Bringing food chemistry to life

It is not easy to source alginates and other gums locally so I tried to find some web based resources for those interested in spherification and other MolGas techniques. I just used this search string  “sodium alginate spherification supplies” in Google. Try L’Epicerie – based in NY NY – the site is not so intuitive [...]

Added some dry vital gluten – maybe a bit too much. The doughs were extremely tight. I could’ve added a little more water or a bit less gluten. Still – they turned out more than OK. The crumb is beautifully moist and soft from the waxy starch in the barley component of the formulation. The [...]

On the Coffee Research dot org site a well referenced discussion of coffee acidity ( http://www.coffeeresearch.org/science/sourmain.htm ) Note the discussion in the body of the text “Excessive quinic acid has been associated with unfavorable sourness when coffees are roasted too dark or brewed coffee is left on a heater plate.  This sourness, however, is contradictory [...]

The Starbucks claim. “Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew is rich, full-bodied Starbucks® coffee in an instant. Unlike traditional instant coffee, which lacks the essential oils that give coffee its flavor and aroma, ours is made with the highest-quality arabica beans, finely ground to release their fullest flavor. Try these samples and discover a whole new way [...]

Sourdough part-wholegrain barley bread – they look gorgeous [and they taste as good as they look] The formulation Flour 100% (67% Cereal Food Processors “Titan” hi gluten flour; + 33% stone-milled wholegrain Meresse hull-less waxy barley flour Water 56% (total water 74% including water in levain) Salt 2% SAF instant yeast 0.9% Liquid levain (sourdough) [...]

Exceptionally nice part-whole-wheat baguettes and batards – made ‘em on the side while I was experimenting with espresso yesterday… The doughs were extremely nice to handle, tightened up nicely at the preshape stage without much effort -  maybe from the bit of added strength from the 33% portion of the Norwest 533 wholewheat flour I [...]

Getting prepared for our new lab experience – starting to work out the kinks – have a 60 kg balance to use to judge the 30 lbs (14 kg) of force needed to pack the ground coffee into the portafilter, and a stopwatch to time the shot. Logging my grind fineness against shot time About  [...]

Posts from Breadcetera called “Musings on mixing” and “More musings on mixing” looks at the differences between mixing in larger mixers and what you can do at home. The difference of avoiding too much air incorporation in the former, and commonly not enough in the latter. I can’t get the link to the video of [...]

See on the sidebar under the category “coffee” From Tweaking Coffee’s Flavor Chemistry Roasting, cooling, and storage conditions affect the chemicals that contribute to brew’s flavor and aroma by Sophie L. Rovner reprinted courtesy of Chemical & Engineering News © 2007 American Chemical Society via http://www.sweetmarias.com/coffee_chemistry/tweaking_coffees_flavor_chem.html

Jeffrey Hamelman – is a very accomplished baker. He is Bakery Director at King Arthur Flour – from the King Arthur Flour website “One of fewer than 100 Certified Master Bakers in the United States, Jeffrey began his training working under French and German bakers at Naegele Bakery in Northampton, Massachusetts. In 1996, Jeffrey was [...]