Friday
Mar202009
Required Reading: Two sites of notes
Friday, March 20, 2009 at 8:03PM 2 Comments
There are a couple of websites that have caught my attention recently, one that focuses on baking and another that focuses on food geekery. I know of both of these sites through twitter interactions with their respective owners, and I am quite pleased to have found them.
The first is a site called Bowl of Plenty. The high concept is, "I like food. I like data. I like to put the two together." What caught my attention was a couple of posts where the writer, whose name and gender I do not know, made some almond butter. As part of the process, a series of photographs were taken of the food process to show how the almond butter changed in texture.
That is a small sample, and there a little over twice that number of photos for just that entry. Here's a detail shot:
That's some great information. But even better than that is the article on baking powder. If you've read Bakewise, you know that Shirley Corriher goes into quite a bit of detail on the workings of baking powder, the different types, when they act, etc. This article looks to be at least as extensive, and perhaps a bit more so. It warms the heart and shames me for my lazy ways.
The second blog is Pastry Methods and Techniques. This is written by Jennifer Field, who is keen to get the world to understand that baking and cooking are not as difficult as people make it out to be. We are like-minded on that score, and consequently are working together on a secret-project-that-you'll-find-out-about-when-we're-done-and-not-before.
Pastry Methods and Techniques will teach you things from how to make your own puff pastry and various styles of pie crust to why salt is important in sweet foods as well how to throw together a dessert in nearly no time. What? Yes, I said make your own puff pastry. Even Alton Brown skipped that, but she is not afraid, and she doesn't think you should be, either.
Jennifer also shames me by the quality of her posts, and shows me up to be the slacker I am. So go there as well to learn all kinds of interesting things, and not just about baking.
The first is a site called Bowl of Plenty. The high concept is, "I like food. I like data. I like to put the two together." What caught my attention was a couple of posts where the writer, whose name and gender I do not know, made some almond butter. As part of the process, a series of photographs were taken of the food process to show how the almond butter changed in texture.
That is a small sample, and there a little over twice that number of photos for just that entry. Here's a detail shot:
That's some great information. But even better than that is the article on baking powder. If you've read Bakewise, you know that Shirley Corriher goes into quite a bit of detail on the workings of baking powder, the different types, when they act, etc. This article looks to be at least as extensive, and perhaps a bit more so. It warms the heart and shames me for my lazy ways.
The second blog is Pastry Methods and Techniques. This is written by Jennifer Field, who is keen to get the world to understand that baking and cooking are not as difficult as people make it out to be. We are like-minded on that score, and consequently are working together on a secret-project-that-you'll-find-out-about-when-we're-done-and-not-before.
Pastry Methods and Techniques will teach you things from how to make your own puff pastry and various styles of pie crust to why salt is important in sweet foods as well how to throw together a dessert in nearly no time. What? Yes, I said make your own puff pastry. Even Alton Brown skipped that, but she is not afraid, and she doesn't think you should be, either.
Jennifer also shames me by the quality of her posts, and shows me up to be the slacker I am. So go there as well to learn all kinds of interesting things, and not just about baking.
, the book.
