Bringing food chemistry to life

My job as a cereal scientist sometimes affords me the joy of a full day of baking, product development, and promotion of our work and the farmers who are putting their money where their mouth is and growing food barley. In all the products shown below, the flour has a minimum of 10% stone-ground whole [...]

Oregon’s Agricultural Progress articles… Articles about our wheat and barley breeding activities. Kernel Chemistry – wheat Barley world

So far this summer I have given two short workshops using wheat, flour, bread,  and baking as a way of bringing food chemistry to life. The First group was the Oregon Farm Bureau’s  Summer Agriculture Institute on the theme of Grain-Gluten-and Great bread. And started with the quote from Henri Fabre a 19th C French [...]

Pita is made from one layer of dough, not as some think 2 layers that are joined at the edges. So how does if puff? The dough is often given a final proof that is drier than for risen breads. When the bread hits the hot oven the slightly dry skin seals. Really thin flat [...]

Been trying a new bread style this week, as well as using a non-traditional grain in a familiar type of bread. The non-traditional grain was a pita bread made with 50% stone ground barley and 50% stone ground hard white wheat. These were astoundingly successful and the barley adds a unique and attractive character to [...]

>>>>><<<<< Martin Lersch has a post (Dangerous names)  inspired by an article entitled  “If It’s Difficult to Pronounce, It Must Be Risky” by Hyunjin Song and Norbert Schwarz of the University of Michigan and published in Psychological Science <<<<<>>>>> So… you think there’s nothin’ obviously dangerous sounding in the ciabatta pictured below ? – think [...]

There are many elements needed to create a good and compelling class – good material, a willing instructor, but the essential element is enthusiastic and dedicated students.  It is a circular argument: enthusiastic students generate enthusiasm in the instructor, which generates enthusiasm in the students, and around we go again. I was privileged to have [...]