New Beer: Master Shredder by The Veil
Sunday, December 19, 2021
Best of 2021
Saturday, December 11, 2021
A Return to Hill Farmstead
After visiting Hill Farmstead in 2018, I thought I had reached the proverbial mountaintop. I had kept in touch with owner Shaun Hill since, and petitioned for a monthlong internship this past July, which I was lucky enough to land. As you could probably imagine, it was a holy grail, once in a lifetime moment for me, and was meant to be a respite as well from the burnout I had experienced through the pandemic. Hill Farmstead has been voted best brewery in the world eight times. Ostensibly, I was there to learn the craft and possibly start a brewery when I returned, or simply get more deep into homebrewing. What I came away with was much more.
Once I arrived in Greensboro (VT), I’m in there on the brew cellar floor where the magic happens and the first four or five days I’m just furtively asking questions like I might be able to take something away immediately, and by the fifth day or so I realize, oh my gd, how little I know. In my diary, it literally reads, "I've learned just enough to learn how little I know." You could study beermaking for years and still feel like an amateur, a poser, upon landing at Hill Farmstead.
In breadmaking, I would say there are twenty-five critical control (process) points, whereby if you screw something up at any of those points, your resulting loaf will be suboptimal. For beer, I would say it's closer to one hundred. Shaun and his team are brewing, then fermenting, dry-hopping, transferring, conditioning in a fermenter, foudre, puncheon, or wine barrel, and then bottling, and bottle conditioning until finding the optimal time to open, market, and present the beer to the thirsty public. It's so fucking tough, and makes breadmaking look easy by comparison. Yes, you can make really mediocre beer really easily, just as one can make mediocre bread. But if you drink your way through the HF catalogue, you'll see this unrivaled attention to detail, to craft, that makes it just one of the best in the world. The quality of the beer is directly proportional to the sophistication and predilections of Shaun's palate, as well as his meticulous attention to detail. "There is no Shaun," he said once, his nut-brown eyes glinting, "I am the brewery." I told him he had a book, or several books in him, as the beer not only is great, but is often accompanied by his personal philosophy as it is rendered through ancient and modern philosophers, as well as his ancestors that worked the very land that he brews on and sources some of his ingredients and water.
Sunday, December 5, 2021
All Hail the Pep Cup (Review)
Some say the circle is the divine shape, but lovers of pizza know that the square is the true test of the pizzaiolo’s skill. I love pizza. Who doesn’t love pizza? But do we have opinions about it? Sure? Are they subjective? Yes. Who is this guy anyway? Also, fuck pizza, right? But shit, I will never stop eating it.
Those thick, square slices (also known as Sicilian) can be topped with any number of options, but they’re best when teeming with pep cups—tiny, sliced, cured meats that, when exposed to high temperatures, flex concave, like seedlings yearning for the light. Unlike the thin bland pepperoni slices that typically top a pizza, they’re salty and spicy, full of garlic and umami, not to mention thicker and chewier than ordinary pepperoni. Little orbs of unctuous goodness. Little flying saucers of gold.
The Triangle happens to have two of the best pep cup slices in North Carolina (imo). Coronato and DiFara Pizza each swagger like two heavyweights in the ring for Sicilian pie dominance.
Coronato is crust-to-crust, wall-to-wall pep cups, all completely inverted as they should be, with a little bit of crispy char for flavor and texture balance. For DiFara, some pep cups are braised (mmm...braised cured meats) into the cheese and sauce, yielding a different meaty mouthfeel altogether, some charred inconsistently. A hot slice of Difara is swimming in a soupy delicious sauce, whereas Coronato covers their pie in generous grated Parm.
The way each restaurant sets up and handles their pie dough influences the final product. The piemakers at Difara press each piece into the mold prior to baking while the makers at Coronato set up the dough, chill it, and then slightly deflate it using their fingers prior to topping.
The result is that DiFara is more like pizza, and Coronato is more like focaccia. It depends what you like, but one would have to say that DiFara is the more “authentic” (shit, I hate that word) pie.
And you wouldn’t think sauce would be the difference-maker, but the cooked San Marzano sauce at DiFara, surprisingly black-peppery, almost obscures the cheese. The shreds of basil scissored onto the pie that gives a slight hint of herbaceousness, cutting the lactose intensity of the browned mozz.
Both pies go into very well seasoned (olive-oiled) pans, which yield the best fried toast crust you could ever imagine, cooked to perfection in a high temperature oven in a thick pan.
Like a momma choosing their favorite child, it’s hard to pick just one, but for my money, DiFara outlasts Coronato. The dough to sauce texture is superior, and the sauce is better— it doesn’t matter how many cups you load on there (and trust me, Coronato will go down swinging).
Saturday, November 6, 2021
The Science of Sourdough for the Gluten Sensitive
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
In Memoriam: Mary Beth Bishop
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Thursday, September 30, 2021
Covid Diary December 16 to September 30
12-16
Poverty and shooting mar Durham during Covid: https://indyweek.com/news/durham/shootings-drugs-hayti-district/
12-20
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/20/us/covid-thanksgiving-effect.html
Moving forward: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/opinion/sunday/trump-presidency-accountability.html
The death of independent restaurants: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/19/opinion/sunday/restaurants-closing-covid.html
12-23
Homeschooling exacerbates stratification, putting families on different playing fields: https://indyweek.com/news/orange/neighborhood-support-circles-refugee-community-partnership/
12-28
“If you can come up with a vaccine in a year, why are we sitting in a community where there is no grocery store with fresh fruits and vegetables.”
https://twitter.com/nhannahjones/status/1343716480421138438
12-30
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/30/opinion/promote-black-vaccination.html
My year-end wrap: https://indyweek.com/news/durham/opinion-berenbaum-year-we-learned-hate/
12-31
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/31/opinion/coronavirus-vaccines-expiring.html
The reality of nursing homes: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/31/opinion/sunday/covid-nursing-homes.html
My dad, a medical center physician, in his corny dad way, has renamed Operation Warp Speed Operation Dead Speed, attesting to its dysfunction and slowness.
1-2
The social fabric of America is unraveling: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/02/us/crime-poverty-pandemic-cleveland.html
1-6
Trump rioters invade the Capitol: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJt7l5AFrZ6vUjJGbsDhwfwTcYbOD6rxEfI6zw0
We've come undone.
1-18
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/18/opinion/biden-covid-19-plan.html
1-19
Where I ask over email our DDI and downtown business leaders not to reopen too fast and the reaction I got:
Sorry to use this thread for something off topic, but has there been any interest in pushing on City Council to do another shutdown? I'm getting many more anecdotal case reports from supermarket workers, baristas, grocery owners, etc. Our staff is coming to work every day anxious now. I know a shutdown similar to April is not business-friendly, but I think we need to put public health first here. We posted the attached to IG, FB, and Twitter and got positive responses/views.Hi Ari—
This is a very difficult decision and one where the arguments on both sides are compelling. My personal opinion is that while a complete shutdown of businesses may cause numbers to trend down, it will also put a number of individuals in an even more precarious position—restaurant and retail and other small business employees not having steady or reliable incomes (and in some cases medical insurance). I believe that the restaurants in downtown are doing everything they absolutely must (and in many cases going beyond the bare minimum) to ensure that they remain open and their employees (and customers) remain safe and healthy. The added resources and assistance from Greenlight Durham provides additional assistance in tracking of cases, listing of testing sites, and other COVID-related resources.
I won’t argue as to why the numbers are increase (eating out vs small family/intimate gatherings indoors). However, by allowing small businesses to stay open, the owners can decide what the appropriate response/answer is for their given situation and in downtown we are seeing each business owner decide what makes the most sense for not just the business operations but, in many cases, what is the most responsible thing to do to protect employees. Due to a lack of any significant and comprehensive federal, state, and/or local small business assistance, it is difficult to advocate for a complete shutdown as this would place an intense financial stress (on top of the stress many businesses are already carrying).
These are my personal thoughts. It is a difficult situation we are in and I think many thought we’d be a little further along in combating this virus. Regardless, as we continue to move forward, no matter how slowly, it remains difficult to plan when there’s so much uncertainty. I rely on the one-on-one conversations I have with multiple business owners in downtown to try and advocate what makes the most sense and provides the most benefit to the overall downtown business community. The wants and needs of a restaurant owner vs a salon owner vs a retail shop vs a live venue space are so varied and each must be considered. I continue to believe that the business owners in downtown will operate in a safe and responsible manner.
Nicole Thompson
President & CEO
Downtown Durham, Inc.
Thanks for sending. I appreciate your thoughts. Just to be clear, I would still encourage restaurants to do takeout and outdoor dining. I think that is the best path until most of the vaccines are distributed. I think the fact that the mayor and city council have not enforced any type of stay-at-home order with the exception of going out for food/supplies/etc. (as we did in April) is foolhardy and leading to needless disease and death. Evidently we've become numb to the numbers of the sick and dying and have accepted it as a byproduct of our need to keep things open through this surge in cases. The fact that most of the disease burden falls on lower income folks just reinforces my distaste for how this has been handled.
County | Total Cases | Total Deaths | Date | Rate Per 10,000 | % of all cases by date | New Cases | New Deaths | 7 Day New Cases Avg | Cases per 10,000 last 7 days | Cases per 10,000 last 14 days |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Durham | 17,826 | 158 | Jan, 19 | 554.5 | 2.61 | 200 | 1 | 178 | 39 | 79 |
Durham | 17,626 | 157 | Jan, 17 | 548.3 | 2.58 | 264 | 7 | 180 | 39 | 76 |
Durham | 17,362 | 150 | Jan, 15 | 540.1 | 2.55 | 201 | 3 | 186 | 41 | 79 |
Durham | 17,161 | 147 | Jan, 14 | 533.8 | 2.52 | 175 | 1 | 198 | 43 | 78 |
Durham | 16,986 | 146 | Jan, 13 | 528.4 | 2.49 | 136 | 1 | 195 | 43 | 79 |
Durham | 16,850 | 145 | Jan, 12 | 524.1 | 2.47 | 130 | 0 | 195 | 42 | 77 |
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/opinion/joe-biden-2020-campaign-democrats.html
1-20
We know that the new variant of Covid is out there and may be 50% more transmissible and we are still not locking down.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variant_of_Concern_202012/01
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/20/health/coronavirus-variants-immunity.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/health/coronavirus-variant-california.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/well/live/covid-b117-variant-advice.html
1-21
The UK struggles: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/world/europe/uk-hospitals-covid-variant.html
1-22
This American Life on the Capitol Riots: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/this-american-life/id201671138?i=1000506432552
1-25
15 Durhamites died last week of Covid. How many more need to die before the city takes steps to keep people from gathering and mixing?
Tuesday, September 14, 2021
Thursday, September 9, 2021
Vernon Mitchell
It is here that we recognize and pay tribute to the memory of baker Vernon Mitchell who passed away this past Monday from a pancreatic cancer that took him all too soon. Vernon was a gentle giant, over 6'4'', long and lanky with a warm smile, great sense of humor, and an easygoing way about him. He was with the bakery only four months, but we will miss him dearly. He is survived by a loving family and friends.
Thursday, August 19, 2021
Shopsin's
Hard to believe he's been gone three years. Kenny Shopsin RIP
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/04/obituaries/kenny-shopsin-dead.html
Sunday, August 15, 2021
The next level now in getting past the superficiality of culture is knowledge, literature
Monday, August 2, 2021
Henry Miller
Bread: prime symbol. Try and find a good loaf. You can travel fifty thousand miles in America without tasting a good piece of bread. Americans don’t care about good bread. They are dying of inanition but they go on eating bread without substance, bread without flavor, bread without vitamins, bread without life. Why? Because the very core of life is contaminated.
Sunday, July 18, 2021
Vitality
I've been on an internship at Hill Farmstead Brewery in Vermont and thought I would collect some thoughts on what makes good beer great, hopefully with some connections to bread and gastronomy more generally:
Unpasteurized beer is alive. By manipulating yeast cell counts, fermentable sugars, and temperature, brewers try to capture lightning in a bottle.
How should one talk about vitality? One might talk about beer quality from any number of angles. Just as a poorly roasted coffee bean will yield a coffee that is flat in the cup, the same would be true for beer (bad process usually equals bad flavor).
Great beer achieves balance and depth from a number of different factors:
Yeast strain
Attenuation
Sweetness
Bitterness
Hop aroma /aromatics
Carbonation
Crispness
Softness/Minerality/Mouthfeel
Temperature
The balance and specificity of execution necessary to deliver great beer oddly reminds me of this article on the commercial production of ketchup by Malcolm Gladwell:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/09/06/the-ketchup-conundrum
tomato cheese bread trifecta
There’s something about pizza that is so essential, quintessential even, such that I think I will never go a month without eating it. What else can we say that we will not touch all the rest of the days of your life except pizza?
Friday, June 4, 2021
Beat the Old Lady Out
Another woman told of growing up in Finland and of a particular cold winter day when a cow was slaughtered for meat. The mother in the kitchen stirred a vat of sliced onions in butter, and the girls one at a time rushed into the field with deep metal pans to catch blood gushing from the cow’s slit throat. The blood was poured over the onions, and then that mixture was transferred into their largest mixing bowl, along with flour and salt and homegrown yeast. Now the girls took turns kneading, palpating the ingredients with their chapped hands as if restarting a stopped heart, their shoulders bent with the effort, their mother reminding them that this blood bread would be all they’d have to sustain them in the cold days ahead, while the meat cured. “Beat the old lady out,” the mother called to her daughters. Beat out the cranky lumps until the dough in your hands is elastic, forgiving. Leave nothing behind, not a speck of flour nor smear of blood in the shiny bottom of the bowl.
https://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/544/beat-the-old-lady-out
Saturday, May 29, 2021
Thursday, May 27, 2021
Monday, May 17, 2021
Thursday, May 6, 2021
Madame Bovary
"And what should I do here gentlemen, pointing out to you the uses of agriculture? Who supplies our wants? Who provides our means of subsistence? Is it not the agriculturist? The agriculturist, gentlemen, who, sowing with laborious hand the fertile furrows of the country, brings forth the corn, which, being ground, is made into a powder by means of ingenious machinery, comes out thence under the name of flour, and from there, transported to our cities, is soon delivered at the baker’s, who makes it into food for poor and rich alike. Again, is it not the agriculturist who fattens, for our clothes, his abundant flocks in the pastures? For how should we clothe ourselves, how nourish ourselves, without the agriculturist? And, gentlemen, is it even necessary to go so far for examples? Who has not frequently reflected on all the momentous things that we get out of that modest animal, the ornament of poultry-yards, that provides us at once with a soft pillow for our bed, with succulent flesh for our tables, and eggs? But I should never end if I were to enumerate one after the other all the different products which the earth, well cultivated, like a generous mother, lavishes upon her children. Here it is the vine, elsewhere the apple tree for cider, there colza, farther on cheeses and flax. Gentlemen, let us not forget flax, which has made such great strides of late years, and to which I will more particularly call your attention."
Tuesday, May 4, 2021
Sunday, April 18, 2021
Sunday, March 28, 2021
Friday, March 19, 2021
Friday, March 12, 2021
Monday, March 1, 2021
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
Graison Gill, Bellegarde Bakery
From Bellegarde's newsletter:
But, as always, we’re here for the bread. And we’re here for the bread because our passion for it is insurmountable. What we need people to understand—us bakers, cooks, farmers, fishers, chefs—is that our careers are our identities. Baking is not just what I do: it is who I am. And I sit with a lot of gratitude for where I am and where I’ve been. But I am admittedly afraid of where we are going. Because I don’t think society is visualizing the extent of vulnerability that many of us are in: literal and existential. And despite some politicians and cultural figures who have attempted to disrupt our basic relationships, we have to admit how brutally interdependent we are and have become in the past year. We shouldn’t be in the business of building levees, or in the business of keepings things out. You don’t build bread with walls and boundaries. Because if it keeps on raining, the levees are going to break. No matter what, I know that me and the bakers at Bellegarde use our passion for bread not as a defense against the world; but as an offense. It doesn’t merely protect us, it preserves us.
Sunday, February 21, 2021
Bakery Men / Old World Rye
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Thursday, January 28, 2021
On the Road
“In the window I smelled all the food of San Francisco. There were seafood places out there where the buns were hot, and the baskets were good enough to eat too; where the menus themselves were soft with foody esculence as though dipped in hot broths and roasted dry and good enough to eat too. Just show me the bluefish spangle on a seafood menu and I’d eat it; let me smell the drawn butter and lobster claws. There were places where they specialized in thick and red roast beef au jus, or roast chicken basted in wine. There were places where hamburgs sizzled on grills and the coffee was only a nickel. And oh, that pan-fried chow mein flavored air that blew into my room from Chinatown, vying with the spaghetti sauces of North Beach, the soft-shell crab of Fisherman’s Wharf — nay, the ribs of Fillmore turning on spits! Throw in the Market Street chili beans, redhot, and french-fried potatoes of the Embarcadero wino night, and steamed clams from Sausalito across the bay, and that’s my ah-dream of San Francisco…”
- Jack Kerouac