[Sca-cooks] hard French baguettes

[Stefan li Rous]

Bear replied to me with:
> One of the joys of a real French baguette (as opposed to a fairly  
> dense
> bread in a baguette shape) is the crust is thin and crisp and the  
> inside is
> very light with lots of air hole in the crumb.  If you store bread  
> in a
> plastic bag the interior moisture softens the crust.  The plastic  
> bag with
> holes reduces direct contact to the air, but lets the moisture in  
> the bag
> escape, keeping the crust crisp.

Ah! Okay, this makes sense. I guess for most breads you want the  
crust to be somewhat soft. I wasn't aware of some of these  
'mechanical' differences between breads and will have keep this in  
mind the next time I buy a baguette and see whether is close to what  
you describe or "fairly dense bread in a baguette shape".

Stefan

>  > They also come in special plastic bags perforated with thousands  
> of  tiny
> > holes, which probably increases their rate of drying out. I   
> don't see
> > this special plastic bag on most other breads. What's the  purpose
> > of the special bag?
> >
> > Stefan

--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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