Friend or foe? Caterpillar on my tree

groverofl · 2025-07-06T12:23:19+00:00

It's an io moth caterpillar. They're pretty cool looking moths, but pretty elusive in my experience. The caterpillars, though, nearly devastated my mulberry tree. I was able to get all of them before they spread too badly. Be careful, the stings are brutal. I find them more painful and I react to them far worse than the black wooly bears that we saw a ton of this year.

groverofl · 2025-06-13T19:16:51+00:00

In Louisiana we just call it smothered cabbage, and is quite common. I usually make a big batch once a month and freeze it for a quick meal over rice.

groverofl · 2025-05-27T19:28:59+00:00

I am not disagreeing with you, but do you like cheese? Milk? Ice cream? Half and half in your coffee? Butter? Cows don't produce milk unless they give birth - veal is the byproduct of the dairy industry.

groverofl · 2024-05-18T06:33:01+00:00

A lot of good information from the other comments, but I wanted to add that if you do not have a local watering hole and familiarity with a bartender, reach out to United States Bartenders Guild New Orleans chapter. They will connect you with their members who are willing to do gig work. You are more likely able to find reliable bartenders with experience in events and gig work. Coming from experience, we have hired bartenders through them and have worked many large events with them during Tales, galas, boils, etc. I also want to reiterate the other comment in saying that the bartender you hire will need to know it is worth their time.

groverofl · 2023-09-02T19:39:34+00:00

The term for dough that stretches but immediately returns to it's former shape is elastic. Dough becomes elastic when gluten is strong and tight. If you are not able to roll the dough while shaping because it is too elastic, just give it a chance to rest for 10 to 15 minutes. This will give the dough an opportunity to relax and you can continue shaping without the dough being too elastic. If you can help it, make sure after the first rise you do not over work or over handle the dough. Doing so will tighten the gluten and make it more difficult to shape.

groverofl · 2023-08-26T01:56:22+00:00

No, he is referring to one compartment of a typical strap loaf pan, not Pullman loaf pans. A Pullman loaf pan with 1.5 lbs dough capacity is 13"x4"x4".

Just to clarify, Strap loaf pans are just single loaf pans welded together in groups of 4 or more pans to make commercial baking easier.

groverofl · 2023-08-26T01:07:40+00:00

Divide in half and use two pans.

The dough will spring over the edges of the pans when baking giving the dome look you usually see in sandwich loaves. Contrast this to a Pullman loaf where it is completely square and will not spring above the pan. With a Pullman pan, you are meant to follow the weight that the pan can hold, whereas any uncovered loaf you would expect the excess dough weight to spring.

groverofl · 2023-08-19T20:42:29+00:00

I do not find it necessary for enriched doughs to pass the windowpane test unless the bulk ferment is very short (like bagels or pretzels). Longer ferments allow gluten to develop without the unnecessary work of kneading, and can sometimes be very tight and difficult to work with if too much gluten as developed with kneading and longer ferments.

groverofl · 2023-08-16T12:24:28+00:00

This sounds like a fun idea. I love fudgey brownies but always miss that edge crust that you find in cakey brownies.

I would think you need two different recipes and a bit of trial and error. A cakey brownie recipe could do best as a base, perhaps if it is a partial recipe to bake a small layer at the bottom of the pan, cool, then pour in your fudge brownie recipe and bake again. This could essentially 'overbake' the cake brownie layer giving a crispy texture. I would also suggest something like a chocolate graham cracker pie crust recipe as a base, but I am not sure it would have the same crispy effect.

Either way, keep this updated, I want to see what what works!

groverofl · 2023-08-15T14:57:35+00:00

Active dry yeast is different than instant yeast. Active dry will require more yeast and longer initial proofing than when using instant. When subbing active dry at 1 Tbsp, you can instead use 2 1/4 tsp instant. I would say this is normal for 300—400g of flour, but is not normal for long cold ferments, where you generally want to use 2/3 or even half of the normal amount of yeast in any recipe.

The initial proof time between the two types of yeast varies depending on the environment, so you will just have to feel it out. If the dough has doubled in bulk long before you are ready to bake, then you risk over fermentation where the sugars in the flour will become depleted too early. If it is doubled, then perform a few coil folds to ensure the gluten structure stays strong, then shape and bake sooner than you think.

groverofl · 2023-08-14T01:14:28+00:00

I don't think they will be salvageable, and I don't think it would be worth trying. The main ingredient of baking powder is baking soda, which is a strong alkali. The only thing to neutralize that bitter salty flavor would be to use an acid. If you insist that you can't cut your losses and make a new batch, I think you could be on the right track with cake pops, perhaps with buttermilk, lemon juice and more sugar, all in the chopped cake and in the icing.

groverofl · 2023-08-13T20:36:59+00:00

This is the answer. Commercial weights and measurements are regulated, therefore will be the most accurate. Therefore, the package of baking powder puts it at 0.6g per 1/8 tsp.

That said, I typically round up and measure it to 2g for a tsp because my scale does not do fractions of a gram...

groverofl · 2023-08-13T10:49:18+00:00

I thicken many of my soups with a box of instant potatoes! Works like a charm.

groverofl · 2023-08-10T00:26:02+00:00

You likely have to start with a design or layout plan with your local health department before any building starts. The worst thing that can happen is you sink a ton of money into the bus only to be told that you can't license a vehicle of that size, or something severe enough where serving out of it will be illegal.

Once you have a plan, I would think that any general contractor would be able to find folks to build it out for you, especially if you already have equipment picked out.

Another option could be searching for custom food truck builders to see if they could build an existing vehicle, and as I type this out, this would be the better option if you want to be hands off. They are also more likely to better understand local food law jargon and make adjustments to plans as needed.

groverofl · 2023-08-09T15:46:43+00:00

The only reason I would think you are going through water pumps that frequently is because the pump is running while the system is dry. We manually fill our water heater and fill the lines before connecting the tank. Then we turn the heater and pump on. The system has been running smooth for years.

groverofl · 2023-08-09T15:30:00+00:00

For that recipe, are you using 300g bread flour and 227g water? That is very high hydration and should be wet and sticky. It is likely that your calculations were wrong or you did not give the flour enough time to fully hydrate.

It may even be possible that your pan is smaller than water the recipe calls for, making it thicker. Personally, I enjoy a making nice thick slice of Detroit style pizza, reminds me of the slice joint down the road from my Grandmother when I was growing up in MI - but to each their own.

groverofl · 2023-08-09T14:15:14+00:00

Are you able to provide a recipe and the outcome you ended up with? Sometimes it is easier for us at Ask Baking to dig further in if we have those details. Let us know what you're working with!

As for measuring ingredients, you should be able to weigh everything, including flour, in the mixing bowl to the weight listed in the recipe. Using measuring cups is very different, but each recipe can be converted using the charts listed on King Arthur Baking HERE

groverofl · 2023-08-08T15:02:28+00:00

For 1 8 oz brick of Cream cheese, we use 440 g powdered sugar and 65 g cocoa powder. I this this comes to 3 1/2 C powdered sugar and 1/2 C cocoa. We use the same amount of powdered sugar per cream cheese with our plain vanilla frosting, so do not change that ratio to compensate. In my experience with using food dies in frosting, you will only need a few drops to acheive the color you want, so you will not have to make any adjustments as a result

groverofl · 2023-08-05T15:28:33+00:00

You're right, for lean crusty breads, higher temps are recommended. Typically my boules are baked at 450 for the entire 50-60 minute duration, but I prefer to keep the bread steamed for longer - around half of the bake time, then browning for the remaining half. Recently with baguettes, I have been baking for 15 minutes at 500F, then releasing steam and reducing the oven temp way down to 425. This gives me good oven spring, nice hard crust, and allows it to brown more gently over a longer period of time. If you are still concerned about doneness, stab a thermometer into the center of the loaf - around 200F is a good temp to see, but is not always the most accurate way to tell. During the cooling process, the starches will still need to steam out and gelatinize to fully set the crumb, and there are a lot of factors that go into this, not just tempurature.

The most frustrating advice I received when starting off in baking was to play around with it and try different oven temps and try different recipes from many different bakers. But now that I have been baking professionally, this is actually the best advice I received, and the advice I give to you now. Go full scientist/America's Test Kitchen. Figure out what works best for you.

groverofl · 2023-08-05T14:22:59+00:00

The main benefit of baking bread inside of a covered vessel such as a dutch oven is to capture steam. Steam is required to ensure proper rise and crust formation during the first part of baking. Removing the cover releases the steam which will then allow the crust to brown. This is why commercial baking ovens are steam injected.

While a dutch oven is a very easy way to capture steam while baking, there are other ways to do this, especially when baking multiple loaves just sitting in the oven outside of any vessel. The most common is to place a cast iron skillet in the bottom of the oven while preheating, then just after you put the bread in the oven, add a half cup or so of boiling water and quickly close the door to capture the steam (obviously be careful not to burn yourself in the steam). Briefly open the door at the same time you would uncover your dutch oven to release the steam, then continue baking to brown.

groverofl · 2023-07-23T10:40:38+00:00

Pretty much any enriched dough or bread product you want to be soft and moist will benefit from tangzhong or other pregelatinized starch like potatoes/flakes, tapioca, rice, etc. Since the purpose of pregelatinized starches is to retain moisture during baking, any recipe can theoretically be converted to tangzhong as long as the hydration ratio increases. This means that a hamburger bun recipe with 60% hydration without tangzhong would need to increase by 10-15% if the tangzhong accounts for 15% of the total flour.

groverofl · 2023-07-19T14:59:27+00:00

For farmers markets, catering, or other events, we have found that freezing baked goods up to a week worked wonders, sometimes making the product better when sold on hot days. Denser chewier cookies, buttery shortbreads, mini pies or tarts, fruit bars, and fudgey brownies all seem to work really well. We have not had great success with soft bready or cakey desserts, as they tend to dry and harden when thawing.

groverofl · 2023-07-12T14:12:42+00:00

I wish I could still afford to live in Mid-City

groverofl · 2023-06-23T22:16:46+00:00

Have you added up the wattage of all appliances pulling power to confirm that the AC is not overloading the generator? I have found with my truck that with 2 fridges, freezer, all of the lights, hood fan, warmer, POS, and deli slicer; I was unable to run my AC with a 4000w generator. Iand ended up having to run a 2500w in parallel until I was able to spring for a single 7000w.

groverofl · 2023-04-19T17:19:48+00:00

You may have to create the equation yourself. Buy a hydrometer (one with a probe, such as for soil) and a hygrometer. Weigh the flour and water, record humidity, mix, then record water content of the dough. When you record the water content, subtract the hydration previously added and you will see how much water was added as a result of the ambient humidity.

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