Old Wives: Sometimes Totally Right

I learned something the other day that I really, really should have known already. You know how bread recipes say to let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free place? I had always figured it was so hot and steamy here in Singapore that I didn't need to worry too much about the draft thing, and anyway it's under a kitchen towel, right? Now would probably be the time to mention that as we are on the 19th floor, facing the straits, in a long apartment open at both ends for maximum airflow...well, it's pretty windy. Damn windy, even. When I made bread most recently, it was Sunday, so we had the air conditioner on in the whole apartment (you may not see the connection, but Tena's day off is Sunday, and we don't put the AC on when she's here because it makes her room airless. I bought her her own window unit and we're getting it installed next week. Anyway.) Since it was cool inside (for a change) I put the bread to rise out on Tena's balcony with the windows closed. It turns out that the whole "draft-free" thing is actually an important part of the equation. That bread rose like gangbusters. It doubled in size in like 45 minutes. It was light and fluffy and tasty. Live and learn, I guess. John's sardonic comment: "what, did you think someone was shilling for the draft-free council of America or something?" Is that really what you should say to someone who just made you homemade bread? Ah, well, if I didn't want someone to be making wisecracks at me all the time, I shouldn't have married John Holbo. That's just common sense!

Comments

[Keith]

My wife and I live in an apartment in Savannah where the windows don't open. All our bread (and pizza dough) tend to rise nicely in there, even if it is a fire hazard.

[Keith]

My wife and I live in an apartment in Savannah where the windows don't pen. All our bread (and pizza dough) tend to rise nicely in there, even if it is a fire hazard.

[Anthony]

O.
I can understand that not a day should pass without accusing someone of being a shill for this or that. But this seems to be taking it to extremes. If I read in the Straits Times about the mysterious 19 floor plunge of a noted wisecracking philosoblogger, I'll know what's happened.

[stand]

I'm still skeptical about the airless thing. There are too many other factors, most notably the quality of the leavening agent.

Do you use a bread starter or do you use different yeast strains each time? Maybe you just had a particularly active one this time around.

[joe o]

Sometime recipes have vestigal ingredients and the like. Primo Levi in the "Periodic Table" describes a mysterious ingredient in a paint recipe that was put in to solve a problem caused by an impurity in another ingredient. The second ingredient hadn't had the impurity for years, but the paint company kept putting in the first ingredient because no one could remember why it was added in the first place.

[ash]

It turns out that the whole "draft-free" thing is actually an important part of the equation.

Thermal transfer? Convection and radiation?

That bread rose like gangbusters. It doubled in size in like 45 minutes.

I run the dryer for a few minutes and then put the dough in there. With a damp towel.

ash
['Works great for rising.']