This week's compendium

Here’s this week’s compendium. This week…

1. on salon.com Francis Lam started a series on baking [1]. How exciting. And delicious.

2. evidence emerged that the US baseball legend Lou Gehrig probably didn’t have the disease named after him, i.e. Lou Gehrig’s Disease [2]. Whoops.

3. gizmodo.com posted an astoundingly wondrous series of diptych photographs [3]. Fantastic, fantastic.

4. the journal Circulation published research showing a moderate intake of high cocoa chocolate was associated with reduced heart failure risk [4a]. It can modestly lower blood pressure, too [4b].

5. and Tai Chi was reported to help fibromyalgia [5]. Sure beats medication.

6. an Iowa egg producer recalled 380 million eggs following a Salmonella enteritidis outbreak affecting hundreds of people [6]. It’s Food Inc. in action, folks.

7. an Australian survey reported in the latest MJA concluded the severity of sleep apnoea is increasing. Why? Because obesity’s increasing [7]. It’s Food Inc. in action, folks.

8. this beautiful profile of beautiful darling Kate went up on a fellow crafter’s blog [8]. I am so proud of Kate.

Finally, I wish you, dear Farmdoc’s Blog readers, a wonderful week.

Survival Ark - coming over the horizon

Last 18 May I wrote I was looking to buy a hand-operated flour mill – to grind wheat into flour for 100% wholemeal bread [1]. Now, 12 weeks later, I still haven’t bought one. But I will soon. Last Monday Sweetheart Vivienne and I went to the health food store in Deloraine to buy flour and yeast. Whilst there I asked about flour mills. The proprietor showed us one. It looked okay, and it was a good price. But I had misgivings. Free floating ones. Gut feelings. When I asked about the warranty, he said he’d have to check. I took that as a way to temporise. I said I’d be back in two days. Yesterday I made some internet and phone inquiries. I’ve found a better one: more functional design, improved grinding capacity, made in Victoria, lifetime guarantee. It’s about A$90 dearer. But the advantages justify the higher price. So later today I need to tell the Deloraine man I’m not buying the mill he’s selling. That’s too hard for me to do. I don’t know why, but it is. A result of one of my many long-term psychological glitches. So Sweetheart Vivienne’s doing it. She’s much more psychologically able than I. Also we’re returning a 20kg bag of baker’s flour we bought on Monday – as we’ll need less once we grind our own flour. So all going well, some time next week we’ll be proud owners of a Survival Ark (pictured). Oh what fun. Stay tuned.

All absurdum

At school in grades 9 and 10 I studied Latin. I wanted to be a dispensing pharmacist, and potions and pastes and pills had Latin names. But in mid grade 12, with pen in hand filling in my university application preferences, I suddenly shuddered at the prospect of a career selling lipsticks to old ladies. So I changed my first choice from Pharmacy to Medicine. And the rest, as they say… Despite this, I’m grateful for my Latin knowledge. Though it’s too basic for me to read the Latin classics, it gives me the key to etymology – of medical terms and non-medical words alike. Recently, in relation to baking, two Latin phrases popped into my mind: Aiming for a thin pizza crust, I’ve been progressively reducing the yeast in each batch. I ended up with a yeastless dough – which I liked but Sweetheart Vivienne didn’t. So now I use ¼ teaspoon per 550 grams of flour (compared with the original recipe’s ¾ tablespoon). Also, noting our diets are oversalted, I’ve been reducing the salt in my bread dough. The UK’s Food Standards Agency’s benchmark’s 1g salt per 100g loaf [1]. I’m already below that. I’m interested to see how low I’ll get before the taste’s affected. Oh, I almost forgot, the two Latin phrases: de minimis [2] and reductio ad absurdum [3]. (The latter’s come to have a technical meaning [4], but its Latin meaning is ‘reduction to the absurd’.) Valete [5].

My comfort list - item 4

Today’s not a ‘List Friday’. But item number four on my comfort list is baking. And especially baking crusty, rustic-style loaves. There’s something primal about the whole breadmaking process.To be able to savour the final product’s an extra bonus. And a privilege.

Come back tomorrow for item three on my comfort list.

The Staff of Life revisited

It’s time for another bread baking post. I continue to adore baking. I still bake my bread in a camp oven inside my wood-fired stove oven, a la the NYT as I explained here [1]. I bake fairly good bread, averaging 6-8 out of 10 on my subjective rating scale, with an occasional 9.

Currently I’m reading Rick Gallop’s informative 2008 book Getting the Best from the Gi Diet [2]. Gallop classifies foods and drinks using the traffic light system: Red for high Gi, yellow for medium Gi, and green for low Gi. It’s simple and easy to remember. He says the only green-light bread (Gi 53 [3]) is stone-ground 100% wholemeal – because stone-ground flour’s coarser and retains more of its bran coating, so it’s digested more slowly. Steel-ground wholemeal bread’s a yellow-light (Gi 69 [3]), and white bread’s a red-light (Gi 70 [3]).

I haven’t made much 100% wholemeal bread, so last Saturday I remedied that. I used a recipe from Richard Bertinet’s superb book Dough [4]. It uses a poolish, i.e. a style of ferment introduced into France by Polish bakers [5]. What a great word. And what a great loaf it helped make (pictured). Admirable character and flavour. And not too heavy.
I used store-bought wholemeal flour which was finely ground and so not stone-ground. I’m looking to buy a hand-operated flour mill. I already know my local shop sells organic wheat. I’m excited. Fun times are ahead. Healthy times too.

farmdoc's blog post number 191

I’ve previously written of my bread making passion. There’s something simple, primal, existential, magical even, in taking flour, water, salt and yeast, and producing a beautiful, delicious loaf. Pure delight. Last Tuesday an email from darling Meg simply said ‘Here is this, which I haven't watched, but thought you might like to: http://www.thedolectures.com/speakers/andrew-whitley’. I clicked the link last Saturday. I’m so glad I did. It’s an hour lecture by Andrew Whitley, whom I’d never heard of, explaining why mass-produced bread is terrible, and exhorting everyone to make their own. He speaks humbly of the joyful celebration of bread baking, the privilege of sharing bread we bake, and the empowerment of knowing exactly what is, and isn’t, in it. His case is unimpeachable. I was riveted. I’ve ordered his book, Bread Matters, from the library, and I’ve signed up to The Real Bread Campaign. In late August, darling Emily attended a bread making course. Two weeks ago I was honoured to see her make then bake her first loaf (pictured). She’s a natural. I watched in awe as she mixed then worked the dough, and later formed up her loaf. Having the bread fanatic dad she has, she’s now kitted out with bread baking gear. Thank you, darling Meg and Emily. Sorry I can’t write more – I’m so excited I must mix up some dough.