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The Perfect French Baguette

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Re: The Perfect French Baguette

#61

Post by [deleted] »

bobjob wrote: post #48
bluedino wrote: post #22

When I was a kid, we'd go to the Amish stands at the farmers market and get fresh made loaves of bread (just white bread), dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, strawberry jam...it was dirt cheap and delicious, even if it wasn't a baguette (which I love). Now that farmers markets are 'in', you can go there and get the same stuff. But it's so marked up it's not funny. 12 dinner rolls for $5.50? $8.00 for a jar of jam? A loaf…

How long does it take you to make 12 dinner rolls? - More than 15 min of work? Then 5.50 sounds OK to me. - More than 30 min of work? Now 5.50 are a bargain!

[deleted]

Re: The Perfect French Baguette

#62

Post by Broken_Hippo »

bluedino wrote: post #22

When I was a kid, we'd go to the Amish stands at the farmers market and get fresh made loaves of bread (just white bread), dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, strawberry jam...it was dirt cheap and delicious, even if it wasn't a baguette (which I love). Now that farmers markets are 'in', you can go there and get the same stuff. But it's so marked up it's not funny. 12 dinner rolls for $5.50? $8.00 for a jar of jam? A loaf…

To be fair:

Canning equipment isn't cheap. You need to have storage space, time to actually can things, and access to bulk fruit (or food). If you go beyond a narrow selection of canning, you need a pressure cooker. All this, and you might find your jars didn't seal properly. Botulism is a real issue with home canning.

Freezing, however, is generally safe and you can make "freezer jam". Freezing most vegetables generally only takes blanching and prep. I'd suggest this if you have some freezer space.

Re: The Perfect French Baguette

#63

Post by Broken_Hippo »

rdtwo wrote: post #15

And here I was hoping for a good repeatable solid recipe

That isn't really something that can be done at home, though.

Like the other reply stated, a lot of bread is technique. This is simply going to take some practice and/or experimentation. Sponge or no sponge? Are you going for a quick fix or are you willing to let part of the dough sit overnight, and the rest have 8 more hours to develop flavor?

Ingredients, as they said. Flour makes a difference. YEast makes a difference. Your water makes a difference, as does whether or not you put a bit of sugar in your dough.

But the other part of this is things like humidity. The humidity and temperature in the room is going to affect how much flour you need to use to produce identical results and will also affect how the bread rises.

All this stuff basically means that you have to practice, and then you might need to experiment a bit if you move to another part of the country or to another country - and why there is so much leeway in home recipes. Industrial bread can control for a lot of this stuff.

Re: The Perfect French Baguette

#64

Post by philipps »

_ZeD_ wrote: post #50
bobjob wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How long does it take you to make 12 dinner rolls? - More than 15 min of work? Then 5.50 sounds OK to me. - More than 30 min of work? Now 5.50 are a bargain!

Why do you think making a dinner roll should be billed at the same rate of your job?

The comment you replied to didn’t mention a specific rate, but in general, linking price to cost of production (including human time) makes a lot of sense. I don’t understand why the two comments before yours are getting downvoted.

Re: The Perfect French Baguette

#65

Post by philipps »

tasogare wrote: post #44
ttul wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Japanese always manage to excel at importing delicacies and perfecting them. Take for example Japanese whiskey, which is renowned and considered by some to be superior to the Scottish variety.

Well, in the case of bread, no. It's hard to find even decent bread here. But a lot of them are indeed learning very well to make good bread and pastry making in France. A least one baker in my region is taking advantage of this focused and hardworking workforce.

Japanese pastry is amazing. The best Baumkuchen, a special cake from germany that looks like the rings of a tree (baum = tree) and is considered a delicacy, now comes from Japan.

Re: The Perfect French Baguette

#68

Post by ur-whale »

new2628 wrote: post #60
charles_f wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I've always found interesting as a Frenchman living in North Americ, is that there's no real equivalent to "black american" or "afro American" or "hispano American" in French. The closest you'll find is "of Tunisian origins", but that's usually left out, and not really the same. The "official" results[0] don't mention anything about his origins. The local press[1] does say his parents are from Tunisia, but only…

The downside of this French attitude of everyone being "just French" is that the earlier diversity of identities/languages has also been largely homogenised. Think Alsacian, Languedoc, etc. The effect reaches well beyond France: as other countries fell in love with the model, they went after their own historical ethnic/linguistic minorities with the same determination throughout the 20th century.

>has also been largely homogenised

You say it like it's a bad thing.

Re: The Perfect French Baguette

#69

Post by tomlockwood »

new2628 wrote: post #60
charles_f wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I've always found interesting as a Frenchman living in North Americ, is that there's no real equivalent to "black american" or "afro American" or "hispano American" in French. The closest you'll find is "of Tunisian origins", but that's usually left out, and not really the same. The "official" results[0] don't mention anything about his origins. The local press[1] does say his parents are from Tunisia, but only…

The downside of this French attitude of everyone being "just French" is that the earlier diversity of identities/languages has also been largely homogenised. Think Alsacian, Languedoc, etc. The effect reaches well beyond France: as other countries fell in love with the model, they went after their own historical ethnic/linguistic minorities with the same determination throughout the 20th century.

And the funny thing about that is that rhetoric on the right about the loss of national/white identity and the homogenisation of groups is also accompanied with rhetoric about people on the left having too many identities, or an obsession with different identities.

I think you're totally right though, there has definitely been a loss of racial/ethnic/linguistic identity in the world. However, additionally there's been an explosion of other identities. Take from this example the idea that there are a large group of Parisians of "tunisian origin". That just could not have existed in the ages when people rarely travelled a few miles from home. Consider also that the subjects now exist in a nationwide community of baguette bakers - very niche, probably enabled by better communications and transport in this age. Then there's all the other subcultures the subjects probably find themselves at the intersections of, that we don't see talked about in the article. But sure, identifying with your small region of France has been homogenised away.

Re: The Perfect French Baguette

#70

Post by homonculus1 »

tomlockwood wrote: post #39

> In addition to winning this illustrious competition, Bouattour and M’Seddi have a few other things in common. Both forewent the traditional trade school that many aspiring French bakers enter at age 16. Both have been professional bakers for less than a decade (as has this year’s winner, former engineer Fabrice Leroy). And both are first-generation Frenchmen with what Bouattour euphemistically dubs ‘origins’: famil…

>For all the rhetoric on the right about how people from other cultures are not "suitable" for "western" countries - some of the proudest citizens and torch-carriers for tradition, are foreigners.

That's not quite right--the premise you're I think you're alluding to is that certain cultures themselves are not compatible with the values of Western society. But people like the bakers featured here, who choose to assimilate headfirst instead of creating an enclave of the country they left behind, can prosper.

>“Whoever wins the contest is a winner,” M’Seddi said. “He’s a champion, whether he’s descended from immigrants or not... That’s someone who’s passionate about French culture, who has become integrated as a French person. We need to make people proud to be French.”

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