Things we love: October

This month, it’s all about the little things that make all the difference. Cooking and eating is more than just the ingredients. We think that the could well become indispensable. It also seems to be about achieving the right temperature.

Getting the temperature right

If you are a big Great British Bake Off fan, you will have seen Thermapens in action. Perfect for measuring temperatures whatever you’re baking, we saw the participants checking temperatures for meringue and their genoise sponge.

The look says it all. A bread class student checking the dough temperature

The look says it all. A bread class student checking the dough temperature

I teach bread courses and water temperature is all important for for a consistent bake. I had been using a small digital thermometer which was adequate but slow. The Thermapen Mark 4 “wakes up” when you lift it up and will instantly give you a reading. No turning on or pushing buttons needed. The display cleverly rotates so you can read the temperature in any any position and if light levels are low, a backlight is automatically turned on.

It’s swifty become a favourite gadget and has a wide range of uses. It’s great to choose from the many bright colours in the range. There is a great discount available on some colours currently but cost is around £48.

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Keeping your cool

It’s becoming more usual to receive chilled packages through the post. We’ve received shellfish for example which arrived in peak condition. I decided to enter the World Bread Awards recently and wanted to be sure my entry kept fresh in transit. I was baking on the Monday, posting Tuesday for arrival Wednesday. The folk at Chilled Packaging came up trumps and sent me some special chill packaging to try.

Not the easiest thing to capture, but here's some of the packaging guaranteed to keep things cool

Not the easiest thing to capture, but here’s some of the packaging guaranteed to keep things cool

I think this packaging could make a huge difference for small businesses wanting to expand their markets. There’s a wide range of box sizes and types, but it all hinges round some clever ice pouches that change their composition when frozen and will keep your products cold until they reach their recipient.

Imagine, you could ask your favourite farmers’ market stall to send you regular deliveries!

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p.s. This story was supposed to end in me telling you about my success or otherwise at the World Bread Awards. Alas, Parcelforce managed to deliver the parcel 2.5 hours after the cut off time so my entry was invalid.

Get the temperature right again

Regular readers of the blog will know I am a sous vide fanatic. It is far more popular that when we first started writing about it 4 years ago, but it’s not always easy to find a cooking temperature for a particular food.

We’ve often been confused at American names for cuts of meat and what they might be here as the guide we use was written in the USA. Now the lovely people at Sous Vide Tools have come up with a handy calculator that takes all the fuss out of finding the right temperature. Choose whether you are cooking meat, fish, vegetables and you are a few click away from discovering the temperature to choose.

I must say I was a little surprised at the low temperatures for the fish than we currently use, but over a longer time . We will be trying those out!

The graphic below shows just three of the screens, you actually have more choices. It also works equally well on a tablet. Indispensable.

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A few of the screens from the Sous Vide Tools calculator

A few of the screens from the Sous Vide Tools calculator

 

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About Bread Baker Danielle

Danielle founded Edinburgh Foody in 2010. Having qualified as a professional bread baker in France in 2014, she is now on a new adventure in Gloucestershire. Check out severnbites.com Look out for occasional posts for Edinburgh Foody

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  1. Pingback: Things we love: October | UK Food and Drink News – Nosh Online

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