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Episode-1484- Listener Feedback for 12-15-14 — 12 Comments

  1. One of my favorite things to make with hops is bread. The hops give the bread a distinctive, though not very pronounced, hoppy aroma, and also, as I thought it might, a bitter finish, which is quite nice once you get used to it. You probably need to like hops a lot though. The crumb is relatively heavy for a white-flour loaf, but soft and moist; the crust is soft and chewy. The flavor and aroma is awesome. This bread helps me with sleep and tension.

    Soft Hops Yeast
    Equipment:
    •3-quart sauce pan
    •1 quart glass jar with lid
    •small sieve

    Ingredients:
    •1/3 cup dried hops
    •6 cups quality water
    •1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
    •1/2 teaspoon sea salt
    •1/4 teaspoon dry active yeast or
    •1/3 cup good soft yeast from previous batch

    Process:
    1.Simmer hops in water for 1/2 an hour letting the steam escape, to make a strong tea. The water will boil down to about 3 1/2 cups.
    2.Sterilize jar and lid in boiling water. I do this by pouring boiling water into the jar and over the lid.
    3.Place flour and salt in sterile jar, and strain boiling tea over the flour. Stir thoroughly. It is important to scald the flour to keep the yeast from souring.
    4.Cover loosely and allow to cool.
    5.When it is cool (not cold) add yeast and stir to incorporate. Cover loosely and keep at room temperature. It will bubble and ferment, producing a quality yeast.
    6.When it has fermented (6-12 hours), cover tightly and store in a cool place.

    Yields: 3 1/2 cups soft yeast.

    Keeps 2 week, properly stored. When the yeast has a strong tart smell and watery appearance, it is too old for use.

    Soft Hops Yeast Bread
    Ingredients:
    •¼ cup corn meal
    •1 teaspoon salt
    •1 ½ cups water
    •2 ½ cups milk
    •¾ cup soft hop yeast
    •10-12 cups flour, divided

    Optional Glaze:
    •1 egg
    •1 tablespoon water

    Instructions:
    1.In saucepan, combine cornmeal, salt and water. Bring to a boil, and simmer ten minutes, to form a thin gruel. Transfer to a non-metal mixing bowl.
    2.Stir in milk, to cool the mixture.
    3.Add yeast and 4 cups flour (I use whole wheat) to make a thick batter. Mix thoroughly and cover. This is called a sponge.
    4.Let sit in a warm (room temperature) place 2 – 12 hours. It can be worked again when the surface appears somewhat watery, though it is best to mix the sponge in the evening and finish making the bread the next morning.
    5.Stir in 4 cups all-purpose flour, to form stiff dough.
    6.Turn out onto a heavily floured surface, cover with more flour and knead to incorporate ingredients (10-15 minutes).
    7.Leave dough on the work surface, to rest while you clean out and grease the mixing bowl.
    8.Knead dough for twenty minutes, to develop the gluten. Return dough to mixing bowl and cover.
    9.Let rise in a warm area until doubled in bulk. This rising will take 45 minutes to 4 hours, depending on how long the sponge was allowed to develop.
    10.Knead again, divide and shape into loaves. This recipe will make three 4” x 8” loaves, or two 5” x 9” loaves. It can also be divided and shaped into rolls or hamburger buns.
    11.Place the dough in greased pans, cover and let rise until doubled in bulk. This rising should take no more than an hour.
    12.Mix glaze and brush on loaves or rolls.
    13.Bake loaves at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, for 50-60 minutes, or until the bread comes away from the sides of the pan and sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. – Rolls and buns are baked at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, for about 25 minutes.
    14.When bread has baked, turn out of pans onto a wire rack to cool. For a softer crust, cover loaves with a hand towel while they cool.

    Note: this dough tends to rise up and not out, so make the base of the loaves or buns the desired size of the final product.

  2. I am placing the call on speakerphone and I will grab my medical kit and start rendering aid. Stop the bleeding and stabilize to my abilities until the paramedics and law enforcement arrive. I don’t want or need someone dying in my home.

  3. another selling point on handloading that you didn’t mention was that, there are places where you can’t have ammo delivered to you but you can have components delivered to you.

  4. About reloading, I wonder why the caller buys once fired brass, but only loads it once. That brass easily has another 2 or 3 loadings in it, maybe more, and doing so would drop his cost, as much as $30 per 1000.

    If someone is looking for huge cost savings in reloading, it will be found in loading for cartridges that aren’t main stream, and have high costs for factory ammo, such as 375 Holland and Holland magnum, or 338 lapua, for instance.My favorite 375 load costs me roughly $11 a box to reload and is the equivalent to factory ammo that costs $90 per box. I also reload 338 lapua for a friend who was paying $120 a box until I gave him a shopping list and dropped the price to just under $40.

    • Indeed 45-70 prices were what got me off the fence years ago and made me buy a kit and get going. On the cheap side you are looking at 28-30 dollars for the cheapest stuff, high quality custom loads are 60-80 bucks.

      I can load just about anything for 8-15 bucks.

      Also I love the 265 grain hornady flat point in my 44 mag rifle. That bullet was made for the 444 marlin and isn’t even available in a 44 mag at all from the factory. The 265s preform a lot better than the 240 FPs at carbine velocities on game, a LOT better.

  5. Here is my take on the Monday scenario. My situation is a little odd because I live on site where I work and they provide the house. So if it goes up in flames my first action, after insuring everyone is safe is to then call my director so he can take care of the insurance process. Luckily my parents live near us, so I think we would ask to stay with them for awhile. Unfortunately I don’t have a fireproof safe so everything in the house would be a lose. We have some emergency funds so we could put a little bit of our lives back together. Overall, this scenario makes me realize how valuable a quality safe is and the importance of having emergency funds (though in my case I need to grow them). It would certainly suck, but we would march on.

  6. I cast my own lead bullets. I can reload most pistol ammo for less than 5 cents. In fact, selling lead bullets is how I pay for components, so I make my shooting hobby pay for itself.

    Reloading doesn’t need to cost a ton!
    JFin

  7. I’ve noticed sourdough coming up more frequently. Making traditional fermented breads has been a really great thing at my house from both a health and preparedness standpoint.
    The person that taught my wife and I, calls herself The Bread Geek. Her name is Melissa Richardson and she’s written two books on the topic: http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Basics-Natural-Yeast-Recipes/dp/1462114024/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419007012&sr=1-1&keywords=melissa+richardson.
    I’ve contacted her to see if she’d be willing to fill out the guest survey and do an interview.
    I, for one, would like to hear that show.