The Noble Pig

Dans le cochon tout est bon from Iris Alexandre on Vimeo.

A Partial "How To Bake a Loaf of Hearth Bread" at Home Tutorial

I was going to post about my reaction to Paul Deen's announcement that she has Type-2 diabetes, but instead opted to do something positive and antithetical to the dangerous style of cooking that has made her rich and, very possibly, sick.

The bread in the video is a variation of something that I've been making weekly since about 1999. It "starts" with wet starter that I keep in the refrigerator until I'm ready to bake. I don't keep close track of the age of my starters, but I think this one is about two years old. The starter is usually a mixture of whole rye and wheat flour, wheat berries, flax seeds and, of course, well water. Sometimes I rebuild it with more of all of the solid components. Other times, I'll use just one or something completely different like durum wheat flour. This week I rebuilt it with rye flour and wheat berries.

After an initial feeding, I let the starter ferment for about 8 hours before feeding it again, and then letting it go until the yeast and bacteria start making a ruckus. This later stage can take anywhere from 12 to 24 hours depending on a host of variables too numerous to mention.

Once the starter is cranking, I'll mix in the flour and water that will form the bulk of the finished bread, let it "autolyse" (absorb the water) for 30 minutes or so before adding the salt. I usually knead it with the dough hook in my mixer then let it proof for anywhere from 24 to 48 hours. I stop the proofing when I think the "nose" or smell is where I want it to be and, of course, when I think the yeast and bacteria have produced sufficient gas to give the dough a good rise in the oven (oven spring).

Here is a "crumb" shot of the finished bread. Notice the whorl in the lower portion of the loaf? That is a clear indication that the crust hardened before the dough had finished rising in the oven. I'm not sure why this happened but I suspect it was caused by one or more of the following factors.

1. The water that I added to the oven dried evaporated before the bottom of the bread finished expanding 
2. The dough was too cold before I put it in the oven
3. The oven was not hot enough

Water is added to the oven, in part, to keep the crust soft while the dough expands. If the water gives out too soon, the crust hardens inhibiting further expansion of the interior.
If the second instance the nethermost interior of dough that is too cold will not heat before the crust hardens. So any expansion of gases that occurs, happens too late to cause much inflation of the gluten cells.
Finally, if the oven is not hot enough (especially the floor of the oven) the crust will harden before the interior is heated sufficiently to cause expansion of the gluten cells.

Of course, this loaf is perfectly edible and I'm only mildly chagrined that it did not leaven perfectly. Hell, you can't nail a recipe every time you make it. Especially when you ware only doing it once a week with nonprofessional equipment and kids and dogs and other agents of chaos. 

A Pork Terrine for the 21st Century

Terrine of Pork with  Chestnuts

Actually, the title of this post is totally hyperbolic. The only thing remotely modern about the terrine that I am preparing for the holidays is the Thermoworks temperature data logger that I'm using to track the internal temperature while the terrine cooks in a water bath. Otherwise the terrine is a perfectly traditional recipe made with ingredients that have been around for centuries. Even the concept of cooking the terrine in sealed vessel in a low temperature water bath is old.

I will apologize in advance to anyone who might want the recipe because I did not write down the amounts of spices and Cognac I used. I just added them "to taste" as I almost always do when I'm not cooking for commerce. However, I do remember the ratios for the meats, salt and pink salt (nitrite salt)

Pork             100 %

Chicken liver   20%

Beef                10%

Salt                 1.7 %

Pink Salt          .25 %

Update:
Here is the terrine after three hours of cooking in a water bath set to 165 deg F. I'll post the internal temperature data after I download it from the data logger. Stay tuned!

Cooked!

Shaping Dough

Lately, I don't have the time or the will to write serious posts to this blog. But I hate the idea of just letting lie fallow. So, I'm going to try to post short items that may be interesting and, I hope, useful. Here is a short video of me shaping bread dough before it's last proof/ rise before baking. The dough is made from starter that built for two days. I've been making bread like this for a long time and it's never the same from one week to another. This dough is made from Hi-gluten bread flour, Graham flour, flax seed and raisins. It took three days to construct and bake. Note that after I shape the dough, I scrape out the bowl and put the leftovers into my starter jar which I keep in the fridge.


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Salt Cellar

This salt cellar was given to us a dozen years ago by Inge, who at 17 years of age had come from Estonia to live with us and be "au pair." Since then, there has never been a day when it has not been on our table at dinner. Here, you see it being filled  before being set out for dinner. Inge is now married and living near San Diego, Ca.