Reg wrote:
> Bob (this one) wrote:
>
>> Who subscribes to rec.food.baking? Are you a professional? Are you a
>> guy who likes to bake on weekends? Are you a mother who needs to bake
>> for a family? Hobby? Work? Hate it but have to? Love it but not enough
>> time?
>>
>> Who are you? What kinds of information are you seeking?
>
>
> I'm in two professions. I'm an old time computer programmer
> with one foot still in it to pay the bills, plus a caterer
> and small producer of cured and smoked products.

What sorts of products?

> I recently
> bought a property with a second kitchen that I'm in the
> process of getting certified.
>
> As to rfb related stuff, I'm happy to say customer demand
> for breads and other baked goods is coming back after just
> about disappearing during the Atkins craze. The great baked
> goods drought of 2003-04 is just about over, and I'm thankful
> that I get to bake in quantity again.

What do you bake, mostly?

> The info I look for tends to be the more detail oriented
> material that's hard to find in most textbooks, the usual
> source for 98% of my information.

What areas are you most interested in getting more info in?

> I especially like hearing
> from professionals because the information tends to be both
> rare and useful.

<LOL> And idiosyncratic. I've had to unlearn a lot of stuff in recent
years. Things I "knew" from school or old-timers who told me their
versions of culinary truths. Along comes some of the good food
scientists and blew away the cobwebs. Harold McGee, Shirley Corriher,
Russ Parsons and a few others. And others who are good researchers and
present the works and words of pros, themselves and others - Bernard
Dupaigne, Maggie Glezer, Nick Malgieri, Alford & Duguid, Carol Field,
Berenbaum. Wayne Gisslen's baking books.

> Like your blue cheese dressing recipe, among many items.
> It's still a hit with the crowd.

<LOL> Been a while since I posted that anywhere. Reminds me to make
some; been a while for that, too.

So simple when I do it at home - any blue cheese, crumbled, heavy cream
whipped to soft peaks, stir together and rest for a few hours or
overnight. Viola.

Pastorio