Half way through I recognized his voice. This is the man who changed the paradyme paradime paradigm for tens of thousands of home bakers by one video hosted by Mark Bittman for NYT.
Through this, Jim Lahey opened the practice of bread making for tens of thousands of people.
I'm guessing.
It's the no-knead part that did it. Lahey emphasizes that time is a form of kneading. The idea of not kneading bread appealed to an awful lot of people.
And I don't understand that. I don't understand those people. My brother included. That's the most fun part. I don't understand bread machines either. They like to make bread but not knead it. Hands on the dough and working it, feeling it change in your hands within minutes is fascinating every single time. It's fun. You actually feel the autolyze reaction affect the feel of the dough, you feel it ease, you feel it soften, you feel the gluten develop, its elasticity become more pronounced as you go, you actually feel the dough come alive in your hands as the yeast grows in your hands, you feel the dough grow, you feel your food come alive. Who doesn't want that?
It's a-l-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-v-e !
Turns out thousands of people can do without that.
You're no fun. Come on!
Watching George and Paul make a pizza for the first time in their lives, neither one having ever handled dough, then producing an excellent pizza better than you can buy, was one of the most fun things that happened this summer. Every single step was a new discovery, and that was fun.
My dad told me three times, "My aunt Mary made three loaves of bread every single week."
That's a lot of bread for two people, but what the heck, they liked homemade bread. I don't know why that impressed my dad so hard. "She didn't measure anything. She made it so much that she just put things in a bowl." To my dad that was magic.
The third time I said, "So."
My dad looked at me shocked like how can I be so dismissive. His facial expression pleaded for me to explain myself.
"Honestly. Nothing at all against Mary's creativity, but it's no big thing. I haven't bought bread in a decade." And since that conversation it's been decades. By then bread comes out of your fingertips.
And it never stops being fascinating.
Through this, Jim Lahey opened the practice of bread making for tens of thousands of people.
I'm guessing.
It's the no-knead part that did it. Lahey emphasizes that time is a form of kneading. The idea of not kneading bread appealed to an awful lot of people.
And I don't understand that. I don't understand those people. My brother included. That's the most fun part. I don't understand bread machines either. They like to make bread but not knead it. Hands on the dough and working it, feeling it change in your hands within minutes is fascinating every single time. It's fun. You actually feel the autolyze reaction affect the feel of the dough, you feel it ease, you feel it soften, you feel the gluten develop, its elasticity become more pronounced as you go, you actually feel the dough come alive in your hands as the yeast grows in your hands, you feel the dough grow, you feel your food come alive. Who doesn't want that?
It's a-l-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-v-e !
Turns out thousands of people can do without that.
You're no fun. Come on!
Watching George and Paul make a pizza for the first time in their lives, neither one having ever handled dough, then producing an excellent pizza better than you can buy, was one of the most fun things that happened this summer. Every single step was a new discovery, and that was fun.
My dad told me three times, "My aunt Mary made three loaves of bread every single week."
That's a lot of bread for two people, but what the heck, they liked homemade bread. I don't know why that impressed my dad so hard. "She didn't measure anything. She made it so much that she just put things in a bowl." To my dad that was magic.
The third time I said, "So."
My dad looked at me shocked like how can I be so dismissive. His facial expression pleaded for me to explain myself.
"Honestly. Nothing at all against Mary's creativity, but it's no big thing. I haven't bought bread in a decade." And since that conversation it's been decades. By then bread comes out of your fingertips.
And it never stops being fascinating.
Then the killer is, Mark Bittman for all his cookery genius, misses the point that is emphasized repeatedly of time as an ingredient and suggests a much faster way to do this. Sensibly Jim Lahey is against this. Fast bread will not have a slow-proofed country essence, its character forfeited. But Mark Bittman cannot internalize that. Speed is higher value than quality.
Speedy no-knead bread revisited. No, no, no, no, no, Mark, stop being a dummkopf.
Incidentally, Mark's book is excellent. Very well thought out, organized, and presented. How to Cook Everything.
2 comments:
Kneading is a lot easier for me if I have the right tune. This cowboy boogie woogie usually works.
SO and I have been binge watching "The Great British Baking Show", lots of kneading there.
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