"Fred" > wrote in message
>
> Thanks for the pail of cold water. My purpose was to encourage people who
> are afraid of bread baking to try it. As strange as it may seem to you, I
> bake bread this way most of the time and have for a long time. Intuitive
> bread baking is certainly possible and, in fact, easy. Apparently you want
> to keep it mysterious and I obviously posted this in the wrong place.
>
> Fred
> Foodie Forums
> http://www.foodieforums.com

Fred it was not my intention to do so.....In fact during my younger
days I had the same notion as you....I was overconfident of my
skills.
I want to simplify everything, that led me to convert al my recipes
from the cookbook recipes ,heirloom recipes,and the industrial ones
which was so detailed in the lattter that if you miiss one of the
material that will result in product failure.
I had not probles with the previous two but a serious ones with the
last one.
I discovered and was humiliated that there is a limit to
simplification. A formula developed by the industry was the fruit of
years of product development work and every detail follows a
specification that ensures that consistency is maintained everytime
you made a product out of it..
Deviation even in terms of ingredient specification( but the same
quantity) as dictated by the formula usually result in the variation
in product quality.( that may not be very obvious)
With that fact in mind I came to a realization that there is no
mystery in the formula ..Abide by it and everything will be allright.
Another occasion some decade back I worked for an employer who
believe the same way as you, just simplicity and commonsense. Yes
there is the
succesful formula handed by the technical deviision of the parent
company previousy )and was ever succesful in use) but my employer
want me to cut corners as he find that the stipulated ingredients in
the formula are expensive as you have to procure it from the approved
suppliers abroad.
Being in a different country where leniency is tolerrated due to
scarcity of spcific ingedients I was obliged to follow my boss request
to source the raw material locally and forget about details such as
exacting product specification of the particular ingredient. WEll I
was succesful as I was able to produce an identical material.( yeast
raised and cake donut)
the product was sold as the normal item but after some time we
realized that our sales gradually dropped and my boss frantically
called the parent company who after discovering the fault berated him
for his stupidity that his franchise was revoked and my boss lost
the business .
that was a lesson that I always keep in mind until now.
When I looked back how simple was the recipe but how detailed was the
product specification of each ingredient that must be religiously
followed to the letter to ensure of the maintenance of quality.that
had kept the reputation of particular company intact.
It led me to conclude that simplicity can be deceptive sometimes. and
ingredient interaction that comes from using a substitute and using
the stipulated ingredient had difference and that will result in
product quality deviation. that customer will notice later on.
Roy