Sourdough info video

[SCChris]

I found the link at "The Fresh Loaf" and thought the community might enjoy.

Chris

Secrets of Sourdough: Science on the SPOT - YouTube

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: Sourdough info video

Nice Video Thanks for sharing. He has a nice oven for sure.

Faith

[SCChris]

Re: Sourdough info video

Nice mixer too! I was closely watching the loading. Clean and quick no fear about repositioning the loaves on the peel when dumping the loaf from the brotform. It looks like all he's doing is boules. I'll have to watch again to be sure though.


Chris

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: Sourdough info video

I have been giving my commercial oven lots of thoughts. White vs Black or a combination of the two. Door operation and things of that nature.

The one thing I want to work out is a steam injection system for my oven. The deck ovens at King Arther flooded the oven with steam. Most impressive! So I'm working this thing out in my head at the moment. I would like a high pressure system without blowing up the place. It would be nice to have a real steaming option for a predetermined length of time and not just spray the oven and shut the door.

Yes cool mixer. I have not seen one for sale anywhere in my browsing.

[texassourdough]

Re: Sourdough info video

Thanks for poking that up. I have seen similar mixers but I don't know what to call them. Basically a variant of a spiral mixer. Nice motion! Gotta be French or Italian!

Agreed, it looks like he uses only wicker baskets and boules. There is a logic to that for mixing shapes tends to complicate the proofing space usage. And he has a clean simple, high density approach by stacking the baskets.

Some technical stuff. At two points in the video they show loaves that are rather "curved" on the bottom edge. You can see where the bottom lifted off the hearth. Those are (almost certainly) the loaves he put in the oven first (relatively dry) which makes the skin less flexible and they balloon more.The loaves with seeds do not show that characteristic and are probably loaded later to protect the seeds from burning.

He does add some steam - not as much as I might expect - and doesn't show any being added at the beginning... I am with you, Faith. I LIKE steam! Lots of it. My wife and I are looking at remodeling an older house and one of the things I will consider is a steam injection oven - and maybe a commercial one...

By the way, Faith, did you ever report on your class at KA? I have been looking for it and haven't seen it and searches don't seem to surface it???

Thanks!
Jay

[texassourdough]

Re: Sourdough info video

Oh, yeah! I forgot to mention...notice how he DOES NOT baby his dough! Well developed dough can be pretty resilient and not nearly as fragile as especially newbies tend to think!

[SCChris]

Re: Sourdough info video

I don't know how I'd approach the steam. The wand seems to do alright but with live steam you're not using up the stored heat of the oven to convert water to steam. It's seems pretty luxuriant to have a live steam feed for baking. I look forward to the day I have a chance to experience this no matter how fleeting .. :-) I think the baker refers to the mixer as a "Diving arm mixer" and it does bring search results in google. I'm finding that the dough is pretty forgiving as long as I'm not tentative. I imagine the gluten doesn't have time to reshape much, like slashing with purpose. Anyway I'm glad you enjoyed the video and I'll look closer at the dough and finished loaf shapes.



Chris

PS I was waiting for a cloud of steam to push out the door and don't see any..

[Faith In Virginia]

Re: Sourdough info video

Jay, (hanging my head in shame) No I did not bring the rye class here. It just took so long to get over that flu. There were 5 people from The Fresh Loaf at the class. And they made a great report.

Here is the link Rye Class at King Arthur - Pictures Added | The Fresh Loaf

I could not report on the class as well as the combined discussion above.

Faith

[texassourdough]

Re: Sourdough info video

You are right, Chris, it IS a diving arm mixer. I couldn't recall the name! They are a lot more complicated than a fork or a spiral and I must question that they make better dough.

WRT dough handling, notice how he pats the proofed dough down during loaf forming - a common practice in the artisanal baker world. As you say, don't be tentative. Be fast and it is amazing what you can get away with!

Thanks for the link, Faith. I have sort of fallen off of Fresh Loaf since my trip to Argentina. Been really busy with other things. Will look at the thread!

Thanks!
Jay

[fragarcolin]

Re: Sourdough info video

Great Video . Thanks for sharing. Would like to have some more .

[SCChris]

Re: Sourdough info video

fragarcolin, you might find some of the video links on The Fresh Loaf, thefreshloaf.com, interesting. The TFL site is all about bread and associated goodies.. Take a look if you hadn't found it already.

Chris