For Gunny: French Bread Report.

6 Responses to For Gunny: French Bread Report.

1. Di-Ohso says:

   January 20, 2013 at 11:11 am

   view-source:http://www.stuartking.co.uk/index.php/tag/wassail-cup/

   And I thought of you again today.
   I watched a Time Team programme and they made a copy of an Elizabethan Wassail bowl. It was beautiful. I Googled for a picture of one and found a still from the episode…

   0
2. gunnison says:

   January 20, 2013 at 12:37 pm

   Oh good.
   Yes, I’m going to try that one. Usually I only bake baguettes whenever we have company for dinner.
   For our steady bread diet we like loaves that will freeze well, so then I only have to bake once a week or so. Mostly the five grain levain that I posted here a year or so ago, and plain sourdough boules.

   Thanks for the link to that guy’s site – seems he has commenting disabled, which I don’t get at all, but that’s me. There is an email, though, so I might drop him a line.

   Looks like he’s gone the full monty with historical accuracy and is turning with a pole lathe, which actually rotates back and forth rather than in one direction constantly. Whole different kettle of fish.
   Interesting.

   0
3. Di-Ohso says:

   January 20, 2013 at 1:44 pm

   He was making a smaller cup the old way out of sycamour, [I think] but showed that large cherry wood Wassail cup.
   It was truly beautiful.
   I would imagine if you could turn out similar at Christmas they would be good sellers.
   I thought of you immediately they showed it.
   On the programme he said you only take off wood
   when the lathe is going forward? Said it only took him a couple of hours to make small cups.

   BTW. Normally the French sticks I buy from the supermarket are going hard as rock within a day and a half, but the ones I baked yesterday are fine. Well, one is. I was taking them from the oven when my d-i-l came to pick up Issy ,so I gave one to her. It’ll be long gone.
   Quite a close texture, but still light. Fantastic crust.
   Beating the flour into the yeast liquid when you begin must make a difference.

   0
4. Di-Ohso says:

   January 20, 2013 at 1:56 pm

   PS plenty of recipes for the booze to go in it on Google…You could select the booziest one and put a recipe in each cup you sell. It would make a lovely present for people to give.

   0
5. gunnison says:

   January 20, 2013 at 2:58 pm

   Yes, the cutting of the wood occurs when the lathe is rotating toward the operator only, so you’re kinda taking separate “bites” rather than cutting constantly. It requires tools of a quite different shape and style, and it’s slow as hell.
   It might, as he said, take a couple of hours to make a smallish cup or goblet on a rig like that.

   A small bowl about the size that one might use for breakfast cereal, say, would take him even longer than a cup, especially to sand it out and finish it. No way I could operate like that and still pay bills and eat. On my rig, in a production run of small utility bowls like that, each one will take about 15 minutes. Sometimes, with simpler shapes that I’ve done over and over (though no two are ever identical), less than ten.

   That’s really the bread and butter of this line of work — galleries like them because they are inexpensive enough for people to buy on impulse, and so it helps their cash flow. Mine too.

   The bigger pieces take much longer, sometimes a whole day for the really big and complex forms. Double the diameter and you’re at least quadrupling the amount of work required, and as things get bigger and bigger that leverage increases even more. A 14″ salad bowl is almost twice the work of a 12″ one, for example.

   I’ll try that baguette caper next time I do them. I’m gonna use an overnight sourdough “poolish” though, just for the extra flavor kick, then spike the mix with commercial yeast when I mix the dough.
   I’ll let you know how it comes out.

   0
6. Di-Ohso says:

   January 22, 2013 at 8:26 am

   Just to let you know I did a second batch today in case the first was a fluke…It wasn’t. Exactly the same result
   I’m going to freeze one once it’s cool.
   The last batch was still eatable after three days but only lasted that long so still not sure of its exact shelf life. Looks promising though.

   0