Saturday, October 4, 2008

Tire Obsession

Putting a discarded, huge tire to good use. For fill, there are even smaller tires inside the big one. A novel approach to recycling. Go to the slide show to see the entire earth oven construction process.
picasaweb.google.com/.../JgRsrQHIGCpMN5G3WWFNGg




I wonder what he's going to do with the yellow road sign.







Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Salt

Just before slicing into a loaf of bread I made yesterday, I had the sinking feeling that I had forgotten to add salt. Maybe, I thought, I'd never notice the difference, but I did. In fact the bread was absolutely insipid, totally without sparkle. I'm baking a "real one" today.
What I found most interesting was the dough acted just like a dough that had salt added to it. The conventional wisdom is that you need the salt not only for flavor, but you also need it to strengthen the gluten. Some even say the dough can rise out of control.
For me, the only certainty is that you need the salt for flavor, to make the bread taste like bread.