The Fresh Loaf

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Some interesting read

FrugalBaker's picture
FrugalBaker

Some interesting read

Just received my monthly subscription of Reader's Digest today. Am one of those who read what interests me first and then slowly moving onto something a bit less, in short, lazy reader! So, I was reading the cover and thought I should know more about food : )

 

The cover

      

 

 

I haven't looked up on any links to find out but really??? Hope someone here on TFL would be hardworking enough to do the dirty work (research) on behalf.

 

Regards,

Sandy

drogon's picture
drogon

... that Readers Digest is still going...

 

-Gordon

rgconner's picture
rgconner

Reader's Digest reminds me of my Grandmothers house.

Sundays often meant the latest copy of RD and a buttered homemade Tortilla with cinnamon sugar on it.

 

alfanso's picture
alfanso

I worked in IT for Reader's Digest for ~ a year in the mid 80s.  And it was a little like a Grandmother's house in a few ways.  Their mailing address was Pleasantville although they were actually located in the neighboring town of Chappaqua.  A decidedly less "pleasant" sounding name to the 1930's American reader's sensibilities, I suppose.  

Run by a  philanthropic couple they were a very paternalistic organization, and set the stage for other large successful companies abandoning the big city for a suburban location, being perhaps the first to do so.  At the time I worked there every Friday in May was a (can't remember) holiday or half day holiday - because the weather was too nice to work!, along with a generous vacation schedule for an American company back then. On an annual first come first serve basis employees were each granted a few square yards of land behind the building to "farm" and raise whatever vegetables or plants they wanted.

Perhaps the most unusual thing was that there were real works of art strewn throughout their building.  At this point in time I can only specifically remember the bust of a jester by Picasso that resided on a pedestal somewhere near the main lobby, out in the open as with all of the other artwork, for employees and guests to enjoy.

Although by and large the people themselves being quite nice, their IT policies were stuck in a "Grandmother's house" of growing antiquity and I had to find something more refreshing after that year.

rgconner's picture
rgconner

Mid 80's.... so mainframes?

alfanso's picture
alfanso

and if I recall correctly, one way that requests to systems programming staff were made was by placing the printed request form into a capsule and then placing that into a pneumatic tube for delivery to their office.

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

and I'm guessing they predated rats by a few billion years.There must be a lot sugars like maltose in rat poop though:-)

KathyF's picture
KathyF

It's like the chicken and the egg... which came first? Rodents eat grain, so wouldn't they have ingested the bacteria from their environment? Or was the environment contaminated by the rodents? Things to ponder....

David Esq.'s picture
David Esq.

In fact, it was a lot of chickens, followed by a lot of eggs.

 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

before the rodent.  

Colin_Sutton's picture
Colin_Sutton

Nobody told me to add rodent poop to my sourdough.  Does it improve oven-spring, add sourness or just add texture?  Eech....

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

The only fact in that paragraph is that the same bacteria is located in two places.  I bet the same bacteria is located in more places, many more places and that shouldn't be shocking at all.  We do live on a planet.    

All it tells me is that living conditions for the bacteria wether in a starter culture or a mouse's gut must be similar, i.e., warm, wet with continuing fresh supply of grain.  

The little mammals just don't bake their food first or build big enough ovens.  (wouldn't those be cute loaves!)  They also have additional gut flora that can handle raw grains.  Find out that bacteria, add it to the dough and perhaps predigest the  whole grain flours and cut back on soaking times.   :)

Colin_Sutton's picture
Colin_Sutton

I love the idea of rodent ovens and loaves! The odd thing about the claim in that article is that we can make now make sourdough cultures without the assistance of rodents in super-hygienic kitchens, so presumably this is more about correlation than causation?  Presumably yeasts and bacteria were naturally occurring on grains back in pre-history, as they do today.

FrugalBaker's picture
FrugalBaker

is somewhat ridiculous but interesting to me at the same time. I am not going to dismiss it altogether as what Mini said was starting to make a tiny weeny sense. Though, I suspect it could be a simple 'cut and paste' mistake form the publisher, you just never know. But again, this person got his Doctorate and who am I here to correct him in any way?