What's Cooking?

[ness]

On 4/12/2020 at 8:59 PM, Johnsfolly said:

All our sourdough attempts were more like flatbread. Didn't get much of a rise at all. They were tough and chewy. Not my favorite at all.

Three things come to mind:

1) Culture wasn't healthy. Sourdough cultures are pretty resilient but they can get sick or even die. In my experience you can treat them pretty poorly without killing them. They can be revived with a little love and time and make a full comeback. The culture @BilletHead, @Terrierman and I are using is around 6 years old. There have been periods of several months when I just left it in the fridge without feeding it. But I eventually brought it out, fed it with a ~2:1 ratio of plain old flour and unchlorinated water 2 times a day for a few days and it always came back. When it's been neglected for a while like that a dark liquid with form on top that folks call 'hooch'. It's supposed to contain alcohol. Some sources say stir it in, some say drink it, some dump it out. I dump it. As long as the smell is ok (sorta yeasty/doughy) and not unpleasant, and the color hasn't changed, it will probably be ok.

2) Culture healthy but not active. When it's time to bake with sourdough the culture needs to come out of the fridge a day or more ahead of time, warm up, get fed and start to work again. With the flour/water feeding you should see the culture double in size in a few hours. If it doesn't, it's not ready to go and will not raise a dough. Just keep repeating twice a day until it does. 

3) Good old impatience. Sourdoughs don't really lend themselves to timed rises as well as commercial yeast risen doughs do. And, they take a lot longer. Gotta let the dough tell you where it is, not the clock.

The loaves I recently did started at 7PM on day one and rose overnight. Around 5 in the morning the dough (now more than 2x it's original size) got placed in the oven on 'bread proof' (~80 degrees) for a few hours. Around 7AM I shaped them into French loaves and placed back into the oven. I wasn't so much watching the clock as reading the dough for these steps. At around 10AM the loaves were no longer growing. I removed the plastic wrap, placed them back into the oven and turned it on to 450. 

So, I know you're no slouch in the kitchen. Sourdough is just a little more finicky, and takes patience. To me, the whole reason you go to the trouble is for the flavor. I think you know me well enough to know that I shoot straight here. If I mess it up, or it isn't that great, I'll fess up.  But the crust, crumb and flavor (slightly sour) were all excellent. 

[Terrierman]

We've eaten a bit over half of what I made on Saturday.  The starter is on the counter again and being fed in anticipation of round 2.  First round I added a package of rapid rise yeast as King Arthur flour recipe suggested.  The bread is really good but I do want to try with just the starter.  We prefer the regular loaves so will be making it in that form.  I'll take more time with this batch.  Did get another bag of flour today - no bread flour available so AP will just have to do when I run out of the bread flour that's still in the cabinet.

[N9BOW]

xenophobic “Mexican” chicken minestrone Soup and a slice of buttered rye - home made... hopefully that takes the sting out of my culinary faux pas

 

[MOPanfisher]

Welp my plan for the asparagus omlette got derailed by a request from wife for a pizza on the Italian flatbread.soooo.  one of the flatbreads, a lot of marinara sauce, pulled out a couple baby portabella and sliced them, some Genoa salmon and wife pulled out a small of of mozzarella cheese.  Built it all up with a litthe extra Italian seasoning.  Popped it into microwave to try and melt/warm it up.  Was sacred to go very long at a time so a few short cycles.   Cut it in 4 pieces before I thought to take a photo, wife says is very very good.  Sure smells good.  Looks like hell though.

[Mitch f]

Get to use an @rps term tonight. The pork chops we bought from Costco the other day were “succulent”. I ate 2 of these. My father in law has been staying with us few a few weeks and really did a great job cooking these. He loves it when you compliment his cooking skills and just smiles from ear to ear! 
Anyway these chops are one of the best values from Costco, much better value  than their pork ribs in my opinion.

[BilletHead]

5 hours ago, ness said:

Three things come to mind:

1) Culture wasn't healthy. Sourdough cultures are pretty resilient but they can get sick or even die. In my experience you can treat them pretty poorly and without killing them. They can be revived with a little love and time and make a full comeback. The culture @BilletHead, @Terrierman and I are using is around 6 years old. There have been periods of several months when I just left it in the fridge without feeding it. But I eventually brought it out, fed it with a ~2:1 ratio of plain old flour and unchlorinated water 2 times a day for a few days and it always came back. When it's been neglected for a while like that a dark liquid with form on top that folks call 'hooch'. It's supposed to contain alcohol. Some sources say stir it in, some say drink it, some dump it out. I dump it. As long as the smell is ok (sorta yeasty/doughy) and not unpleasant, and the color hasn't changed, it will probably be ok.

2) Culture healthy but not active. When it's time to bake with sourdough the culture needs to come out of the fridge a day or more ahead of time, warm up, get fed and start to work again. With the flour/water feeding you should see the culture double in size in a few hours. If it doesn't, it's not ready to go and will not raise a dough. Just keep repeating twice a day until it does. 

3) Good old impatience. Sourdoughs don't really lend themselves to timed rises as well as commercial yeast risen doughs do. And, they take a lot longer. Gotta let the dough tell you where it is, not the clock.

The loaves I recently did started at 7PM on day one and rose overnight. Around 5 in the morning the dough (now more than 2x it's original size) got placed in the oven on 'bread proof' (~80 degrees) for a few hours. Around 7AM I shaped them into French loaves and placed back into the oven. I wasn't so much watching the clock as reading the dough for these steps. At around 10AM the loaves were no longer growing. I removed the plastic wrap, placed them back into the oven and turned it on to 450. 

So, I know you're no slouch in the kitchen. Sourdough is just a little more finicky, and takes patience. To me, the whole reason you go to the trouble is for the flavor. I think you know me well enough to know that I shoot straight here. If I mess it up, or it isn't that great, I'll fess up here.  But the crust, crumb and flavor (slightly sour) are all excellent. 

                 Uh oh,

  I didn't follow step 2 exactly right. I took off the amount to feed, fed it and put it back in the fridge. The rest I only let set out on counter for a couple hours until we mixed the dough. used enough to make it and pitched the rest. Could you imagine what would of happened if I did step 2 correctly? The bread would of popped the top off the dutch oven and filled the stove oven and opened the door!

[N9BOW]

1 minute ago, Mitch f said:

He loves it when you compliment his cooking skills and just smiles from ear to ear! 

Dont it make you feel good to make someone else feel good!.....Fo0d compliments rock!

[Mitch f]

I also want to compliment @ness on 1,000 pages for this post....even though he’s been kind of a butt this week! 😂

[BilletHead]

1 minute ago, Mitch f said:

I also want to compliment @ness on 1,000 pages for this post....even though he’s been kind of a butt this week! 😂

             Oh he means well. Nice guy I call him the great mediator.  

[Mitch f]

1 minute ago, BilletHead said:

             Oh he means well. Nice guy I call him the great mediator.  

Him and Jimmy Carter!😂