Cooking
Common Causes of Inferior Bread
POOR FLOUR---A cheap flour may be an expensive flour because it makes a loaf inferior in texture, flavor and volume.
OLD YEAST---Dead yeast plants cannot leaven bread. Old compressed yeast cakes or dry yeast which has been stored away until many f the yeast plants are dead will act very slowly if it all and will not give good results.
TOO MUCH or TOO LITTLE KNEADING---Dough kneaded too much becomes sticky and will not rise well in the oven. Dough kneaded too little makes streaked bread, poor in texture, which sometimes contains lumps that might have been worked out in kneading.
TOO MUCH FLOUR---Too stiff a dough makes coarse-textured bread of small volume and dry crumb.
OVER-RISING---Too long rising gives a very porous loaf with little flavor, a pale crust and a porous crumb with broken, irregular texture. This bread crumbles badly. If the rising continues too long, the dough may become sour
UNDER RISING---Too little rising gives a loaf which is small and flat. It browns too quickly in the oven. The crumb is compact and dull.
TOO COOL AN OVEN---Bread will continue to rise too long if the oven temperature is too low. The result is bread that is very porous in the center and upper par of the loaf. The bread dries out before it begins to bake.
TOO HOT AN OVEN---The dough crusts over immediately and cannot continue to rise as it should the first ten or fifteen minutes it is in the oven. The crust becomes very brown before he crumb is baked.
ROPE IN BREAD---Rope may appear at any time but is most likely during hot, damp weather. It gives bread a ropy, stringy quality and a very disagreeable odor and makes it unfit for use. It is due to a type of bacillus which may be in any one or more of the ingredients used in bread.
If rope develops, all utensils used in making bread and containers in which bread is stored should be sterilized with boiling water and rinsed with water to which vinegar has been added. Since acid inhibits the growth of the bacillus, 1 tablespoon vinegar for each quart of liquid should be added to each subsequent batch of dough until all the materials in stock at the time of rope appeared are used up.
---The Victory Binding of the American Woman's Cook Book; Wartime Edition, published 1943
A nice bread with a honey-sweetened crust. Made a ridiculous amount, so I sliced up the remainder & turned it into French toast. Worked really well.
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The age-old dependence of man upon bread as food has not been disturbed by the most recent researches in nutrition. Indeed it is considerably strengthened. Bread is not only an inexpensive source of carbohydrates and vegetable protein but carries minerals...
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- The Biography Of A Starter: The Proof Is In The Pudding
With my starter now alive and well, I've gone ahead and made two loaves of bread with it on two different days. It is clearly sourdough bread, though the characteristic flavor is more subtle in mine than I'm used to. If memory serves, however,...
- Cracking The Baking Books: Cracked Wheat Rolls
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Bread books. I have, oh plenty. There's the old time favorite, Bread Book,...
- Home Is Where The Heart Is - And If Homemade Bread's There Too, That's Nice!
I'm bad. There I go, leaving y'all with nothing - NOTHING! - for an entire week - again! But you see, it is not for of lack of "want", nor is it too much "must do" or need of perfection that 'causes me to not post so much at the moment. It's...
Cooking
Wartime Wednesdays: Honey Twist Bread
Common Causes of Inferior Bread
POOR FLOUR---A cheap flour may be an expensive flour because it makes a loaf inferior in texture, flavor and volume.
OLD YEAST---Dead yeast plants cannot leaven bread. Old compressed yeast cakes or dry yeast which has been stored away until many f the yeast plants are dead will act very slowly if it all and will not give good results.
TOO MUCH or TOO LITTLE KNEADING---Dough kneaded too much becomes sticky and will not rise well in the oven. Dough kneaded too little makes streaked bread, poor in texture, which sometimes contains lumps that might have been worked out in kneading.
TOO MUCH FLOUR---Too stiff a dough makes coarse-textured bread of small volume and dry crumb.
OVER-RISING---Too long rising gives a very porous loaf with little flavor, a pale crust and a porous crumb with broken, irregular texture. This bread crumbles badly. If the rising continues too long, the dough may become sour
UNDER RISING---Too little rising gives a loaf which is small and flat. It browns too quickly in the oven. The crumb is compact and dull.
TOO COOL AN OVEN---Bread will continue to rise too long if the oven temperature is too low. The result is bread that is very porous in the center and upper par of the loaf. The bread dries out before it begins to bake.
TOO HOT AN OVEN---The dough crusts over immediately and cannot continue to rise as it should the first ten or fifteen minutes it is in the oven. The crust becomes very brown before he crumb is baked.
ROPE IN BREAD---Rope may appear at any time but is most likely during hot, damp weather. It gives bread a ropy, stringy quality and a very disagreeable odor and makes it unfit for use. It is due to a type of bacillus which may be in any one or more of the ingredients used in bread.
If rope develops, all utensils used in making bread and containers in which bread is stored should be sterilized with boiling water and rinsed with water to which vinegar has been added. Since acid inhibits the growth of the bacillus, 1 tablespoon vinegar for each quart of liquid should be added to each subsequent batch of dough until all the materials in stock at the time of rope appeared are used up.
---The Victory Binding of the American Woman's Cook Book; Wartime Edition, published 1943
A nice bread with a honey-sweetened crust. Made a ridiculous amount, so I sliced up the remainder & turned it into French toast. Worked really well.
- Wartime Wednesday: Much Too Tired For Coffee Cake
The age-old dependence of man upon bread as food has not been disturbed by the most recent researches in nutrition. Indeed it is considerably strengthened. Bread is not only an inexpensive source of carbohydrates and vegetable protein but carries minerals...
- Oh, Brother; It's Bread!
I've always been a little...well, tense...when it comes to yeast. In this house, Matt makes the most of the bread. But I've been working on my 'fear'. Trying more yeast recipes. Last week, I caught an episode of Sara's Secrets on Food...
- The Biography Of A Starter: The Proof Is In The Pudding
With my starter now alive and well, I've gone ahead and made two loaves of bread with it on two different days. It is clearly sourdough bread, though the characteristic flavor is more subtle in mine than I'm used to. If memory serves, however,...
- Cracking The Baking Books: Cracked Wheat Rolls
.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Bread books. I have, oh plenty. There's the old time favorite, Bread Book,...
- Home Is Where The Heart Is - And If Homemade Bread's There Too, That's Nice!
I'm bad. There I go, leaving y'all with nothing - NOTHING! - for an entire week - again! But you see, it is not for of lack of "want", nor is it too much "must do" or need of perfection that 'causes me to not post so much at the moment. It's...