Monday Mix 9/19/22

Happy Mondays, everyone, and welcome to this week’s Morning Mix.

I’m busy this week getting ready for my Enriched Breads class up at King Arthur Baking in Norwich, VT, a place I haven’t been to since September 2020. I this will also be only the third time I’ve taught an in-person class since lockdown began, so I’m especially looking forward to this one. I’m looking to book as many as three more workshops in Norwich in 2023, and I’ll be sure to send you the links here once they go live (this class sold out before I was able to share it here, sorry).

I’m also gearing up to teach the Milk Street matnakash class next week. Once those two classes are behind me, I’m going to be rebooting virtual classes of my own (finally!) If there are subjects you are especially keen to learn, please email me directly with them, so I can plan the next 6 months of classes. I think I’m going to do another session of my Baguettes Sans Peur class soon, since I’ve improved upon and streamlined that recipe significantly recently, as the image above should show.

Last week, Wordloaf got a shout-out in a wonderful post at Jolene Handy’s Time Travel Kitchen (a newsletter I’ve only just discovered), all about grilled-cheese sandwiches:

The Delicious Comfort of a Grilled Cheese Sandwich

When I wrote about tomato soup last week, there was no question that this week had to be about grilled cheese. Cheese Dream How and when did grilled cheese become so popular in the U.S.? The combination of J.L. Kraft’s processed cheese being brought to market in 1916 and the introduction of sliced bre…

Time Travel Kitchen

Speaking of grilled cheese, you might want to (re)visit the recipe I published a year ago for End-of-Summer Tomato Soup, which is a good combo with the sandwiches, and which I just made available for everyone to access:

End-of-Summer Tomato Soup

Autumn is beautiful, especially here in New England, but it’s not something I ever look forward to, since it represents everything I love coming to a close for the year. I abhor cold weather, and I miss the sun desperately when it flees for so long. If I had to live in just one season of the year, it would be the turn from spring into summer, when everything is green and golden and ripe with potential, and the days are at their lengthiest.

Wordloaf

I learned from my friend Paula Forbes at Stained Page News that the University of Wyoming has just released an EPIC guide to high-altitude baking of all kinds, including breads. I haven’t spent any time with it yet, but I’ve scanned the TOC and I think this book is going to be really useful for anyone (including those who’ve contacted me here) that has struggled with baking bread and other things above sea level. It sounds like it has been extensively tested:

“A recipe might sound wonderful and have rave reviews, but then be a flop at higher elevation,” Hayman says.

As elevation increases, additional adjustments may be necessary, she says. Some recipes that worked beautifully at 3,500 feet were a disaster at 7,200.

With the help of more than 40 volunteers, recipes were tested -- and tasted -- in kitchens across Wyoming.

“A big thank you to all volunteer testers,” Hayman says. “We couldn’t have done it without them!”

Best of all, this book is available as a free PDF download!

That’s it for the mix today. Stay tuned for a guest essay on Wednesday from Jesse Raub, a fellow Serious Eats writer, on his journey to the realization that success in sourdough baking begins with making friends with your starter.

—Andrew