Andrew- great article. Would love guardrails for how to modify recipes for how I want to bake. One comment- in your spread sheet you are listing amounts of yeast in milligrams. Hope this is a typo as no one in their home kitchens has scales that measure this. (Spoken from a former scientist!) wish I had a scale that was this sensitive, but I left those behind years ago….
lol I did see. Do you think non- scientists can handle serial dilutions? You did explain it well-but I’m suspect about the average person understanding it well enough.
I, however, will put that to use in my kitchen as my scale isn’t that great and I don’t trust it to be accurate in the lower ranges. Never considered doing this at home- so thanks!!
I don't think there is any other way to get around it, so they'll have to, and I think it is pretty simple. You can't make a yeasted preferment without either using tiny amounts of yeast, or making a large excess of it, most of which you discard. This is a problem specific to home bakers making one or two loaves—in a bakery, you have the benefit of scale, where the yeast is in amounts of tens or hundreds of grams.
Very true. I volunteer in a bakery employing special needs adults and will bring this idea to them. I personally love it and it’s a great solution to using small amounts at home. Maybe include a picture/graphic illustration in your book when you explain this? A visual might help the less-mathematically-inclined.
Last comment- in the 100x column, the numbers are not exactly 100x due to rounding. You might want to include either an explanation, or change the way that cell is calculated to be 100x of the value of the prior cell. Having also taught chemistry, this might throw off non- math people.
Question, not a comment. As a kid in Kalamazoo, MI, I was treated often to salt rising bread from one of the local bakeries. Dad and his mom were fans, but few others. My recollections are that it smelled foul and tasted divine. The bakery's long gone and when there on a recent trip I found none. What was it - a local sourdough or something unique?
Andrew- great article. Would love guardrails for how to modify recipes for how I want to bake. One comment- in your spread sheet you are listing amounts of yeast in milligrams. Hope this is a typo as no one in their home kitchens has scales that measure this. (Spoken from a former scientist!) wish I had a scale that was this sensitive, but I left those behind years ago….
Fran - See my follow-up post, where I address this problem directly, and provide a simple solution!
lol I did see. Do you think non- scientists can handle serial dilutions? You did explain it well-but I’m suspect about the average person understanding it well enough.
I, however, will put that to use in my kitchen as my scale isn’t that great and I don’t trust it to be accurate in the lower ranges. Never considered doing this at home- so thanks!!
I don't think there is any other way to get around it, so they'll have to, and I think it is pretty simple. You can't make a yeasted preferment without either using tiny amounts of yeast, or making a large excess of it, most of which you discard. This is a problem specific to home bakers making one or two loaves—in a bakery, you have the benefit of scale, where the yeast is in amounts of tens or hundreds of grams.
Very true. I volunteer in a bakery employing special needs adults and will bring this idea to them. I personally love it and it’s a great solution to using small amounts at home. Maybe include a picture/graphic illustration in your book when you explain this? A visual might help the less-mathematically-inclined.
Nice music improv/interpretation analogy.
I thought you'd like that, RR
Last comment- in the 100x column, the numbers are not exactly 100x due to rounding. You might want to include either an explanation, or change the way that cell is calculated to be 100x of the value of the prior cell. Having also taught chemistry, this might throw off non- math people.
true, and I will mention that, but the 100x numbers are actually *more* accurate, because the rounding is far less significant.
Totally! You’re completely appealing to my nerd side now!
This is awesome Andrew and what I have been dying to learn! Very excited to try it out and to get my hands on Breaducation.
Question, not a comment. As a kid in Kalamazoo, MI, I was treated often to salt rising bread from one of the local bakeries. Dad and his mom were fans, but few others. My recollections are that it smelled foul and tasted divine. The bakery's long gone and when there on a recent trip I found none. What was it - a local sourdough or something unique?