November 15, 2006 - 6:19pm
Fun article on the NYT bread buzz
Here's a fun article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the massive Internet buzz around the NYT no-knead bread technique.
Here's the top of the article:
Lonelygirl15, have we got a link for you.Read the rest of the article here.
The latest sensation burning up bandwidth throughout the wired universe is not an actress with a webcam, an incautious politician caught on video or a raunchy cartoon, but a recipe for bread.
Last week, New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman published the recipe, "No-Knead Bread," which he adapted from Manhattan baker Jim Leahy. This unusual recipe, which Bittman deemed "revolutionary," confounded many notions of baking.
The "no-knead" part was just the beginning. This dough is as wet as a dog's kiss. It needs 18 hours to rise. It bakes inside a pot. When it emerges, it looks like a crusty boule from a Parisian boulangerie. In other words, this was not your grandfather's Oldsmobile nor the stuff of his liverwurst sandwiches.
Bittman's column and the recipe rose to the top of the most e-mailed list on the Times Web site.
The next day, an intensive discussion was under way on eGullet —- the nation's top online food salon —- with excited bakers posting pictures of their proudly rounded loaves hot from the oven but not yet tried.
Within a couple of days, all the markers of Internet stardom were in place. Technorati.com tracked more than 200 blog entries devoted to no-knead bread in a panoply of languages.
Flickr.com displayed scores of step-by-step photos tracking the bread from gluey mass to golden beauty. "Letouj" from Troy, N.Y., shot his/her gorgeous loaf in extreme close-up, and excitedly noted it was "the first loaf of bread I've ever baked."
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It's funny how much ink this story is getting, considering that in 1999, Suzanne Dunaway wrote "No Need To Knead". Her technique is very similiar, and to my mind, much easier. The main difference seems to be in the amount of yeast used and also she doesn't preheat the pot before baking. There is also no folding of dough after the overnight fermentation.
The results are excellent; it truly is fool-proof. For my money, it makes a better tasting bread than the NYT recipe, without the problems.
I find it amusing because I had been working out of No Need To Knead for a couple of months before the article came out and figured the eGullet folks were probably getting tired of my "no knead is great" chatter and now Bittman says so and it's all the rage. Funny. As someone said elsewhere, it's a very old concept and they didn't invent it. But at least it's getting people into baking bread that weren't doing it before... kinda like the Emeril or Rachel Ray of the bread world. There's a bigger audience there than I've seen before for this subject.
Is it possible that Bittman and Leahy are secretly in the employ of the Wheat Growers Council? Flour sales must be at an all time high! Soon there will be hoarding and lines outside supermarkets as anxious bakers await the King Arthur delivery ;-)
I think Le Creuset should be sending them a really nice thank you gift! lol