Hi! All,
A bit about me. I was a baker for well over 35 years.
Now own my own truck. Don't like the way the baking industry has gone.
Thinking on my own bakery, making bread the old way, back in your Grannies day.
Using beef dripping, love a good German rye sour bread with caraway seeds.
Very hard to find these days, also love a good Contential sour bread.
Been trained by German bakers, worked in italian bakeries.
Occassionial I make bread at home, still can make at home better than those Delight shops.
The bread I make at home is all mixed, knead and moulded by hand.
Anyway my sour dough is simple as I have been trained to make.
Just put a quarter of ordinary dough in the fridge for 2 days.
Add that quarter to your ordinary dough that you are mixing.
Thats all the Contential Bakeries ever did and also trained by German bakers.
Always turnsout as good those fancy Artisian places.
Did my apprenticeship with Baker Boy Breads in Melbourne.
Moved to Western Australia, worked in many bakeries here.
From peel ovens too the modern day plant bakeries.
I can still tie knot rolls faster than anyone, plus horse shoe rolls.
With both hands mould round rolls in 4 turns, no-one has beaten me on that.
Replies
Hi Keith.
I used beef dripping too when I first started, and that was only in the late 1980's. It is very surprising that the margarine industry had not completely saturated the 'bread fat' market by then.
We both entered the baking industry at a time when the profession of baking was being de-skilled. You were fortunate to get the 'old baker' hand skills that young bakers admire today. It is great to see that the art of fermentation is once again valued in industry, as well as at home of course.
The method you mentioned of leaving standard (yeasted?) dough in the fridge to go sour, then adding that to a dough to make 'sourdough' is still used by many bakeries today, but is not true sourdough in the minds of current sourdough practice. No disrespect intended!
Graham
Hi! Graham,
Thanks for your views.
The reason for the stop of the use of dripping in bread was it was banned by the health aurthorities.
Bakers were getting dripping from the local butchers. The butchers produced the dripping out the
back of they business, usually outside. Flies would get into the dripping, maggots would breed in it.
So it was banned, but dripping can be still bought and is under strict hygene control now days.
Dripping does make bread go very mouldy quickly, you must use a anti-mould agent it was called
Sentinel in my early days of baking. I think it come under a product called and is used in baking
called calium propionate.
One the reasons apprentices now days are not trained in hand moulding. Is that trade schools or Tafe
only teaches them written stuff. They are to cheap to spend the money on a bakery set-up.
So the skills and training is lost. Tafe or whoever dumps it back to the baker to train.
Most the Tafe teachers here in W.A. are people that I have worked with, none of them had a brain,
let alone be able to teach or train.
One thing I have noticed in reading alot of these forums, especially in the recipes sections.
It does not mention elacticied of a dough. Elacticied of a dough is important to me, when handling
a dough. It tells me how much I can strecth it before it breaks or tears. Especially in hand moulding.
That can vary in the gluten content of the flour or the mixing times. Stronger gluten or protien of the
flour will require more mixing time. Victorian flour has the highest protien content in Australia,
averaging around 14-16% in some flours. Here in W.A. 12% is average. When there is a bad wheat
season here in W.A. flour comes in from Victoria. You should see the fun bakers here have with it.
It kicks the lids off sandwhich loafs, on high tops hit the top of the oven deck. Makes a mess with
tank loafs.
On the issue of sour dough starters used in Artisian Bakeries and warning to all.
This is my opinion which could destroy the industry. Bad practises by slack bakers by using bad
hygeine. Which will do the same as dripping did. Mould and bacteria in storeage found by health
inspectors could bring down the industry. Just needs one idiot to do it, to busy to clean anything,
fails to keep correct storeage tempatures, cleaning is not my job, to cheap to buy correct cleaning
products. A job is not finished till the cleaning-up is done, make it a golden rule.
Hi,
As a virtual beginner with bread baking, I like to know what is the best way to keep flour if it isn't used every day. Fridge or deep freeze?
Here in Brisbane with the heat and humidty arriving already I just like to keep ahead of the crawling beasties as well.
Does flour deteriorate if it's kept under refrigeration?
Thank you,
Regards,
Jan.