[Sca-cooks] researching recipes

[Terry Decker]

If you have the dough at the proper height, you can press the dough out with
the heels of your hands using body weight rather than hand strength.  It's
actually easier on the muscles than trying to knead the dough with you
fingers.  I find that bakers with slighter frames often develop better
kneading technique than people who can crush the dough into shape.

Top fermenting ale yeast should be a variant of S. cerevisiae, but it may be
a variant which is more resistant to an acid environment than modern bread
yeasts.  Building a continuous starter from ale barm might be an interesting
experiment.  The Germaninc tribes yeasted their ale pots from previous
batches, so it might prove workable.

Bear


>I've often thought that might be great fun for an individual batch of
>bread, but I've never thought of using it as a base for a
>starter....Have you tried it? I enjoy making bread, although I'm not
>very good at it, since I don't have the strength in my hands that I need
>for the kneeding ;-(.
>--maire
>
>>
>> Well, for most people in the SCA, there's probably someone who can get
you
>> some ale barm, and that feeds up well as a starter...
>>
>> -- Jadwiga Zajaczkowa