Scoring a tour of the Modernist Cuisine kitchens close to Seattle is catnip for meals writers like me. Not solely have they got all of the toys, they’ve industrial variations of all of the toys: rotovap machines, blast freezers, steam ovens, you identify it. But the factor I keep in mind most about my tour a few years back was a plain-Jane Samsung residence oven in the midst of all of it. Modernist’s head chef, Francisco Migoya, opened its door and pointed at a cast-iron pot in the midst of it that was so darkish, it appeared to not mirror any mild.
Amid this nerd gadget treasure trove, he stated one thing like: That forty-dollar pot? That’s one of the best software you should purchase to make good bread at residence.
Thanks to that pot and a near-perfect recipe, I now make loaves of incredible bread a pair instances per week. This will not be a brag. The bread I make takes virtually no talent on my half. I simply lucked into what turned out to be the apex of what you will get by combining culinary sloth and the proper software for the job. While the web is stuffed with people who’re obsessive about the sourdough loaves they slaved over (it is a complete course of), you may make an impressive loaf with a little bit of time and virtually zero effort.
The Lodge 3.2-Quart Cast Iron Combo Cooker (aka “the LCC3”) is the place the magic occurs. It is a curious animal. Taken aside, the “lid” can also be a skillet, and the underside is an enormous sauce pot. Put the previous on high of the latter and you have got a Dutch oven that, with its two handles, seems to be a bit like a child with a ball cap on sideways. Flip it so the skillet is beneath and you’ve got a perfect vessel for baking bread. The loaves I make have a stunning darkish crust and an attractive, springy inside, which is named the crumb. If I purchased what I made at a flowery bakery, I might be 100 % happy, each time. Priced at $50 (solely $40 on Amazon) and weighing 13 kilos, the Combo Cooker is so low cost that I sometimes give it as a present, so long as the delivery is free.
An enormous a part of why I prefer it a lot is the recipe that makes it shine: Jim Lahey’s no-knead bread, one thing that bought an enormous enhance from a pair of Mark Bittman tales in The New York Times, then was perpetually enshrined in his own book and Modernist Bread. Instead of requiring a number of kneading or mixing, time does the grunt work. Combine flour, yeast, and salt, then add water and blend till it holds itself collectively in what’s generally known as a “shaggy mass.” After that, stick it on the counter in a single day. Shape it right into a ball within the morning, let it rise once more for a bit, then put it into the preheated Lodge and bake it. When I’m on my sport, the handbook labor takes all of about 10 minutes. By ready it out with that in a single day rise, you permit the gluten within the dough to strengthen and the flavors from the fermenting yeast to develop, a way identified each as autolyse and sleeping.
There are nonetheless loads of magic tips left once you change over to the pot. One of my favorites is how, with dough in it, it turns into a steam oven, a fetish item amongst bakers and cooks. With the pot’s comparatively tight seal, the steam launched from the dough is trapped inside, serving to make warmth switch to the dough notably environment friendly. It’s successfully a really secure little oven inside your bigger one, and maintaining the steam inside permits the floor of the loaf to stretch throughout baking so the inside can rise because it cooks.
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