I'm going on a 5-day river trip with a group of 14 people.  There will be two transportation days prior to getting on the river.  So...I need a bread that will stand up to 7-8 days of storage in hot conditions, and that can handle the rough treatment of being bounced around in a dry bag (a dry bag is like a back-pack that will not allow water inside.)  We plan to make sandwiches, but the bread doesn't have to be sliced loaves.

It was a bit disappointing to learn that I wouldn't be able to bake fresh sourdough daily along the way, in a Dutch Oven.  The fire regulations disallow even briquettes, so now I'm scrambling to come up with a new bread plan. 

Any suggestions? 

Thanks,

Terri

I know this seems a little late but I think we could all benefit if we define these terms in order to remove any confusion surrounding them.

What is a:

• new starter
• young starter
• active starter
• fresh starter
• old starter
• mature starter
• ripe starter

Thanks for participating. 

Oct 31, 2009  Changed title of thread so it is more easily located using the site search machine.  I may turn this into a FAQ or anyone wanting to make a FAQ should feel free to use the information.

I've been keeping my Bread in Sealed Ziplock Bags, being careful to let any air in.  The Bread is still soft after 3 days and seems OK to eat.

How many days after Baking will  my Bread be good for?

Thanks

Someone just gifted me with a bread book called "The New Bread Book" by Ursula Ferrigno, which I do really appreciate, but all the recipes call for FRESH YEAST, such as 1/4 oz(10G) crumbled, is there some sort of a conversion to instant or rapid rise yeast?  I really do not want to search out a bakery, not any in my loacal area, to get some, and I've read it does not last very long, any ideas?  Thanks. Russ

Most of us make more bread than we can eat.  And hey, why not when it's takes just as long to clean up after making 2 loaves as it does after making 4 loaves.  Anyway, for those of you who give away (or sell) your extras, these bags might be of interest.  I use them for our bakery packaging because they keep things crisp and allow me to package the loaves while they're still warm.  Plus, as you can see, they enable the customer to pick up the loaves and see them from top to bottom.   I print the labels on a single color laser printer (no smudging), which makes them easy to edit.  The ingredient labels on the back are standard name tag size, the main labels on the front are slightly larger.  I use brown ones for the bread and silver ones for the pastries.  

bag closeup

assorted bags

-Mark

I am contemplating making a sweet bun recipe that was taken from the Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook 1970 edition (I believe it was published in the USA?). It calls for "a cake of yeast".

I've searched around the internet trying to find out just how much a "cake of yeast" weighs. Most sites I've found agree and say that a cake of yeast weighs .6 oz; one says it weighs .06 oz (!) and another says it weighs 1 oz.

This would mean an equivalent of either 3tsp, 1/3tsp, or 3.4 tsp active dry yeast. Rather a large difference, I'd sya...

I'm guessing that .06oz .6oz is the right one but which is it, please?

-Elizabeth, in Toronto Canada where compressed yeast is not the easiest thing to find; one local deli sells cakes of yeast in 50 and 100gm pieces.

P.S. DON'T get me started on the use of loose measurement terms "packets", "packages", "cakes", "some", "dollop" ...

(edited to fix typo)

I wanted to make dill bread so used Floyd’s wonderful recipe for Potato Rosemary Rolls yesterday but replaced the rosemary and sage for a huge pile of fresh baby dill.  Then I added another huge pile of freshly ground black Tellicherry pepper.  We really like things spicy but I was afraid the amount of pepper I used would overpower the dill.  Not having made dill bread before (Tingull's looks so good) I also wanted to try using fresh dill to get a feel for the amount desired.  I ended up using 2 1/2 teaspoons of freshly ground pepper a

I have read here and elsewhere that freezing bread keeps it the most fresh, but what about that loaf (or loaves) that you are munching on for the week??

I recently bought a grain mill and have tried to bake with fresh ground grain, but I'm baking up bricks instead.  So what's secret to freshly ground grain?