Episode 103: Bread & Brine

On this week’s episode of Cooking Issues, Dave Arnold and Nastassia Lopez are joined in the studio by Piper Kristensen of Booker and Dax. Tune into this episode to Dave answer some questions about the oven spring when making bread at home, and different factors that determine quality of bread. Learn how spices and brine enter and flavor meat. Dave also talks about dairy coagulation, and how to prepare cod milt! Low temperature cooking, hydrogenating, and fermenting – Dave and the crew are tackling it all on this week’s Cooking Issues! This program has been brought to you by The International Culinary Center.

“There’s no real ‘rule-of-thumb’ on brining the same way there would be with curing where everything has been written down by the USDA and the various curing authorities.” [14:20]

“The protein structure in a good bread dough is going to hold the gas bubble integrity up to a point of about 60 degrees Celsius, where a crappy bread dough is going to hold the structure up to a point of about 50 degrees Celsius. The key difference there is that it’s about the same temperature that the starch gelatinization is taking place.” [30:20]

— Dave Arnold on Cooking Issues