Friday Bread Basket 5/13/22
Friday the 13th edition
Welcome to the Wordloaf Friday Bread Basket, a weekly roundup of links and items relating to bread, baking, and grain. This week’s email is sort of all related to the last couple of weeks of posts on white flour, whole grains, and junk food.
The Freshmaker
First of all, ICYMI, one of my flour-chat pals, Amy Halloran, wrote a follow-up piece on a related topic, namely fresh flour:
We didn’t specifically discuss the virtues of fresh flour (nor did I mention it on Wednesday), but freshness is definitely more important to me when it comes to flour than whether or not the flour is 100% whole grain. (That said, freshness is even more important when it comes to whole grain flours, because the germ oil it contains are very quick to oxidize and turn rancid.)
Junk Mail
I really enjoyed this piece in Mikala Jamison’s newsletter Body Type about “junk” versus “health” food (and in which my other flour chat pal Alicia Kennedy even makes an appearance). It’s a long, thoughtful work, covering a lot of ground, but it jibes with a lot of the things I had in mind when I wrote my post earlier this week. Some of the braniacs pushing an only-whole-grain approach to baking are very judgmental about those who don’t choose to eat that way. That’s not a particularly effective way to get people on your side, and it sets an impossibly high bar for people who don’t want to or cannot make the move. Jamison suggests an easier-to-fathom, fact-based approach to what we all eat:
..the opposite of “eat less junk food” isn’t “follow a miserable weight-loss diet.” Consuming foods more nourishing than junk foods doesn't have to have anything to do with body size at all. And if we think of all food in terms of facts—it’s high in protein; it’s low in sodium; my stomach doesn’t tolerate it; it cooks quickly and has a lot of vitamins—instead of its supposed righteousness or lack thereof, we can block out the noise of food shame or smugness and make informed choices according to our values.
Read the whole thing, it’s great.
Mr. Potato Head
Speaking of junk food, you may already know that I am a huge fan of Martin’s Potato Rolls. Or I was until recently, when I found out that the Martin family have given tons of money to an anti-abortion, Trump-supporting PA state senator’s gubernatorial campaign:
The family behind Martin’s potato bread has put itself behind Doug Mastriano, a South Central Pa. state senator who rose to prominence as a Trump-supporting election denier, and espouses what some define as Christian nationalist rhetoric. He is also the front-running Republican candidate for Pennsylvania governor.
Potato roll magnate Jim Martin has given Mastriano’s gubernatorial campaign well over $100k. That’s causing some worry among Philly restaurateurs that serve Martin’s products.
Guess I won’t be buying Martin’s anymore. (Good thing I have a recipe of my own.)
That’s it for this week’s bread basket. I hope you all have a peaceful weekend. I’ll be attending the pro-abortion rally in downtown Boston and then making pizza in my backyard.
—Andrew
I grew up in Pennsylvania. So thanks for the shoutout about Martin’s potato bread and Doug Mastriano. Ditto on standing up against the horrifics of the current US Supreme Court position. One can only hope this doesn’t spread to Canada. Mikala Jamison’s piece was as great as you said. Though it made me think of a new slogan for DeSantis “Don’t say junk food.” Because of course he’d want those corporations able to rake in the dollars. So he’d get some of them.
The BEST: "Consuming foods more nourishing than junk foods doesn't have to have anything to do with body size at all. And if we think of all food in terms of facts—it’s high in protein; it’s low in sodium; my stomach doesn’t tolerate it; it cooks quickly and has a lot of vitamins—instead of its supposed righteousness or lack thereof, we can block out the noise of food shame or smugness and make informed choices according to our values."
Sing it sister!
BTW - thanks for going to the antiabortion rally. Alioto wants to return the US to the 1950's. If only men gave birth ....