SC - medieval bees and beekeepin

[Mark Harris]

> In fact, I teach a class now and then (coming to the Interkingdom Cooking
and Brewing 
> Symposium in July in Ohio) where I cook about 12 kinds of shortbread for.  I

> use a basic recipe of 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup fat, 1/4 cup sweetner.  I vary
the recipe one
> ingrediant at a time. First recipe will be the basic against which to
compare all others.
> 
> First recipe:	white bleached flour, butter, white sugar
> 2nd recipe: unbleached flour, butter, white sugar
> 3rd recipe: oat flour, butter, white sugar
> 4th recipe: rice flour, butter, white sugar
> 5th recipe: white flour, lard, white sugar
> 6th recipe: white flour, olive oil, white sugar
> 7th recipe: white flour, butter, honey
> 8th recipe: white flour, butter, raw sugar
> 9th recipe: white flour, butter, brown sugar
> 10th recipe: semolina flour, butter, white sugar
> 11th recipe: white flour, oleo, white sugar
> 12th recipe: white flour, diet oleo, white sugar
 
I like this idea.

> The purpose of the ingrediant substitutions is two fold:
> 
> 	- learn about the characteristics each of the different ingrediants has.
Such as the raw
> 	  sugar tastes better than the white sugar.  The diet oleo never sets up
and should never	
> 	  be used for baking. The brown sugar tends to carmalize.
> 
> 	- learn to think about what effect an ingrediant substitution might have on
your recipe. 
> 	  Substituting lard for butter not only gives you a greasier texture, the
finished product
> 	  tends to crumble and not hold together as well.

It also allows you to realize that you may need to adjust proportions in a
recipe.  I suspect with honey you need to increase the amount of flour in
relation to the amount of honey used to absorb the excess moisture.
 
> I also use this method to try out new ingrediants. Everytime I run across a
new flour at the 
> health food store or local grocery chain store, I buy it and run home to try
it out in my basic
> shortbread recipe.  This way, I discover lots about its basic flavor,
texture, how it handles in 
> a dough.  Then, I try making it as a simple bread recipe. Flour, water,
salt, yeast.  This way I
> determine its gluten content for myself. How much work (kneading) does it
take to make a 
> good bread?

Do you do this when you switch brands of materials?  I have noticed when
baking mundanely that some flours make much better bread than others even when
both are labelled as "bread flour."
 

> Kateryn de Develyn
> debh at microware.com
> 
Derdriu 

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