November 15, 2006 - 6:19pm
Fun article on the NYT bread buzz
Here's a fun article [1] in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the massive Internet buzz around the NYT no-knead bread technique.
Here's the top of the article:
Lonelygirl15, have we got a link for you.Read the rest of the article here. [1]
The latest sensation burning up bandwidth throughout the wired universe is not an actress with a webcam, an incautious politician caught on video or a raunchy cartoon, but a recipe for bread.
Last week, New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman published the recipe, "No-Knead Bread," which he adapted from Manhattan baker Jim Leahy. This unusual recipe, which Bittman deemed "revolutionary," confounded many notions of baking.
The "no-knead" part was just the beginning. This dough is as wet as a dog's kiss. It needs 18 hours to rise. It bakes inside a pot. When it emerges, it looks like a crusty boule from a Parisian boulangerie. In other words, this was not your grandfather's Oldsmobile nor the stuff of his liverwurst sandwiches.
Bittman's column and the recipe rose to the top of the most e-mailed list on the Times Web site.
The next day, an intensive discussion was under way on eGullet —- the nation's top online food salon —- with excited bakers posting pictures of their proudly rounded loaves hot from the oven but not yet tried.
Within a couple of days, all the markers of Internet stardom were in place. Technorati.com tracked more than 200 blog entries devoted to no-knead bread in a panoply of languages.
Flickr.com displayed scores of step-by-step photos tracking the bread from gluey mass to golden beauty. "Letouj" from Troy, N.Y., shot his/her gorgeous loaf in extreme close-up, and excitedly noted it was "the first loaf of bread I've ever baked."