April 22, 2014 - 10:57pm
NYTimes article on artisanal bakeries
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/dining/against-the-grain.html I hated using the word artisanal, but that is all I could think of for bakeries like Tartine, which do it the old old way, which is now new way.
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I saw your note about the same time I saw the special section. Loved it. Phyllis
That sounds a little crazy to me. Would like to taste it though. :)
I have forgotten a lot of the article, but five days doesn't seem outrageous to me, if you're retarding the dough. My sourdough bread can take that long. I can do it in two days (start biga early in the morning, make the dough at night, retard it in the fridge overnight, and bake the next day). I usually take three days (biga-dough-bake), but at times I have left the dough retarding in the fridge, either as biga or the final dough, for several days. Retarding does develop the flavor nicely.
I thought "double the time" referred to 68 hours.
I see now that double the time refers to the time one normally bakes a loaf.
auricle. i don' think any of these bakeries are really 'artisan' if they use machines, don'tmake small batches by hand and don't bake in a naturally fired masonry oven but.... some fine bakers all over the world still do things the old fashioned artisan way.
Just because these fine bakers use machines, it doen't diminish their work or the quality of their bread or their wish to do things slowly, using the best ingredients and natural leavening. They are fine bakers who need to do things with machines to produce the volume of bread their customers desire and enough quantity to make a decent living - it is pretty tough going the old artisan way if you want to make a decent living. But decent is different for all of us. it is just the way things are in the rest of the world many call 'artisan' today - But I won't as there are too many who still are artisan bakers and the bread they produce is truly artisan by any definition.
Many others think differently which is fine by me. I'm just glad to see bakers getting more 'artisan' than less and producing a decent, healthy and hearty loaf of bread that some people can afford to eat and enjoy.
you, of course, mean fire created by lightning? Is it okay to use steel and flint to get the fire going? ;)
wood or coal fired masonry oven where the fire starts by spontaneous combustion at the snap of the baker's apprentice 2nd class's fingers! Matches or sphagnum moss, rod and bow are OK too but cold, nuclear fusion is strictly allowed and limited to the Master baker only :-)
Also enjoyed the auricle. ;-)
DYAC!
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