Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Five

[Host Jazzbeau]

The review of my recent Noble Caledonia Hebridean Sky cruise (B2B from Valletta to Naples and then circumnavigation of Sicily) is now available on Cruise Critic [link below].  A more detailed day-by-day blog with lots of pictures is available here:  https://jazzbeauxmediterraneanblog2021.wordpress.com/

 

 

[UKCruiseJeff]

13 minutes ago, SteveH2508 said:

I doff my hat to you Sir. I do have expensive bakers around my neck of the woods, but I would take great pride in being able to produce baguettes like that.

 

Any chance of a recipe/set of instructions/insider tips?

 

I will explain how to do it if you promise on your honour to try it.  🙂

 

And post piccies.  

 

You will be shocked at how easy it is as long as you forget everything you have ever read or learned ……

 

This is the crumb ……

 

 

[silkismom]

I'm so bad, waaay back when you posted bread recipes, I put it in favorites and never did get around to trying it. So glad you're back and making me drool again.

[jpalbny]

Thawed a duck today. Trimmed the legs and refroze for later. Baked the carcass and the wings to make broth. Trimmed the breasts and gave them a nice spice rub on the skin side. Cumin, coriander, ancho chile, and yellow mustard. Along with some salt and pepper, of course.

 

 

Grilled the breasts until medium-rare, then served them with a blackberry and balsamic reduction. It killed me to use half a bottle of "expensive" balsamic, and boil it down to 1/4 of its original volume, but it tasted divine. No worries, the whole bottle cost me $8... I am a cheapskate in some ways... 😉

 

 

Chris made a yummy salad with some fresh tomatoes from the garden.

 

 

Pulled an older bottle from the cellar to go with dinner. It was a great match. The acidity of the balsamic had cooked out during the reduction so it was syrupy and fruity, and the blackberry flavor was a great match for the Cab Franc. I only have one more bottle of this vintage left now.

 

 

Work looms tomorrow. Time to enjoy what is left of the weekend!

Edited October 24, 2021 by jpalbny

[mysty]

13 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

Thawed a duck today. Trimmed the legs and refroze for later. Baked the carcass and the wings to make broth. Trimmed the breasts and gave them a nice spice rub on the skin side. Cumin, coriander, ancho chile, and yellow mustard. Along with some salt and pepper, of course.

 

 

Grilled the breasts until medium-rare, then served them with a blackberry and balsamic reduction. It killed me to use half a bottle of "expensive" balsamic, and boil it down to 1/4 of its original volume, but it tasted divine. No worries, the whole bottle cost me $8... I am a cheapskate in some ways... 😉

 

 

Chris made a yummy salad with some fresh tomatoes from the garden.

 

 

Pulled an older bottle from the cellar to go with dinner. It was a great match. The acidity of the balsamic had cooked out during the reduction so it was syrupy and fruity, and the blackberry flavor was a great match for the Cab Franc. I only have one more bottle of this vintage left now.

 

 

Work looms tomorrow. Time to enjoy what is left of the weekend!

 

Beautiful JP!  Now I did a bib!  😋

[Host Jazzbeau]

JP – I'll be at your house tomorrow evening for the left-over duck [if there is any] and the other bottle of 2012 [I know there won't be any leftover of that!!!] 🤣

[jpalbny]

11 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

JP – I'll be at your house tomorrow evening for the left-over duck [if there is any] and the other bottle of 2012 [I know there won't be any leftover of that!!!] 🤣

 

Definitely no wine left over. But I do have a vertical left over... 2008, 10, 12, and 14. Would male for a nice tasting! 

 

The duck legs are in the freezer so you'll have to give me some advance notice. Then I can have them ready! I'm on call this week so you can try next week?

[jpalbny]

Note to phone... When I type "make" please stop auto-correcting to male! Infuriating.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Are those front legs or back legs?  😉

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

Today's funny.....

 

 

Have a great safe fun day all!

[Daveywavey70]

19 hours ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

Good Evening All,

 

🙂

 

They are drool worthy Jeff, especially as I'm currently on the Keto diet! I do miss bread, especially good bread.

 

[Daveywavey70]

14 hours ago, jpalbny said:

 

That looks amazing JP

 

[mysty]

[FlyingScotSailors]

23 minutes ago, mysty said:

 

Oh?  How about the one where a guy goes into a salad bar, and the bartender says ....

[SteveH2508]

21 hours ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

 

I will explain how to do it if you promise on your honour to try it.  🙂

 

And post piccies.  

 

You will be shocked at how easy it is as long as you forget everything you have ever read or learned ……

 

This is the crumb ……

 

 

Sounds like a challenge! I'll have a go (I've never made bread from scratch BTW).

If your instructions work well I will share the family cheese straws recipe (of which I am the acknowledged master).

[UKCruiseJeff]

1 hour ago, SteveH2508 said:

Sounds like a challenge! I'll have a go (I've never made bread from scratch BTW).

If your instructions work well I will share the family cheese straws recipe (of which I am the acknowledged master).

 

Good Evening Steve,

 

To cut to the short.  You will be making break as pictured very quickly and after you have understood the very simple principles rather than recipes you will unlikely ever have a fail. And you will know how to make any bread you every fancy without effort, equipment other than a few flours and some imagination and desire to experiement.  Once I  gave up all that is in the recipe books and bread books I have only ever produced delicious breads.

 

I'd like to give you a few words of why the enthusiasm and love of bread and then a few more about the principles by way of introduction.  The first because if you get as emotional about bread as I am then you'll get as much joy as me and once you realise how so easy it is you'll share my sadness that not more people do it.  It is much easier than 99.9% think.  I'm then going to give you a shopping list and once you have everything I'll help you through it. 

 

FWIW I feel that bread making is probably the only thing that unites all of us more than anything else we do.  Not everybody in the world eats rices, or potatoes, share a common language or religion or even the same time zones.  But more - mostly women - make bread by hand all over the world than almost any other pastime we have.  They did this I presume when their bloke was out hunting and then trying to ruin what he hunted over an open fire somethiung that I think is still within all blokes today.  It's interesting that heat and open fire is the thing that made meat digestible ... but that's a hwole different topic. 

 

So I think the visceral nature of bread is that it is so uniting and primeval.  And rewarding to see it grow.    And if you go to a village in any remote part of the world people will probably be making bread.  And we've been doing it for a long time probably learned by accident.

 

But here is the key thing.  Bread is basically just mixing flour with water and what use to be natural airbore or nurtured natural yeasts but now thankfully easier yeasts to mix with flour and water to produce a gluteny bread.  What gives bread the most flavour is not what most people think but the simple addition of adding water to flower and allowing time. It's a magical process.  Allow water to get on with it and it makes magic.  Although I believe breadmaking is very ancient there is evidence of bread going back for at least 15,000 years.  But the thing is that progress only recently produced a food mixer.  That is where I think we started to lose our way.  But don't panic this isn't about manual labour, in fact the reverse,  in that it is virtually labou free. 

 

What seems to be virtually unknown by most bread makes including many professional bakers is that there are two ways of producing gluten.  The food mixer provided first industrially factory bread and then it was copied in the home a way of an easy way of making comparitively character-less bread quickly. 

 

The other way of producing gluten is by simply adding water to flour and yeast and simply mix it up and wait and let it do it's stuff.  That is what you will be doing.  There is also another thing.  The more water you add the better the bread will taste but the downside is that it will be difficult to handle.  But you won't be getting your hands sticky because the only time you touch it will be to roll it in a bit of flour.  Hence why a baguette is a wonderful invention because it not only has more crust per crumb ratio but a baguette tin helps keep it's shape when the mix is very wet.  The other thing is I'm going to suggest to you that you get into a very lovely and rewarding rhythm of starting tommorows baguettes the previous day.  And do it every day.  Go to the kitchen and shut the door, wheigh out the flour, yeast and salt add the water combine it all, cover it and leave it alone to let it get on with it's work.  Once you've made baguttes and if you are interested happy to move on to other breads including pizza etc.I'll explain how the principles are the same  You will never need a mixer, or anything more than a few moments combining stuff together.  There will be no kneading.  The total amout of prep each eving is I guess around 60 seconds. And I'll describe it all later.

 

So first a shopping list.

 

You'll need a large mixing bowl, baguette tin, a supply of shower caps that you buy or have previously stolen from hotels, a small scraper and a large sraper, a set of zeroing scales,  a very thin long knife .. I suggest you buy the one I from Amazon recommend- nothing else (I'll explain why later) Mercer Culinary M23860 , Stainless Steel, Black, 8.5-Inch Narrow Fillet Knife.

 

and also two flours and a yeast. 

 

You want very strong Canadian white bread flour  and some fine sea salt eg

 

 

some light rye flour

 

 

and yeast

 

 

And the stuff I listed before

 

When you have all this stuff and if you are still interested .... I'll chat you through it.  Apologies for types,

 

Edited October 25, 2021 by UKCruiseJeff
broken links

[mysty]

20 minutes ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

 

Good Evening Steve,

 

To cut to the short.  You will be making break as pictured very quickly and after you have understood the very simple principles rather than recipes you will unlikely ever have a fail. And you will know how to make any bread you every fancy without effort, equipment other than a few flours and some imagination and desire to experiement.  Once I  gave up all that is in the recipe books and bread books I have only ever produced delicious breads.

 

I'd like to give you a few words of why the enthusiasm and love of bread and then a few more about the principles by way of introduction.  The first because if you get as emotional about bread as I am then you'll get as much joy as me and once you realise how so easy it is you'll share my sadness that not more people do it.  It is much easier than 99.9% think.  I'm then going to give you a shopping list and once you have everything I'll help you through it. 

 

FWIW I feel that bread making is probably the only thing that unites all of us more than anything else we do.  Not everybody in the world eats rices, or potatoes, share a common language or religion or even the same time zones.  But more - mostly women - make bread by hand all over the world than almost any other pastime we have.  They did this I presume when their bloke was out hunting and then trying to ruin what he hunted over an open fire somethiung that I think is still within all blokes today.  It's interesting that heat and open fire is the thing that made meat digestible ... but that's a hwole different topic. 

 

So I think the visceral nature of bread is that it is so uniting and primeval.  And rewarding to see it grow.    And if you go to a village in any remote part of the world people will probably be making bread.  And we've been doing it for a long time probably learned by accident.

 

But here is the key thing.  Bread is basically just mixing flour with water and what use to be natural airbore or nurtured natural yeasts but now thankfully easier yeasts to mix with flour and water to produce a gluteny bread.  What gives bread the most flavour is not what most people think but the simple addition of adding water to flower and allowing time. It's a magical process.  Allow water to get on with it and it makes magic.  Although I believe breadmaking is very ancient there is evidence of bread going back for at least 15,000 years.  But the thing is that progress only recently produced a food mixer.  That is where I think we started to lose our way.  But don't panic this isn't about manual labour, in fact the reverse,  in that it is virtually labou free. 

 

What seems to be virtually unknown by most bread makes including many professional bakers is that there are two ways of producing gluten.  The food mixer provided first industrially factory bread and then it was copied in the home a way of an easy way of making comparitively character-less bread quickly. 

 

The other way of producing gluten is by simply adding water to flour and yeast and simply mix it up and wait and let it do it's stuff.  That is what you will be doing.  There is also another thing.  The more water you add the better the bread will taste but the downside is that it will be difficult to handle.  But you won't be getting your hands sticky because the only time you touch it will be to roll it in a bit of flour.  Hence why a baguette is a wonderful invention because it not only has more crust per crumb ratio but a baguette tin helps keep it's shape when the mix is very wet.  The other thing is I'm going to suggest to you that you get into a very lovely and rewarding rhythm of starting tommorows baguettes the previous day.  And do it every day.  Go to the kitchen and shut the door, wheigh out the flour, yeast and salt add the water combine it all, cover it and leave it alone to let it get on with it's work.  Once you've made baguttes and if you are interested happy to move on to other breads including pizza etc.I'll explain how the principles are the same  You will never need a mixer, or anything more than a few moments combining stuff together.  There will be no kneading.  The total amout of prep each eving is I guess around 60 seconds. And I'll describe it all later.

 

So first a shopping list.

 

You'll need a large mixing bowl, baguette tin, a supply of shower caps that you buy or have previously stolen from hotels, a small scraper and a large sraper, a set of zeroing scales,  a very thin long knife .. I suggest you buy the one I from Amazon recommend- nothing else (I'll explain why later) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and also two flours and a yeast. 

 

You want very strong Canadian white bread flour  and some fine sea salt eg

 

 

some light rye flour

 

 

and yeast

 

 

And the stuff I listed before

 

When you have all this stuff and if you are still interested .... I'll chat you through it.  Apologies for types,

 

 

Myster is still making the pizzas you taught him to make!  We are both so thankful for that! 😁

[zqtchas]

[drron29]

 

[SteveH2508]

1 hour ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

 

Good Evening Steve,

 

To cut to the short.  You will be making break as pictured very quickly and after you have understood the very simple principles rather than recipes you will unlikely ever have a fail. And you will know how to make any bread you every fancy without effort, equipment other than a few flours and some imagination and desire to experiement.  Once I  gave up all that is in the recipe books and bread books I have only ever produced delicious breads.

 

I'd like to give you a few words of why the enthusiasm and love of bread and then a few more about the principles by way of introduction.  The first because if you get as emotional about bread as I am then you'll get as much joy as me and once you realise how so easy it is you'll share my sadness that not more people do it.  It is much easier than 99.9% think.  I'm then going to give you a shopping list and once you have everything I'll help you through it. 

 

FWIW I feel that bread making is probably the only thing that unites all of us more than anything else we do.  Not everybody in the world eats rices, or potatoes, share a common language or religion or even the same time zones.  But more - mostly women - make bread by hand all over the world than almost any other pastime we have.  They did this I presume when their bloke was out hunting and then trying to ruin what he hunted over an open fire somethiung that I think is still within all blokes today.  It's interesting that heat and open fire is the thing that made meat digestible ... but that's a hwole different topic. 

 

So I think the visceral nature of bread is that it is so uniting and primeval.  And rewarding to see it grow.    And if you go to a village in any remote part of the world people will probably be making bread.  And we've been doing it for a long time probably learned by accident.

 

But here is the key thing.  Bread is basically just mixing flour with water and what use to be natural airbore or nurtured natural yeasts but now thankfully easier yeasts to mix with flour and water to produce a gluteny bread.  What gives bread the most flavour is not what most people think but the simple addition of adding water to flower and allowing time. It's a magical process.  Allow water to get on with it and it makes magic.  Although I believe breadmaking is very ancient there is evidence of bread going back for at least 15,000 years.  But the thing is that progress only recently produced a food mixer.  That is where I think we started to lose our way.  But don't panic this isn't about manual labour, in fact the reverse,  in that it is virtually labou free. 

 

What seems to be virtually unknown by most bread makes including many professional bakers is that there are two ways of producing gluten.  The food mixer provided first industrially factory bread and then it was copied in the home a way of an easy way of making comparitively character-less bread quickly. 

 

The other way of producing gluten is by simply adding water to flour and yeast and simply mix it up and wait and let it do it's stuff.  That is what you will be doing.  There is also another thing.  The more water you add the better the bread will taste but the downside is that it will be difficult to handle.  But you won't be getting your hands sticky because the only time you touch it will be to roll it in a bit of flour.  Hence why a baguette is a wonderful invention because it not only has more crust per crumb ratio but a baguette tin helps keep it's shape when the mix is very wet.  The other thing is I'm going to suggest to you that you get into a very lovely and rewarding rhythm of starting tommorows baguettes the previous day.  And do it every day.  Go to the kitchen and shut the door, wheigh out the flour, yeast and salt add the water combine it all, cover it and leave it alone to let it get on with it's work.  Once you've made baguttes and if you are interested happy to move on to other breads including pizza etc.I'll explain how the principles are the same  You will never need a mixer, or anything more than a few moments combining stuff together.  There will be no kneading.  The total amout of prep each eving is I guess around 60 seconds. And I'll describe it all later.

 

So first a shopping list.

 

You'll need a large mixing bowl, baguette tin, a supply of shower caps that you buy or have previously stolen from hotels, a small scraper and a large sraper, a set of zeroing scales,  a very thin long knife .. I suggest you buy the one I from Amazon recommend- nothing else (I'll explain why later) Mercer Culinary M23860 , Stainless Steel, Black, 8.5-Inch Narrow Fillet Knife.

 

and also two flours and a yeast. 

 

You want very strong Canadian white bread flour  and some fine sea salt eg

 

 

some light rye flour

 

 

and yeast

 

 

And the stuff I listed before

 

When you have all this stuff and if you are still interested .... I'll chat you through it.  Apologies for types,

 

Jeff

 

Many thanks for that. Your passion shines through in your posts. I shall need a few days to source the items you have mentioned (with a slight interruption for making cheese straws for a family get-together on Wednesday).

 

I guess a baguette tin is a long, thin baking tin - I'm sure Divertimenti will have them if not Peter Jones (John Lewis). Hopefully, Waitrose will have most of what I need (surprisingly for Central London some things are quite hard to find round our way).

[mysty]

6 minutes ago, SteveH2508 said:

Jeff

 

Many thanks for that. Your passion shines through in your posts. I shall need a few days to source the items you have mentioned (with a slight interruption for making cheese straws for a family get-together on Wednesday).

 

I guess a baguette tin is a long, thin baking tin - I'm sure Divertimenti will have them if not Peter Jones (John Lewis). Hopefully, Waitrose will have most of what I need (surprisingly for Central London some things are quite hard to find round our way).

 

Good luck Steve!  From our experience Jeff is a wonderful resource!

[UKCruiseJeff]

45 minutes ago, SteveH2508 said:

Jeff

 

Many thanks for that. Your passion shines through in your posts. I shall need a few days to source the items you have mentioned (with a slight interruption for making cheese straws for a family get-together on Wednesday).

 

I guess a baguette tin is a long, thin baking tin - I'm sure Divertimenti will have them if not Peter Jones (John Lewis). Hopefully, Waitrose will have most of what I need (surprisingly for Central London some things are quite hard to find round our way).

 

Good grief!  I thought you’d give up!

 

Here is the small scraper.  Suggest you get a few they’re a pound or so. Also the larger scraper.  You may already have a cast iron ribbed steak griddle but a small cheap one in the base of your oven makes it into a French baguette steam  oven … and a small sprayer. 

 

All from Amazon!

 

 

Edited October 25, 2021 by UKCruiseJeff

[SteveH2508]

8 minutes ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

 

Good grief!  I thought you’d give up!

 

Here is the small scraper.  Suggest you get a few they’re a pound or so. Also the larger scraper.  You may already have a cast iron ribbed steak griddle but a small cheap one in the base of your oven makes it into a French baguette steam  oven … and a small sprayer. 

 

 

Griddle pan - check (gets a lot of use!)

 

I have seen those triple baguette thingies around - should be no problem to source.

 

Jeff - I am sort of 'taking one for the team' - I am sure other foodies are following this thread with interest.

[TrulyBlonde]

34 minutes ago, SteveH2508 said:

Griddle pan - check (gets a lot of use!)

 

I have seen those triple baguette thingies around - should be no problem to source.

 

Jeff - I am sort of 'taking one for the team' - I am sure other foodies are following this thread with interest.

Yes, this is a good one. I wonder what type of bread flour to use that I can get in the US that is comparable? I do make pizza dough and would love to make baguettes. 🙂

[UKCruiseJeff]

4 minutes ago, TrulyBlonde said:

Yes, this is a good one. I wonder what type of bread flour to use that I can get in the US that is comparable? I do make pizza dough and would love to make baguettes. 🙂

 

Hi,

 

If you cannot find strong Canadian bread flour then simply go along the bread flour shelf and read the protein content.  Buy the one with the highest number. Around 14.5% or more the better.