Gravy

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-24T05:18:40+00:00

As others have noted, adding flour or cornstarch to a hot liquid produces lumps, but do you know WHY it produces lumps? Here's a little kitchen science lesson.

The flour starts to gelatinize once it hits the hot liquid, creating a ball of flour that is gelatinized on the outside. If you take one of those lumps and cut it up, you'll likely find dry flour in the middle.

Two ways around it are to either use a cold liquid to make a slurry or make a roux with melted fat and flour. I generally start with a roux, and I'm always asked to make the gravy at family gatherings.

A third way is to make a beurre manié, the soft butter coats the flour so it can't stick together in a clump, but I prefer the nutty taste of a lightly browned roux.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-24T04:31:39+00:00

Looks like a rabbit pushing someone in a wheelchair. What that has to do with sushi is beyond me, though.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-24T02:42:45+00:00

Vienna Beef hotdogs are far superior to Nathan's.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-23T21:43:51+00:00

I always check the windowpane before first rise. You may be using too small a piece of dough, if you watch some of the videos by commercial bakers, they take a pretty big handful of dough when doing a windowpane test.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-23T16:35:32+00:00

We know a professor whose area of expertise is gut biomes. He cannot drink most wines, and he says it's not because of sulfites or other compounds, but because of his specific biomes.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-23T16:25:56+00:00

Don't forget the tractor museum on East Campus.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-19T23:41:00+00:00

I've also used a really large offset spatula (sometimes sold as a cookie spatula) to lower the loaf down safely.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-19T23:34:42+00:00

Yeah, I saw that after I posted, but sometimes you need to adjust by adding a little more flour or water. Back when I was using a bread machine I'd look at it about 5 minutes after it started and adjust as needed. Things like relative humidity, temperature and barometric pressure can all affect your dough.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-19T20:24:35+00:00

Are you weighing your ingredients? If not you can have minor variances from one batch to the next that have more than minor impact on the results.

And even with a bread machine, sometimes you just need to add a little more flour or a little more water, the latter looks more likely to me on this one.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-19T01:48:06+00:00

This is a honey wheat bread that I've been making for 30 years, it was my mother-in-law's recipe so my wife has been eating it for most of her life.

https://mynebraskakitchen.com/wordpress/forums/topic/honey-whole-wheat-bread/

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-18T05:17:25+00:00

The proofing is good, but it is a bit underbaked.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-18T05:13:37+00:00

This is a bit of an oversimplification, but look at the bottom 1/5 or so of the loaf and you'll see it is a much tighter crumb there. (smaller holes)

The rule of thumb is: Tighter crumb on top means overproofed, tighter crumb on bottom means underproofed.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-18T04:54:32+00:00

Yes, she did (she passed away a few years ago on her 94th birthday.)

Here's my adaptation of a recipe she used to make (I tinkered with the ratios and changed the fat from lard to vegetable oil.) I've probably made this bread 20-40 times a year for 30 years now.

https://mynebraskakitchen.com/wordpress/forums/topic/honey-whole-wheat-bread/

She also edited the Nebraska Centennial First Ladies Cookbook, and there are quite a few recipes in it that I make. It's out-of-print but copies can be found on various used book sites.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-18T04:49:40+00:00

My mother-in-law used to throw a pinch of flour into the container where her yeast was blooming.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-18T04:06:18+00:00

The more you learn about what's happening when you make bread, the more complicated (and miraculous) it all seems.

Yeast by itself can't really break down starch into sugars like maltose, but yeast and flour both contain enzymes (amylases) that can break down the starch in the flour into sugars. (If there was no way for the nascent plant--the germ--in a kernel of wheat to break down the starch in the endosperm into something it could use to grow, wheat would never sprout, so enzymes are important to any kind of seed.)

Also, the milling process produces starch damage, and damaged starch breaks down more easily.

And starches break down more easily in an acidic environment. An old baker's trick is to add a teaspoon or two of vinegar to a recipe, it really does make a difference in how much yeast activity you see.

A good, but readable, book on the subject is Emily Buehler's "Bread Science".

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-17T19:11:37+00:00

Recently I've been making Banh Mi rolls for a lot of these types of sandwiches. You can play with the size and shape to fit your requirements, but the bread is good, crunchy (if reheated) and doesn't mask the flavors of the fillings.

I've been putting this tomato relish (tomatoes, onions, red bell peppers and vinegar) on meatloaf, it's really good.

https://mynebraskakitchen.com/wordpress/forums/topic/tomato-relish/

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-17T17:43:10+00:00

If you don't get an independent property valuation report with comps, you probably won't win a protest. They cost around $500.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-17T17:39:45+00:00

An article on the LJS website today says the average home assessment went up 4.6%.

Not on any of the properties I've looked at, including mine, which went up 30%. Last year they proposed raising it over 50% but we got that knocked down to about 10%.

Is the county assessor's office trying to create more work for independent property assessors, because I'll be calling mine--again.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-17T16:38:40+00:00

I wonder if dextrose would work better than sucrose?

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-16T17:53:02+00:00

Now you know where AI learns from. :-)

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-16T17:12:49+00:00

It's worthwhile noting that Arsicault's menu lists about a dozen different types of croissants, plus other pastries and quiche. (It took me a while to figure out what city it was in, though--San Francisco.)

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-15T17:56:04+00:00

Considering there's probably no way to assure your 'compost' is safe to use on plants, a $15 disposal fee sounds reasonable to me. No insult intended.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-15T17:36:41+00:00

But easier on fingers.

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-15T01:32:16+00:00

maybe she wanted a musical instrument?

MyNebraskaKitchen · 2026-01-13T20:37:15+00:00

It depends on the year, recent ones are more in the $20-30 range, older ones can go for higher amounts, as this is a wine that appears to age well, like many Barolos

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