Mike's Food Philisophy
or, Some Musings On Healthy Food and Diet
2020-06-05 It Doesn’t HAVE To Be Difficult! Mike’s (more or less) Weekly Baking Tips
By Mike |
2020-06-05 It Doesn’t HAVE To Be Difficult! Sometimes, OK – all too often, we make baking bread harder than it has to be. Feed the sourdough starter for three days. Make a preferment for 12 to 18 hours. Bake the bread in a dutch oven or a wood fired oven that has never cooled in …
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The Emperor Has No Clothes
By Mike |
The Emperor Has No Clothes! If you don’t listen to “Rise Up! – The Baker’s Podcast” you should. Every week or so the host, Mark Dyck talks to different bakers who share their stories. It’s been an amazing array of bakers. Rise Up! is available on most podcast services, and from Mark’s home page http://riseuppod.com/ …
Read More The Mystique of Fresh Bread
By Mike |
The Mystique of Fresh Bread “I want to serve fresh bread to my family every day!” How often has someone told you that? If I had a nickel for each time someone said that to me, my retirement would much more comfortable! And, I don’t know why people say that, really. I’ve talked about this …
Read More About Our Classic Recipes
By Mike |
About our classic recipes Let me start out by saying that this IS a departure from the rest of the sourdough home page. Sourdough will be mentioned in passing, if at all. Some of the recipes will use bread, and I’ll suggest that a sourdough bread is the one to use. But, in truth, I …
Read More White Flour Poison Death, and other hysteria
By Mike |
White Flour Poison Death (and other hysteria) By Mike Avery Around June, 2007 Last weekend, Friday and Saturday June 9th and 10th, I was fortunate enough to be able to teach a class on sourdough baking in Evergreen Colorado for Mountain Tops Milling. Mountain Tops Milling sells a wide range of excellent grain mills, mixers and other …
Read More Americans Should Stop Confusing Food With Entertainment!
By Mike |
Americans Should Stop Confusing Food With Entertainment! (Or, should they?) By Mike Avery February 23, 2009 It’s funny how different things come together to inspire one. Mary Fisher, an English friend, wrote in the gone, and lamented, Baking Fun mailing list that, “Breakfast is An Occasion in England. For most people it means a cooked breakfast: …
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Meditations Upon A Soup
By Mike |
Meditations Upon A Soup Or, The Recipe Isn’t Yours Until You Make It Yours Or, The Chef’s Job Is To Unlock The Flavors In The Ingredients Or, It’s OK To Play With Your Food – In Fact, You Should! Some time ago, I read that it is the baker’s job to unlock the flavors in …
Read More What Ever Happened To Bread Anyway?
By Mike |
What ever happened to bread anyway? My doctor, bless her heart, decided that it was “time to do something” about my weight. And in truth, I have to admit she’s right. I’m not in prime “Biggest Loser” territory, but I do have some health issues that should be a lot better if there was less …
Read More What’s The BEST Kind Of Bread?
By Mike |
What’s the best kind of bread? Sit down please. Take a deep breath, and get ready for a shock. Are you ready? OK.. here goes… bread makers are snobs. I’m afraid it’s true, but when you ask that of a bread maker, you’ll be told something like, “Oh, my Pain au Levain made with my …
Read More 2019-04-26 Where Does Bread Flavor Come From?
By Mike |
2019-04-26 Where Does Bread Flavor Come From? Peter Reinhart tells us that the oven only contributes about 10% of the bread’s flavor. There are some issues with that idea. First, how you measure flavor? And, we sure spend a lot of time obsessing over ovens if it only adds 10% of the final flavor! My …
Read More 2018-09-03 The Road From Rote To Mastery
By Mike |
September 3, 2018 – The Road From Rote To Mastery or, a frustrating night of BarBeQue. tl;dr And worse, philosophical. But not “scientific” (Thanks to Blind Dog Cooley!) Sometimes I get frustrated with new bread bakers. They want all the answers handed to them on a silver platter. And calibrated. “How can I use whole …
Read More September 3, 2012 – a neat weekend and Mike learns something
By Mike |
Monday, September 3, 2012 A Neat Weekend and Mike Learns Something This was originally in the Mike’s (more or less) Weekly Baking Tips newsletter, and then made an appearance on our The New Burgundians web page. Last weekend marked Beth’s and my 15th wedding anniversary. So, we decided to go off and have some fun. …
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