local bakeries, Albemarle Baking Company, uses their flour. Next month, I'm doing a workshop with Tara Jensen, a renowned baker and Carolina Ground advocate (@bakerhands on Instagram).  

On 4/23/2024 at 2:56 AM, tekobo said:

For reference, some crumpets.  Great when dripping with butter.  

There are no pics, but I made the King Arthur Crumpets with sourdough discard. I'm unsure how authentic they are, but they are very delicious. They are a thick, fluffy pancake—great use of sourdough discard.

Another advantage of using a levain might be keeping the starter consistent if you're accumulating and using the discard for other things, like crumpets!

1 hour ago, Syzygies said:

So for home baking, one loaf at a time, does anyone see an advantage to a separate levain step, rather than simply tweaking one's starter to match the next loaf's levain recipe, then reverting to usual starter on the next feed?

Don’t know if I’d say there’s an advantage to it vs. what you suggest, but making a separate levain from my starter is usually what I do. My starter is 100% hydration and fed a mix of 70/30 white/whole rye, and the levain branches from that to whatever the formula calls for. Maybe a *slight* advantage to this is that the levain timing is very predictable. For example, a 1:2:2 levain at 78 degrees will be ready in about 5 hours.

Sourdough Crumpets @tekobo: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/sourdough-crumpets-recipe

Going to give these a go.

That's an interesting idea with the Airscape container. I'd thought of doing something similar for pizza dough, which would benefit from long, slow ferments at above-fridge temperatures. I've also considered something like this with a bit more capacity: Amazon.com: Cooluli 20 Liter Mini Fridge with Temperature Control - Black: Home & Kitchen

I don't know anything about that particular model, but it's an example of a portable, adjustable fridge.

@tekobo - see what I did there? I saw @Syzygies container and raised him a fridge!

Those muffins look almost as sad as the ones my wife typically buys. I made these to show her a real muffin. Problem is…I think I just signed myself up to a new weakly (not misspelled) duty. 😳 

Sourdough English Muffins with 10% fresh milled spelt. No idea what these are called in England. Muffins? Crumpets? Little hunks o’ bread? I should look that up.

I agree about the bright display. I thought the dimmer didn't work on mine, but then I realized it was dimmed. It reminds me of the "chicken roaster" episode of Seinfeld.

Here is Maurizio’s guide to using Sourdough Home. I’m following the “bake one day a week” schedule and it works very well: https://www.theperfectloaf.com/feed-your-starter-less-often-thanks-to-the-sourdough-home/

And it is in stock at King Arthur: https://shop.kingarthurbaking.com/items/sourdough-home

18 hours ago, tekobo said:

You are a bad bad boy @PQ!  I have looked this up.  Good reviews.  Expensive in the UK and out of stock in the US.  As I noted to a friend who said he thought it seemed a bit clinical: there are two ends of the spectrum in the sourdough world - nerds and naturals - and both make excellent bread.  I am in neither group sadly.

All of the above is just stalling activity, I know.  If/when I ever get back into making sourdough bread this would be a good tool.  In the meantime I am going to focus on my pizza game this summer.  There are some awesome doughs to use up those grains of yours in this book:  https://amzn.eu/d/03mX8pi   You will just have to brush up on your Italian.  Or use Google translate.  

Don’t think you understand. It’s not a question of whether you’re actively making bread. It’s a question of…do you have this toy, just in case. 😈

Here is today’s loaf of 40% fresh milled white sonora which will be going to my wife’s co-worker. She happens to have prolific chickens, so we’ve been the recipients of excess eggs. Quid pro quo.

@tekobo -- new toy you need to up your breadmaking game. Note the photobombing grains in the back, ready for milling.

On 3/31/2024 at 3:18 PM, tekobo said:

You couldn't resist, could you?  If I had done rocket science I would tell everyone about it too!

As I’ve been telling the young engineers I work with, you know it’s time to retire when you walk around an Air & Space museum and keep thinking, “I remember working on that…” 😳

On 3/25/2024 at 1:48 PM, Dennis said:

@Pequod Great info and I realize this is an older post but I am going to ask.  

would like to understand the current thinking of setting our KK's for indirect cooking.  I use the term current because as I peruse the forum as a new KK owner, its very easy to have missed something in a search. 

Many set-ups or pic's of indirect grilling use the cool side of the coal splitters to grill over with the deflector (foil or stone) placed above on middle grate. The coals are then on the opposite side and open, meaning nothing above, until a sear for a steak as an example.   Speaking with Dennis he suggests putting the food and deflector over the coal or hot side for a more even heat distribution.  I am doing this but have to admit it feels somewhat counter intuitive.  

Would be great to have some clarity on this subject, as many of us really like the idea of 2-zone smoking/grilling.

Thanks in advance! 

Most of the time, if I’m doing “2-zone” in the 23, I’m fudging indirect by grilling on the main grate with a full basket below and with or without a sheet of foil on the middle grate. Then remove those grates and go low for the sear. Not a true 2-zone, but distance squared works pretty well.

8 hours ago, C6Bill said:

Honestly i don't think it makes much of a difference at all but if that is what Dennis suggests then I would say that would be a good place to start. It's not rocket science so I tend to not overthink it. 

Turns out I used to do rocket science. I wish the rocket folks would think a bit more, and the grilling folks think a bit less.

On 3/23/2024 at 12:31 PM, tekobo said:

Are you still baking bread, making pizza?  Any new (or old) techniques or discoveries to share?

Yep, still making bread and pizza. Always sourdough. New/old discoveries…Challenger Bread Pan not allowed as an answer…hmmm…

I’m also a fan of the Challenger Bread Pan

On 3/11/2024 at 2:15 AM, tekobo said:

Ha!  Liar, liar, pants on fire @Pequod.  I learned a lot from you and am missing your bread and pizza game.  What have you been cooking?  Please share!  I am in Italy at the moment.  Made great wholewheat spaghetti yesterday but my focaccia dough failed overnight.  Thinking it must be temperature related (too cold).  Not sure I can justify a bread proofer here so will see if the warming bowl in my mixer will help.  

You need a bread proofer. Or you're a hack. 😏 You mill your own flour, right? RIGHT???

On 2/16/2024 at 8:21 AM, tekobo said:

Welcome @MsTwiggy.  Great name.  Wish I had thought of using MsPiggy when I first came on the forum!  

I live in UK near the sea and it can be pretty damp here.  I buy pallet loads of charcoal and cocoshell briquettes and have kept both for years without any issues.  The charcoal is in an open cellar with water dripping in (I catch it in a trug so it never hits the paper bags that the charcoal is in) and the briquettes are in boxes in a wooden shed.  I have no issues with lighting either and no worries about damp lump.  

I have exactly the opposite lighting technique to you.  I light the fuel at the top, making a small well in the middle to either receive isopropyl alchohol soaked lump or a wax lighter, and I close the lid.  I keep both the top vent and the left bottom vent fully open during the initial lighting process but I never bother with the small holes on the right except when trying to maintain a low and slow temp.  I am not sure about keeping the lid open for 15 minutes while lighting.  My expectation is that the chimney effect created by having the lid shut is actually more efficient for lighting the lump and for building up the heat in your KK.   It is worth experimenting with different methods to see what works best for different situations.  Soooo much fun cooking over fire.  Welcome again.  

P.S.  Good to have reached out to @Pequod.  I miss him!

Hello! Just saw myself tagged over at AmazingRibs, but not sure if there was a question. You're in good hands here. These are the real pros. I'm a hack. 😏

20 hours ago, MacKenzie said:

@Poochie, https://ca.brodandtaylor.com/products/folding-proofer-slow-cooker I've had mine since they first came out and it's done a great job on sour dough starter, putting bread in to rise, and I always use it to make my yogurt.  

 

This. Indispensable if you're serious about sourdough.

Crikey! What's this about KK owners and Kats? We adopted an Ewok in December. He has an entirely different idea for how to use a KK. Suffice to say he thinks it's his. 

What they said ⬆️

Any central Virginians thinking of an order?