Topic: How are you dealing with Coronavirus?

[cs1]

I went on a "virtual photowalk" with a guy I got to know on the Sunny 16 Podcast Discord server. He lives a few hundred kilometers from where I live and I called him on his mobile phone and we each went to shoot some film in our area while talking for more than 2h. It was great fun. All social distancing rules were observed. The weather was nice, too, so I'm freshly "recharged" and ready for another week of working at home.

[Francois]

That's pretty darn cool.
My only virtual photography these days is through traffic cams, webcams, google earth... Maybe I should re-install Grand Theft Auto San Andrea...

[Bryan]

That's pretty darn cool.
My only virtual photography these days is through traffic cams, webcams, google earth... Maybe I should re-install Grand Theft Auto San Andrea...

When I was working in Honolulu one of those street view camera cars came down the road we were working on, I think it was Apple.  I had to turn them away because we had the road closed.  I'm going to have to look into that later and see if I got in the photo. 

[astrobeck]

Just popping in for an update.
Everyone is still healthy here at home. We only venture out once a week for groceries.
I found a tin can at the dump a week ago when I hauled off the trash. ( going to the dump was a highlight I should add, it meant getting out of the house)
I've added a photo of it below and will convert it to pinhole for Sunday. If anyone reads greek, I think it says Greek Honey is the best!
Also I've been baking. I made my own sourdough starter a few weeks ago and have made a few loaves so far.
I've baked in the past, so it's not a new thing. It's just with all this free time at home, there is time to baby sit dough. My grandmother used to make bread every other day, so I feel very close to her now carrying on baking.

And finally, I started writing haiku again and am putting them on a blog at:
https://haikudrivethru.blogspot.com/

[Pete_R]

I'm baking too. Still haven't cracked the sour dough starter. About five attempts have been flushed so far... Yeast was in short supply for a time here but I've now got plenty and my local mill opened their website for 10 minutes and I was able to get 30Kg flour so no shortage of bread in our house.

[astrobeck]

wow! Pete, those look amazing!  I love fresh hot bread...maybe too much.
I've found my tummy is more tolerant of sourdough, so I stick with it.  Yeast is unheard of around here, but tomorrow when I make my foraging trip to town, I'm going to ask at the supermarket bakery if they have any yeast they're willing to sell
There seem to be a lot of filmwasting bakers here.  Very cool!

[02Pilot]

This seems appropriate to the current discussion.

[Pete_R]

I usually bake once a week but with the current situation, and being at home all the time, I'm baking twice a week now. The white loaf is becoming my midweek choice with granary (with seeds and grains) at the weekend. The white loaf I do in a cast iron casserole - a guaranteed way to get a good rise in the oven.

[Bryan]

I've been brewing a lot of beer, having trouble keeping up with demand lately.  I use the spent grains from brewing to make bread, it's delicious.  I'm not an expert bread maker, I do the no-kneed bread with packaged yeast I managed to get before they ran out.  I just substitute some of the flour with the beer grains.  With grains from a stout or porter I make a dark rye by blending the grains with the rye flour.  I'll be making a loaf today or tomorrow using grains from a robust porter I brewed a few weeks ago.  Like Peter I use a cast iron Dutch Oven to bake the bread. 

Update on our friends son that got shot when he snuck out of self isolation to play basketball.  He has been on a ventilator for 3 weeks now, he has a fever and an infection in his lungs that wont go away.  The doctors don't understand why it wont go away.  He's just starting to breath a little bit on his own, they may take him off the ventilator and give him a trachea.  They have tested him for the Coronavirus, so far he hasn't caught it in the hospital.  The doctors decided that they won't operate, the bullet fragments will have to stay in him.  He has been able to use at least one arm, tried to pull his ventilator out when he woke up.  He will be paralyzed at least from the waist down they just don't know exactly how bad it is yet. 

He just turned 18 a few days ago, we sent a video for his birthday, he enjoyed getting all the messages from friends and family.  His mother is now able to visit him almost every day, he's communicating to her by blinking his eyes for yes and no. 

[astrobeck]

thanks for the update on your friends son. It's tough to read and heartbreaking.
I really don't have words, no words will help. I wish the family strength.

stay safe y'all, and keep baking and brewing.

[Mike (happyforest)]

Seems bread making is a popular pastime.

Yeast is as rare as rocking horse poo round here, but flour is slowly making it’s way back into the shops.

In anticipation that I will need to make pizza dough next week without yeast, I made a loaf yesterday using raisin water yeast.

1st rise took 8 hours (until tripled in size) and 2nd rise was about 2.5 hours.

Which made a nice loaf, given this was a first attempt. (Helped by previous sourdough experiences.)

I currently have a jar of levain in the fridge waiting for next week.

Mike

[Bryan]

Seems bread making is a popular pastime.

Yeast is as rare as rocking horse poo round here, but flour is slowly making it’s way back into the shops.

In anticipation that I will need to make pizza dough next week without yeast, I made a loaf yesterday using raisin water yeast.

1st rise took 8 hours (until tripled in size) and 2nd rise was about 2.5 hours.

Which made a nice loaf, given this was a first attempt. (Helped by previous sourdough experiences.)

I currently have a jar of levain in the fridge waiting for next week.

Mike

I had never heard of raisin water yeast before.  I looked into using beer yeast, I have plenty of that but from what I read the bread wouldn't rise much.  They seem to have plenty of flour in the stores again around here.  I always have trouble finding dark rye flour locally, just got a bag on Amazon. 

[Francois]

Well... flour is still pretty rare here. Managed to put my hands on two 2lbs bags of all purpose flour. Yeast is nowhere to be found. Baking powder is also pretty rare.
So... who wants some fresh glue?

[Sandeha Lynch]

Been making bread for years now, but I just bought an ice cream machine ... and Oh SWEET JESUS, the first plum sorbet I made today was FAVOLOSO.

[astrobeck]

Breadwasters!

[Indofunk]

Breadwasters indeed! I've only been baking bread for about a year, and always been using commercial yeast. But now apparently yeast is scarce everywhere, so I've jumped on the homemade sourdough bandwagon. My first loaf I overproofed, my own damn fault. Second loaf is first proofing now, so I'll be more careful with this one

Bryan: please tell me more about using spent wort as flour! I've always wanted to homebrew, and if I can use the spent wort to make bread with my new sourdough starter, then that's a win-win!

[Bryan]

Breadwasters indeed! I've only been baking bread for about a year, and always been using commercial yeast. But now apparently yeast is scarce everywhere, so I've jumped on the homemade sourdough bandwagon. My first loaf I overproofed, my own damn fault. Second loaf is first proofing now, so I'll be more careful with this one

Bryan: please tell me more about using spent wort as flour! I've always wanted to homebrew, and if I can use the spent wort to make bread with my new sourdough starter, then that's a win-win!

You have to brew with grains, some home brew kits just use a malt extract.  After I brew I spread the grains on a baking sheet and dehydrate them in the oven for about 2 hours at 250F.  After that I can freeze them for use later.  Most of the bread recipes I use call for 4 cups of flour.  I take 2 cups of the grain which is very loose with a lot of voids.  I mix in flour to fill all those voids.  Depending on your taste you could start with a little less grain and add flour to get it up to 2 cups.  Add that to the other 2 cups of flour.  When I do the dark rye my recipe calls for 2 cups of bread flour and 2 cups of rye flour.  I mix the grains with the rye flour.  I’ll probably make a loaf this weekend so I’ll try to remember to take some pictures. 

[Pete_R]

Been making bread for years now, but I just bought an ice cream machine ... and Oh SWEET JESUS, the first plum sorbet I made today was FAVOLOSO.

They must grow some very early plums up in the valleys.

[Pete_R]

Well... flour is still pretty rare here. Managed to put my hands on two 2lbs bags of all purpose flour. Yeast is nowhere to be found. Baking powder is also pretty rare.
So... who wants some fresh glue?

Or pastry or pasta.

[Sandeha Lynch]

Been making bread for years now, but I just bought an ice cream machine ... and Oh SWEET JESUS, the first plum sorbet I made today was FAVOLOSO.

They must grow some very early plums up in the valleys.

Tbh, I didn't check but I'm guessing they were from Spain. 

[Pete_R]

I used to make sorbets by putting it in the freezer in a tub and giving it a stir occasionally. Probably not as smooth as an ice cream maker would do but it worked. Haven't made any for years. But I eat loads of ice cream so maybe I should get one. I suspect, once you've tried homemade ice cream, you would never eat the commercial stuff again. Same as with bread.

[Francois]

Well... flour is still pretty rare here. Managed to put my hands on two 2lbs bags of all purpose flour. Yeast is nowhere to be found. Baking powder is also pretty rare.
So... who wants some fresh glue?

Or pastry or pasta.

Or maybe pancakes... Though I've never made any without the help of Aunt Jemima.

[Pete_R]

And if you made English pancakes instead of those puffy things you have over there, you wouldn't need bicarb or baking powder. Just flour, milk and eggs plus lashings of golden syrup to drizzle over them.

[Francois]

Yep, that's the way we make pancakes around here. And if they're not made from rubber like at McDonald's, the better they are.
And with a light coat of maple syrup it's delicious.

[Adam Doe]

And if you made English pancakes instead of those puffy things you have over there, you wouldn't need bicarb or baking powder. Just flour, milk and eggs plus lashings of golden syrup to drizzle over them.

Hard to tell by the photos on the Lyles site, but are they almost as thin as crepes? Also, I'm sure golden syrup must be great on pancakes, but I can't see forgoing real grade B maple syrup.

[Pete_R]

Yes, English pancakes = crêpes

I've never acquired the taste for maple syrup. Guess it's a marmite thing.

[Francois]

I must admit that you really need to have a sweet tooth to appreciate.

[Sandeha Lynch]

I used to make sorbets by putting it in the freezer in a tub and giving it a stir occasionally. Probably not as smooth as an ice cream maker would do but it worked. Haven't made any for years. But I eat loads of ice cream so maybe I should get one. I suspect, once you've tried homemade ice cream, you would never eat the commercial stuff again. Same as with bread.

As a general truth, yes. Though anything home-made is going to have a short freezer shelf-life compared with Ben & Jerry's, which is probably 'best before' the year after next. 

[astrobeck]

a question for the breadwasters...
since I've just bought a 25 pound sack of flour, I need a good tip on storage.
I have glass jars that I've used for my smaller amounts...but now I've got this big ol bag and need a better thing than just the paper bag to keep it in.
What's an easy good way to store a LOT of flour? My preference would to have it in one container and not ten smaller jars strung around the pantry...
Thanks!

[Sandeha Lynch]

You can freeze flour if you have the space and wrap it air-tight.
But otherwise paper is not a bad material as long as it's in the driest place you can find.
And consider the best-by date - it can lose flavour if you store too much of it.

[Francois]

Also, insects like flour a lot. It's even a problem at flour mills.
So keeping it dry is a must to avoid fungus growing in it. And not stockpiling it for en excessive duration like preppers do.

[astrobeck]

Thanks. It's very dry here so it's unlikely to mold. Freezing is a great idea! 

[Bryan]

This is the bread I made this weekend with bear grain, it turned out great.  The grain is from a robust porter I brewed a few weeks ago.  I blended over a cup of rye flour into the grain without increasing the volume. 

[Indofunk]

So you don't even powder/mill the grains? That must make for a pretty dense loaf...

And to Becky, one other thing to take into consideration is that flour has a good amount of fat in it, so it will go rancid after a while, which is why fridge/freezer is definitely recommended for long term storage. There seems to be a shortage of consumer-packaged bread flour (ie, less than 25lbs), so I've been reduced to using AP flour

[Bryan]

So you don't even powder/mill the grains? That must make for a pretty dense loaf...

That would ruin it for me, I like crunchy grainy bread with a hard crust.  The loaf is a little dense but not too bad.  I kind of followed what was recommended on a beer brewing forum but adapted it to a no kneed bread recipe I liked.

[Pete_R]

Thanks. It's very dry here so it's unlikely to mold. Freezing is a great idea!

If you have room to freeze it long term it's the best way. But even if you don't have room to leave it in the freezer permanently, it's a good idea to freeze it for a couple of days to kill any weevils or eggs that are in it (and there will be).

[Francois]

I was reading something in the paper this morning and it's made me wonder about something.
The reporters here just invented a new word to describe people who don't believe that Covid-19 exists or people that don't respect the new social distancing norms (or just do something stupid that endangers people). They now call these people "Covidiots". I'm wondering if that word has also been coined in your part of the world?

[Indofunk]

That, and ... the leader of the free world has been infected with MORONAVIRUS.

[Francois]

I just hope that this new strain isn't contagious 

What I find interesting these days is that we constantly learn new things about how the world works.
Like I learned why we have such a hard time getting our hands on yeast. It happens that Fleischman has only one factory for all of Canada...  And they have been seeing a 400% increase in sales.

[Indofunk]

Funny! I just received a bottle of Fleischmann's yeast that I ordered about 4-5 weeks ago when I panicked because I was running out of yeast. In the meantime, I created my own sourdough starter and just today baked my second loaf of sourdough bread which came out AMAZING! I'm never going to need commercial yeast ever again!!

[Bryan]

This guys family brought a starter when they crossed the US on the Oregon trail in 1845.  They kept it going ever since.  You can order it but even they are having trouble keeping up with demand right now.

http://carlsfriends.net/] [url]http://carlsfriends.net/[/url]

[Indofunk]

Got my own, thanks! Although it's not as musty as other sourdough starters I've smelled ... I've moved it into the fridge now, it's at that stage where it's very active and ready to bake at any point ... but maybe I should culture it more ... bring it to some jazz shows and maybe even some avant-garde noise shows (though it's definitely gotten enough of that with me playing in the apartment )

[Jeff Warden]

There seems to be a shortage of consumer-packaged bread flour (ie, less than 25lbs), so I've been reduced to using AP flour

I can't even get all purpose flour here. I'll be using the tiny amount of flour that I do have to keep my starter alive. Ah well.

Does anyone know of an online source that will ship bread flour? (Long shot I know)

[Francois]

Apart from Walmart and Amazon, I don't think there is.
Here one of the big problems we have is due to the railway strike we had in January followed by the First Nation Indians who, to protest against the construction of a natural gas pipeline, decided to block the railroad tracks across the country. The grain from the prairies wasn't delivered to the flour mills for a few months. So the flour mills are now doing "just in time" processing of the grain. What they get in the morning is already sold in the afternoon. Anything that goes wrong can affect their production and the availability of flour based products...
That and the fact that many flour mills are running out of bags.

[EarlJam]

There seems to be a shortage of consumer-packaged bread flour (ie, less than 25lbs), so I've been reduced to using AP flour

I can't even get all purpose flour here. I'll be using the tiny amount of flour that I do have to keep my starter alive. Ah well.

Does anyone know of an online source that will ship bread flour? (Long shot I know)

I suspect you've tried the normal sources, but if not:

Bob's Red Mill https://www.bobsredmill.com/shop/flours-and-meals.html?p=3

King Arthur Flour https://shop.kingarthurflour.com/flours

Both have experienced rapid sell-through and are often out of stock. In the retail sector (at least in my neck of Southern California), Target had a good supply of King Arthur when we shopped last week; and Trader Joes had a small but reasonable supply of their flour brand.

[grit]

I'm not much of a bread baker, but sweet baking I can do. We used the shelter-in-place order as an excuse to buy ourselves a stand mixer. Here are the cakes of quarantine (clockwise from top left - apple upside-down cake, banana-coconut layer cake with milk chocolate frosting, black and white banana bread, chocolate chiffon cake with lemon cream cheese frosting and rhubarb syrup):

[Bryan]

Those look delicious Grit! 

Speaking of runs on toilet paper and yeast, next week Cinco de Mayo is on Taco Tuesday.  Expect a rush on taco shells and tequila since all the Mexican restaurants are closed.  I have enough Tequila to kill a horse so I may have enough to get through this. 

[Francois]

Definitely looks yummy even though they aren't my kind of cakes...

[Bryan]

Got another update on our friends son that was shot, they took him off the ventilator, he's breathing on his own through the trachea tube.  His fever has also come down a little so he's finally showing some signs of improvement. 

The person that shot him is trying to get out of jail claiming it puts him at risk of getting the virus.  Our friend is extremely upset about this.  I don't think they will let him out, he didn't seem to care much about the virus when he was out shooting people.  Plus, they may be letting prisoners out but not violent offenders. 

[ManuelL]

Bryan, good to hear your friend's son is doing a little better! Hope he will continue to improve.