The Art of Eating Mag

originally posted by Scott Kraft:
originally posted by Sharon Bowman:
How about the Art of Eating Kraft
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I don't know where to begin in the problems with this.
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I look forward to Edward Behr's take on enjoying the boxed macaroni-and-cheese dinner article. Not the other thing.
 
"...The orange powder at the heart of Kraft Dinner undergoes a variety of refinements: lyophilization, centrifugation, ultrapasteurization, and--for the version sold in America only--a proprietary color enhancing process. The details of the last step are a highly-guarded secret, known only to upper management and factory foremen. I tried to ask Kraft about the oft-made claim that Kraft Dinner is "the cheesiest;" he responded only with a smile."
 
originally posted by Arjun Mendiratta:
"...The orange powder at the heart of Kraft Dinner undergoes a variety of refinements: lyophilization, centrifugation, ultrapasteurization, and--for the version sold in America only--a proprietary color enhancing process. The details of the last step are a highly-guarded secret, known only to upper management and factory foremen. I tried to ask Kraft about the oft-made claim that Kraft Dinner is "the cheesiest;" he responded only with a smile."
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What, they're the only cheese powder manufacturer to use both anatto and turmeric? Or are they busting out fluorescein?
 
originally posted by Kevin Roberts:
originally posted by Arjun Mendiratta:
"...The orange powder at the heart of Kraft Dinner undergoes a variety of refinements: lyophilization, centrifugation, ultrapasteurization, and--for the version sold in America only--a proprietary color enhancing process. The details of the last step are a highly-guarded secret, known only to upper management and factory foremen. I tried to ask Kraft about the oft-made claim that Kraft Dinner is "the cheesiest;" he responded only with a smile."
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What, they're the only cheese powder manufacturer to use both anatto and turmeric? Or are they busting out fluorescein?
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From the color, I've long suspected the use of 2,4-DNP as a colorant (just as in the near-fluorescent Cheetos). Acridine Orange is another possibility.

Mark Lipton
 
When Edward Behr heard I was taking up the full Pain au Levain recipe in issue #82 he put me in touch with James MacGuire, who wrote the piece, just in case I needed help. James would type out four paragraph to questions I would pose to him because he is just that passionate about bread. So basically, yes, Art of Eating is the best food magazine ever. (Also Edward is writing a piece for my blog.)
 
originally posted by MLipton:
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
I never understood the revision and usually avoid the eszett altogether (I know, that's Swiss, but I think for Germans that's not as big an insult as for French), but on the internet I see it and fret, but also essen (it always was, no?) and fressen (likewise).
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A lot of those uses are probably from reactionaries who refuse to follow the '96 conventions. Since those '96 changes stem from the "reforms" proposed by Heyse in 1820, I say it's about damn time. The way I look at it, the eszett is the last gasp of the Roman medial s, so let's get on it with it already and put it out of its misery.

Mark Lipton
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I'm intrigued. I've never seen anyone write 'isst' or 'frisst' anywhere, ever.
 
originally posted by Cory Cartwright:
When Edward Behr heard I was taking up the full Pain au Levain recipe in issue #82 he put me in touch with James MacGuire, who wrote the piece, just in case I needed help. James would type out four paragraph to questions I would pose to him because he is just that passionate about bread. So basically, yes, Art of Eating is the best food magazine ever. (Also Edward is writing a piece for my blog.)
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Best of luck to you. I looked at that recipe -- a two-page spread that requires more frequent tending than a 2-month-old child -- and it reaffirmed my belief that there are cooks and there are bakers and I am a cook.
 
It's not that hard, but it does take time at home. I've done it several times now and there is no way you could casually approach it, but if you are going to be cooking anyway, it isn't that much real time investment in terms of actual hands on baking. Plus there is no kneading involved, which is where a lot of people screw up when baking bread.
 
originally posted by Cory Cartwright:
It's not that hard, but it does take time at home. I've done it several times now and there is no way you could casually approach it, but if you are going to be cooking anyway, it isn't that much real time investment in terms of actual hands on baking. Plus there is no kneading involved, which is where a lot of people screw up when baking bread.
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Maybe Jay can try it sous-vide and let us know how it comes out.
 
Pain au Levain, as I know it, is sourdough, which takes both kneading and, for best results, 36-48 hours prep time, if you've already got your starter established. Makes me want to see the recipe you're looking at.
 
It's James MacGuire's light adaptation of one of the great Calvel's recipes. It isn't nearly as sour as what would be sold as traditional sourdough here in the states. It takes some 23 hours to make with an already prepped starter, and the dough is folded very briefly at intervals and never kneaded. It also makes some of the best bread I've ever tasted. Everyone I mention the no-knead thing to is incredulous, but the bread is perfect.

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Wow, nice crumb! On reflection, I think I read about the folding method a long time ago. Twenty-three hours sounds doable - my count includes an additional 12 hours for an overnight refresh of the starter.

Sourdough comes in all shapes and sizes, depending on the yeast and microbial cultures in the starter and baking environment. The well-known San Francisco style is atypical; in fact, I think it employs sourdough just for flavor, introducing commercial bakers' yeast to leaven the bread (there's a French baker's term for this flavored sponge technique, but I can't think of it now). There used to be a guy who actually sold freeze-dried sourdough starter cultures through the mail from various locales around the world (Egypt, Norway, Alaska, etc.) for not too much.

I made my first starter from scratch about twenty years ago and have baked with it more or less weekly since, making new starters along the way with rye and buckwheat flour, and with Egyptian wheat when we lived in Cairo. This bread is extremely good (as you point out), and really only takes about 20 minutes of actual work. You can also use sourdough to make croissants, pancakes, crusts, whatever.

I'm doubly intrigued by the folding technique now, as the only tedious part of making the bread is beating (actually I beat more than knead) the wet dough to develop the gluten.

Digressing, in the days of my heedless youth, I used to imagine opening a store specializing in microbially-produced comestibles - bread, wine, cheese - and calling it Rotten Food.
 
Luckily the magazine is back-orderable (is that even a word? probably not) so you can grab it from them. The issue is actually 83, not 82. It explains the folding and why it's done as well.
 
I was lucky enough to inherit a piece of a levain as my starter from a now 6 generation* old lineage. I have tried several differnt build styles all with good success. I did a few variations on the method in Art of Eating as well as taking the advise of the doughsource. I like bread.

*a generation in this sense is being counted as each holder of a piece of the levain. It is about 15yrs old at this point.
 
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