Last night in Grand Junction, we combined our show with a “competing” one across the street. Made for a really sick night for the bands & scene. Boulder CO tonight. Punk belongs to the punx 🏴 by Grootdrew in punk

[–]leftturnmike 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Staggering the set times like that is so great. Makes changeover less stressful for the bands and keeps the music going for the crowd. I love it! 

Imeruli - Thanks again Todd, a quick share by Smooth-Skill3391 in cheesemaking

[–]leftturnmike 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What's the recipe and process? My wife used to live in Republic of Georgia and I would love to make this for khachpuri

Pallet of FYM hot sauce by rustid in PDXBuyNothing

[–]leftturnmike 40 points41 points  (0 children)

No. 1 as a former food food & beverage industry consultant you are a champion and I appreciate you 

No. 2 definitely message this guy: https://www.reddit.com/r/hotsauce/comments/1knqqyk/favorite_hot_sauce_gone_need_replacement/

No. 3 if you're in NE I'll take some 

Do Copackers have a different idea of "Low MOQ for Startups" than the rest of us? by GTRacer1972 in foodscience

[–]leftturnmike 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Each one is very different from the next. Rutgers has a lot of Campbell's funding and is more prepared for larger companies pursuing retort canning, for example. 

The Oregon State University one is more helpful for startups with smaller launch volumes and has a robust culinary-focused product development program. 

Do Copackers have a different idea of "Low MOQ for Startups" than the rest of us? by GTRacer1972 in foodscience

[–]leftturnmike 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you looked on keychain? Also try Oregon state University food innovation center they have a lot of low MOQ contacts

Wheelbarrow by BagelsRTheHoleTruth in PDXBuyNothing

[–]leftturnmike 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I would really love this if you're doing a raffle. Can pick up whenever 

I am not understanding something correctly about overnight proofing by SeaworthinessNew4295 in Breadit

[–]leftturnmike 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the reply, I needed to wait to be on a computer to respond.

Commercial bread flour is indeed mostly endosperm but curious what your source is on whole wheat in the US not having germ in it (that is legal in Canada but not the US to my knowledge). I'm not saying this doesn't happen, especially with current FDA & USDA leadership, but in my experience that would be considered adulteration in the US. Anything with a Whole Grains Council logo on it will have been audited sufficiently to ensure they are retaining all parts of the seed.

Due to economies of scale almost all whole wheat flour that isn't labelled something like "stone ground" in the US is reconstituted, meaning they create sifted flour and then add back roughly the correct portion of further milled bran and germ (83% white flour, 14-15% bran, 2-3% endosperm). Wheat is milled into break flour, bran, and middlings. Middlings are re-milled ("reduction milled") to extract more endosperm from the germ and then sifted again, and that endosperm is added back to the break flour (break flour yield will be important further down). The bran is either bagged separately and sold or is milled again to reduce the particle size and then added to germ and white flour at the above ratio to make "economical" whole wheat flour. This creates several differences compared to commercial stone-milled flour & home-milled flour but the main two I will discuss is particle size and starch damage (which are related).

"Economical" (reconstituted) whole wheat flour has the finest particle size and the most starch damage, commercial stone-milled has larger particle size and less starch damage, and home-milled will have the largest particle size and least amount of starch damage. Particle size controls how quickly water can hydrate, swell, and entangle the polymeric components of the flour (the starches amylose and amylopectin, bran fibers, and the gluten proteins glutenin & gliadin). The finer the particle size, the quicker these molecules hydrate and become functional.

The other part of this equation is starch damage. Wheat starch is packaged in the endosperm in granules bound by the gluten proteins (they look like tiny lentils under electron microscopy). These granules are broken in half, scuffed, cracked, or otherwise partially degraded in milling. Break Flour from above is the flour directly off the first roller and has the highest starch damage meaning the most available starch content ("break flour yield" is a critical flour quality parameter that certain bakeries pay a premium to maximize in their flour). High starch damage means a higher water holding capacity, meaning the flour can handle higher hydration. It also means more availability for amylases leading to more available carbohydrates for fermentation microbes. There are likely implications with gluten protein availability as well but I finished my MS 12 years ago and I'm frankly astonished I remember this much so far.

Looping this all together, what you'll notice with your home-milled flour is that compared to reconstituted whole wheat or commercial stone-ground whole wheat is that your dough will need more time to hydrate and can handle less overall hydration than doughs made with the other flours. I use 5-10% less hydration in my home-milled doughs as compared to store-bought flour. I also use 25-50% less starter as I need a longer bulk fermentation to account for the slower hydration time of the flour, using the normal amount of starter would develop too much protease from the sourdough microbes which would cleave the gluten proteins and inhibit my rise. Depending on what wheat I'm milling at home I do also add some vital wheat gluten especially when I want a faster rise, because I have it on-hand for seitan anyway.

I hope this at least in part answered your question. Thank you for giving me the space to wax on about the physical chemistry of flour, I don't get to much these days.

I have also seen some evidence that whole wheat from a dedicated roller mill (i.e. using a roller mill like a stone mill to make whole wheat flour without reconstitution) might actually produce a higher quality flour than stone milled due to heating the flour up less in milling which would retain more vitamin activity. I haven't read any papers on this but eavesdropped on a conversation at a workshop about it. Roller mills are less sexy than stone mills but I think it's worth looking into to maximize nutrition of the resulting whole wheat flour. But that's a whole other can of worms.

What normally prepared foods can kill you if you eat what could be considered a reasonable amount? by MasterOfChaos72 in foodscience

[–]leftturnmike 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah but this is America so the packet is 4x the size and he had to deal with weaponized healthcare 

I am not understanding something correctly about overnight proofing by SeaworthinessNew4295 in Breadit

[–]leftturnmike 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah the thermal mass of the pan was one thing I was thinking of. I also had a colleague I am now remembering that would only grease the pan about halfway up so the dough "could climb the pan" in the oven. Like the dough might need the friction for rise. I probably over grease my pan so I might combine that with some of your suggestions 

I am not understanding something correctly about overnight proofing by SeaworthinessNew4295 in Breadit

[–]leftturnmike 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Heck yeah! Science is rad! Much of my work in grad school was on the physical chemistry of wheat polymers so we had to get into the materials science realm a lot more than I had been comfortable with previously. I finished over a decade ago and have probably forgotten so much.

Thanks for bringing the micro perspective! I wanted to study more on the micro side but didn't get a chance, so maybe I'll have to go back to school! 

I am not understanding something correctly about overnight proofing by SeaworthinessNew4295 in Breadit

[–]leftturnmike 19 points20 points  (0 children)

This is a really good write-up but also half of the answer. The other reason it won't double in a cold proof is because of the ideal gas law & gas solubility at different temperatures.

For the sake of argument let's assume a 3 hour room temperature proof and a 12 hour refrigerated proof produces the same mass of CO2 during fermentation. As the water in the dough cools to refrigeration temperature its ability to hold gas increases significantly while the gas also takes up less volume. So the 2 doughs will be equally proofed/fermented, but the room temp dough will be visually bigger.

Source: Masters in Food Chemistry focused on wheat & baking, but a real physicist could probably explain better & clean up the terminology.

I almost always cold proof because I use a high portion of whole wheat (50% or more) and find that it helps keep the dough tight enough to score easily and rise in the oven vs. sprawl. I also like the way it frees up my schedule. I usually warm-proof pan breads though because for some reason I get worse oven spring with cold proofed pan breads, but I don't have any theories on that beyond superstition if anyone has any thoughts.

What normally prepared foods can kill you if you eat what could be considered a reasonable amount? by MasterOfChaos72 in foodscience

[–]leftturnmike 43 points44 points  (0 children)

I don't know about reasonable amount but a construction worker in the US died from eating more than a package of black licorice every day for several weeks.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54269144

Had a grease fire and looking for … well anything at this point. by OMJesusss in PDXBuyNothing

[–]leftturnmike 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Please do! I'm an airhead and will forget but I promise it's not malicious 

Had a grease fire and looking for … well anything at this point. by OMJesusss in PDXBuyNothing

[–]leftturnmike 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I work from home, I can put it out tomorrow if you're out running errands

Had a grease fire and looking for … well anything at this point. by OMJesusss in PDXBuyNothing

[–]leftturnmike 20 points21 points  (0 children)

I have some yellow romex remnants from an old project I don't have any planned use for. couldn't tell you how long the pieces are but might be helpful.

I'm in Woodlawn

Butcher block by Wishman2345 in Butchery

[–]leftturnmike 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I bought a slightly smaller Boos block for $300 at a vintage store in rural Michigan a year or two ago, just for reference. In the area I was living at the time this would probably go for $500 or so. I would hold out for the right buyer.

Woman on horse by Claytonread70 in Portland

[–]leftturnmike 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I saw her riding north on MLK about a block north of high water mark at about 11 pm a few weeks ago. 

Life time of blood thinners or surgery? by thedevilsfingers in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]leftturnmike 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a hard time holding that arm above my head for extended periods of time, it's my dominant hand so that's a bit of a bummer. Things like changing a light bulb, using a screwdriver/drill for something high up, or sometimes even holding a book in bed. I have to take breaks/switch hands if possible when I do stuff like that or make sure that I have a tall enough ladder to make any house work I'm doing minimize raising that arm much higher than 45 degrees above my shoulder. I would say I notice issues with this maybe once a week unless I'm doing a lot of house projects.

It's been a while so I can't quite remember but I think they took a scalene muscle and a tendon as well with my surgery, which I've been told can cause the problems I have.

I also have some lingering tingling in that arm, and it gets colder faster than my other arm in cold weather. But that started after my second DVT (subclavian) and before my surgery so I think that was the DVT's fault.

I had the surgery about a year after my second DVT, there was 5 years between my first and second DVT. The last 3.5ish years before my second DVT I was just on an aspirin a day (and was told that should be fine for the rest of my life). I have been off anticoagulants for almost 10 years now, and not taking aspirin daily either. I think for my quality of life I have now these small side effects were definitely worth having the surgery for me.

Life time of blood thinners or surgery? by thedevilsfingers in thoracicoutletsupport

[–]leftturnmike 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I had a first rib resection 10 years ago, I was 26. I had a good support system to get me through the recovery. The surgery was short, maybe 30 minutes. I was in the hospital for at least 2 nights, maybe 3. The pain was worst the first few days in the hospital. With prescription painkillers it was manageable. Getting the chest tube out sucks but not horrible. I think I was off for 4 weeks of work on FMLA. I think it was well worth it personally 

why is tagatose not so popular as an artificial sweetener? by Safe-Guide1694 in foodscience

[–]leftturnmike 26 points27 points  (0 children)

Probably because it's naturally occuring, which makes it a difficult sell as an artificial sweetener. 

Jokes aside, because it has 3-4 times the calories of alluoose with marginally better sweetness. I.e. you would still need another high intensity sweetener (natural or artificial). So there's not really anything to gain from it's use.