Placement of fire brick on cooking floor

[CanuckJim]

Rye

Carioca,

What rye lacks in gluten, it sure makes up in acidity. I had a rye starter that simply got too sour, so I had to start feeding it alternate times with bread flour to tone it down.

Glad you liked the stuff on the site.

Jim

[james]

Local breads

This is a cultural question. Why is it that the basic supermarket bread in the states, UK and (I have heard though not seen) Australia so bad? Jim, I don't know what you get in Canada.

Along the Mediterranean you get great crusty loaves and natural yeast breads, and in central and northern Europe, you find great rye, whole wheat and seed breads. Where did us English-speaking bread makers go wrong -- all those years ago? How did we end up with Wonder Bread?

Any theories?
James

[jengineer]

oh moderator

looks like this thread has taken a tangent that started on the 30th. How about moving it over to the bread section so it doesn't get lost.

[maver]

bad bread

Some of it has to be convenience (the greatest thing since sliced bread!) and some of it must be broad distribution rather than local production. I think many of our food woes can be blamed on the supermarket, where shelf life is king. I think a mass bread manufacturer would laugh at the idea that a one week shelf life is good - how long can wonderbread sit on a store shelf, and how long does it taste the same once it is brought into your house? Those breads don't really ever go stale, they just eventually grow mold. If I bake a large batch of bread at home I expect a change in how the bread may be used when it sits on the counter for a few days (although freezing works ok too). Eat slices plain when fresh, turn to bruschetta or french toast when a bit older, croutons in soup or bread crumbs after that.

[james]

Hi Patrick,

Yep. This has happened a couple of times recently. In order to move individual postings easily to a new thread, I have to update our forum software (hopefully later today). Then I can start sorting these out.

James

[jengineer]

ah I was think more along the lines of starting a new thread in the Bread section and then cutting and pasting the pertinent quotes from this thread - brute force rather than finesse

[CanuckJim]

Lousy Bread

James,

In Canada, we get about the same crummy bread as you do in the US, with a few exceptions. I'd have to agree that this has to do with supermarkets, shelf life and just a few dominant players in the market. I work with a man whose favourite sandwich is bologna, ballpark mustard and Wonder Bread. He thinks I'm nuts doing what I'm doing.

Canada's colonial past is quite recent, and we seem bent on still emulating Old Blighty, including insipid bread. Nothing, however, beats the junk sold in England as bread: kind of a cross between cotton balls and window putty.

Of course, supermarkets now have their own "in house" bakeries: same old stuff, just different shapes. Too, so called artisan bread has begun to pop everywhere. Same stuff, different shapes.

The exceptions have to do with the number of immigrants we have here, mainly from Portugal and Italy, and to a lesser extent Germany and Scandanavia. In the city, small bakeries serving these communities still exist, and it's possible to get quite decent traditional breads made by these bakers.

That's not a theory, really. Seems to me that bread has become an envelope. It's not important; what's important is what you put in it. Errr.

Jim

[Kingfisher]

Re: Placement of fire brick on cooking floor

The guy that buildt my pizza oven in Hervey Bay was happy to use the left over paving bricks as the cooking floor. These are on top of a thick slab of concrete. Cost was not an isssue- he did not seem too interested in using the fire bricks as the cooking floor - He said the paving bricks were fired at over twice the heat I will get out in the pizza oven so no need for fire bricks on the floor. Has he got this right or should I have insisted on fire bricks??

[james]

Re: Placement of fire brick on cooking floor

Did he put any insulation under the cooking floor?
James

[Kingfisher]

Re: Placement of fire brick on cooking floor

I will ask him about this topic when I return one of his tools