STIR THE POTS

"A ten hut!"

Before enrolling into culinary school,  I enrolled in the U.S. Army. There, I learned how to shoot an M-16, throw grenades, and explode landmines. I also learned to both sling hash and biscuits. Biscuits, you see were great for knocking tiles off the roof of the NCO club, terrific target practice to attain rank as "biscuit sharpshooter!"

It's been about 20-plus years since I left the military and flung myself head first into the food business. A lot of what I learned is still ingrained; the long hours on my feet, the cleaning, the large numbers of chicken we butchered every day, the recipes, the constant alerts, and between it all, lots of beer drinking instead of P.T.  All to say that cooking for the U.S. Army was not much different from an average restaurant. The primary difference, perhaps, was just the silly name tags, stupid uniforms, and the super shined shoes.

Since it's Memorial day, I always get a nostalgic feeling about old times, and of late see lots more soldiers and sailors coming home or in transit. Seeing them makes me feel a lot of apprehension and sadness at what they are dealing with duty wise in two wars. Back in the 1980s, our task seemed a lot easier - between constant alerts for distant Russians, we were fighting the next beer bottle. Lots of hurry up and wait for the most part!

Anyway, some people say social networking is wasted time, and I almost decided to get off the stuff, it is so addictive...but I had some of my old time army buddies get in touch with me through Facebook. So far, I've been in touch with three of them. And just the other day, my old partner Ross Miller (our baker in the Mess at Kelly Barracks in Stuttgart) sent me a correspondence! It took me back, not that I forget a lot of stuff that happened even with all the beer we consumed. But army is a family. Honestly, I am the most un-military guy, a die hard liberal. Yet all my family have served in the armed forces.

My duty wasn't tough at all. I worked for the General staff in a headquarters company. During field exercises, instead of bivouacking in a tent with lots of folks,I was schlepping field "china," shopping with a stipend for better food at local butcher shops.  Billeted in the same hotel as the general and staff. Not exactly very tough. All the while, I was reading Larousse Gastronomique, which I had purchased at the PX. I was trying to educate myself for my future endeavors once I left Uncle Sams chow hall! In my imagination, there wouldn't be any spam. No I would make pate's, serve filet mignon rather than the behemoth steamship rounds of beef.  Rainbow pies would be bettered with a millefeuille of berries. As I saw it, army grunt Shapiro was going places when I got my walking papers. It was a promise to myself.

To some extent, I did make it. And looking back now, those were good lessons to learn, whether it was percentages on the recipe cards, sanitation, or overall organization. But most of all, I learned to live with lots of different people from totally different backgrounds, culturally, and intellectually. And today, the memories bring a smile. Plus, I can honestly say that I had a good time and learned a hell of a lot from those crazy experiences. Anyway, given what they go through, if you see a uniformed man or woman from the military,  say thanks! Most of them are good people doing a hard job.

Faux gras, no way, it's the real thing for Memorial day!

Juste du pain, quoi d'autre?

Vincent's excellent croissant tutorial!

Vincent Talleu, my baking friend has produced an awesome video of production and baking croissants and other Vienoisserie at the bakery where he works in the South of France. Vincent makes the stuff look so easy, and with some practical experience I am sure it would be, but...I leave it to him for now while I try smaller batches at home and see if I can even come close to such mastery which this young baker has attained. Merci mon Ami! Happy baking!

Happy mothers day!

A bread challenge (or making a hamster take to seeds) a collaborative post

This is the first time I have invited a guest blogger on my site, Susan who is one of my favorite bread bloggers, she inspires, teaches and alway's bakes beautiful bread. Lately I have been sending her all sorts of formula's and decided to ask her to join in my quest to make a loaf well known to most German forum bakers as "Herr Süpke's Schwarzer Hamsterbrot." Do you know why it is called hamster? Because it looks like hamster food?" Susan asked, but I had no idea except for the fact Herr Süpke's looked good, and all the other bakers on various forums were baking it, that was my reason for wanting to give it a go.

 

Jeremy's take on this tale

I never liked competition while working in kitchens. Given it's a crazy business, there is already enough stress to go around. Who needs to fight for first prize? But every so often I'm inspired to challenge my skills as either a cook or as a baker. Usually it's a recipe that isn't the usual old pain au levain, a holey ciabatta or baguette. Sometimes you find a great looking loaf, with recipe written in a vaguely familiar tongue you had spoken as a child, only you don't have more then a five-year old child's vocabulary as an adult or less! 

All to say I've found a new challenge; a German home-baker's holy grail of seeded rye bread. Baker's percentages and numbers are already a chore, but to decipher German, find similar ingredients and then approach a recipe by no other then the blogger/baker, Wolfgang Süpke, and think you can make his reknowned Schwarzer Hamsterbrot, you got to have some chutzpah.

Well, this bread is more than a bit daunting. Multiple soakers and grains, various flour, sourdough, some yeast. And it demands a myriad of different times that add up to one challenge. I didn't want to go alone again, the last batch went to the garbage pail! So I sent off e-mails, queried the Master baker on his site, and found a message than from no other then Nils, my go to and go between with Herr Süpke.

Nils filled me in to some of what was going awry with my rye! Still I was on shaky ground and needed some company. Maybe another hand in the mix, someone who can guide, coach, push and inspire me to new baking heights, yes I found someone who fit that role, namely I needed Susan from Wild Yeast. I've sent her all sorts of S.O.S's for spreadsheets, not to mention requests to answer easy questions that I should already know. Finally admitting my total lack of true bakers focus, it seemed high time I got off the fence and start training like I was going to the Olympics or something.

I pretty much followed the instructions that I had found on several sites, and translated it as best I could with my widget translator and  Google.

   " S c h w a r z e r   H a m s t e r "     Seeded bread with rye sour
 
 Sourdough :   ( proof   1 5 - 2 0  Hrs . )
 1 2 5   g   R ye flour   (medium rye)
 1 2 5   g   W at e r
 1 0   g   sour
 
 grain soaker :
 5 0   g   R ye grain whole
 5 0   g   Spelt o   r   K a m u t  grain
 i n   1 5 0   m l   W a t r  soak for .   3 0   M i n .  then  3 0   M i n .  boil ,
 strain  
 
 soaker :
 ( 1   hour soak )
 1 6 0   g   Pumpkin seed ,   Sunflower seed ,   flax ,   S e s a me
 1 6 0   g   W a t e r
 
2 hours at   )
 1 1 0   g   Rye meal
 220  g   W a t e r
 
 ( soak for 15 mi n )
 5 0   g   Rye flakes     
  5 0   g   W a te r
 
 Final dough :
 2 5 0   g   Rye sour
 1 3 0   g   White whole wheat flour
 1 2   g   salt
 1 0   g   yeast
 Bread spice, coriander, fennel and caraway(optional 1 tbsp)
 grain soaker, seed soaker
 
 
 Mix  -   2 0   M i n .   rest ,   knead briefly to shape  -   Bread pan   1   k g lightly greased  and covered with sunflower seeds
 Dough is proofed for  6 0   M i n .    B a  k e d   484 F   lower to        400 F  -   bake for  .   6 0   M i n .

1. Rye sour was awakened after a long dormancy in my fridge, neglected of course. Susan told me I should get it nourished and ready for a Saturday bake.
2. Rye sour activated, two days of feeding found it vibrant and bubbly!(It's alive!)
3. Friday I fed the sour to the proportions stated, next morning I went out and was having lunch when Susan called me an asked me how I was doing on the Hamster!(I was behind schedule, uh oh!)
4. So I quickly gathered the rest of my grains, soaker and proceeded with the formula. My rye meal was not cooked, but instead I poured boiling water over it and let it soak up and cool overnight.
5. seeds were soaked, probably less time then the should of been, but I was throwing caution to the wind, I was on a tight schedule and I wasn't missing the bus.
6. I used spelt flakes also 15 minutes.

I mixed with a paddle on my kitchen aid, had a mashed potato consistency dough, a short 20 minutes rest, then I  placed it into a 10x4 inch pan, when I suddenly realized that too much multitasking and rushing around I had forgotten to mix in my cooked grains! After remixing I returned the dough to the pan and let it rise a little more then an hour, it didn't look like it was moving, so I just re-heated oven and popped it in a 485 F oven for 1 hour, with a lowering of the temperature at about the 28th minutes to about
390 F. To my surprise the loaf had a bit of rise and some irregular cracks in the dough, but a nice golden color, I couldn't wait to see Susan's!

Susan's take on this tale

Well, Jeremy wasn't kidding when he said this was a daunting bread! I love to eat dense German-style seeded breads like this, but I don't have much experience baking them, so I was happy to have the company, to learn, plan and commiserate.

If nothing else, the timing of all the different components was crazy-making:

Rye sour, fermented about 18 hours -- done.
Rye meal, cooked and cooled overnight -- got it.
Rye and farro grains, cooked and cooled two hours ahead -- OK.
Seeds, soaked one hour -- check.
Rye flakes, soaked 15 minutes -- yes.

Another step outside my comfort zone came when I realized that the final dough has no added water; all the water in the formula comes from the soakers. I generally adjust the amount and temperature of the final dough water to control the consistency and temperature of the dough, so I was nervous.

As it turned out, the dough seemed just the right consistency, but a little on the cool side (about 72F). So I extended the first fermentation to 20 minutes instead of 15, and the final proof an extra 15 minutes beyond the recommended one hour. Even so, the dough rose only a bit in the proof, but still may have been over proofed, as it rose virtually not at all during baking.

I had such high hopes for this loaf, and it was flat and ugly! So I cried for a few minutes and then decided that even flat loaves deserve a chance.

Now after baking for an hour (25 minutes at 485F and 35 minutes at 390F) and cooling slightly, the de-panned bread was very wet on the bottom. Replacing it, without the pan, into the oven at 200F for another 45 minutes dried it out nicely.

It was torture to wait until the following day to cut into it, but I knew that loaf needed all the help it could get, and rye breads do benefit from a day of sitting around. And you know, when I did finally get my teeth into that ugly duckling loaf, it turned out to be a swan after all. Dense, yes, but moist and tender too, with just enough crumb to bind the seeds and whole grains together. My husband said it reminded him of savory fruitcake (and yes, that's a good thing, since I do make a very nice fruitcake, even if you don't believe there can be such a thing!).

Jeremy Here again!

Thanks to Susan I found a willing baking partner, in the end I liked the taste of this bread, although with my grains, I still think they could be cooked more, maybe because my mix included Kamut grain,it kind of has a bite! All together, it's a good bread and I hope Susan will come back and try some more of these lesser known rye breads, if I can get them translated!