Bread With Jam

Tag: Randy

  • The Use of Non-Standard Measurements in Baking

    Following a mentality stimulating Skype session with John last night, I came to realize that some might not have understood my reference to a measurement in “US Buckets,” in a comment to Casey’s posting “Steam Power.” Further, since the US Bucket measurement is not in Wikipedia, the Gospel source of all information, let me explain.

    A bucket is a unit of volume, though it is considered generally informal. In the U.S., many commodities (both wet and dry) are sold in plastic buckets holding 5 U.S. liquid gallons (about 18.927 liters). Now that I live in Texas, which is a big state and we know that everything in Texas is big, it makes perfect since to use large, very large, measuring devices. If my kitchen could accommodate a barge, which is equivalent to 1.34E+08 ounces, living in Texas, I would have defaulted to that.

    Since I have no scruples, let me continue. Since this blog is beginning to generate numerous postings, I believe it will not be long until it goes international. Thus understanding other units of measurements are important. For instance, if a Brit said he used 96 scrulpes of water to increase the atmospheric moisture level in his over, for baking bread, of course, then we should understand that that is equivalent to 4 ounces of water.

    3 fluid scruples= 1 fluid drachm= 60 minims
    8 fluid drachm= 1 fluid ounce

    I hope this has clarified my use of the measurement US Bucket and tonight while I am talking about technical interests with my friend John, I will be enjoying 4 gills of beer.

  • Choosing the Right Water

    In the nineteen-ninety-two movie, Scent of a Woman, LtCol. Frank Slade, while dinning at the Astoria, commented about the bread.

    Colonel Slade —
    Try one of these rolls, Charlie.
    I buttered it for ya.

    – Bread’s no good west of the Colorado.

    – Water’s too alkaline.

    Is the Colonel correct?
    Since it would be impossible to produce a loaf of bread without water, water being a basic ingredient, then perhaps choosing your water is as important as choosing the flour.

    Through a bit of research this is what I discovered. We can classify water several ways, hard, soft, alkaline, or acidic. Soft water weakens the gluten during mixing and fermentation. (This can be corrected by slightly increasing the salt.) Alkaline water not only weakens the gluten but retards the fermentation thus is considered the most harmful. Slightly acidic water will let the yeast perform at its best. Thus, hard water that is slightly acidic will yield the best bread.

    So, Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade’s statement is correct.