Construction

We're hip-deep in construction, but this part is just about finished now:  an outdoor kitchen with a cooking hearth and a bread oven.

I've been developing a natural wild-yeast starter, too.  The flavor's good, but the rising power needs more time to develop, or I need to modify my proofing times, or both.  This morning's experiment was a bit of a brick, but it has a great flavor.  I made this one in the ordinary house oven, because the outdoor masonry is still drying.  Soon we'll get started out there experimenting with pizza and bread.



7 comments:

Assistant Village Idiot said...

This is not a viable concept in New Hampshire

Grim said...

That’s really neat, Tex. I do a lot of baking, and mead brewing. I don’t use wild yeast for brewing because it doesn’t tolerate high levels of alcohol. You’d end up with a sweet, low-alcohol mead instead of a dry, high-alcohol one. I want the honey sugars fully digested.

For baking we sometimes capture wild yeast. Also, the distillery in Gatlinburg does a wild yeast whiskey once a year; if you’re distilling anyway, it’s ok if the initial brew isn’t very strong.

Aggie said...

Great idea. It's funny how old design principles come around again. I lived in a very old Victorian home years ago that originally had a summer kitchen out the back of it - the same kind of thing you've constructed there, but for a slightly different reason.

Texan99 said...

If it weren't for the mosquitos, we'd have just left the walls completely open. It's rarely cold enough here to matter. It's pretty, though, isn't it? It's especially nice at night, with the lights on--looks like a magic lantern.

Gringo said...

A kitchen separate from the main house isn't a bad idea in a hot summer climate, so the cooking doesn't heat up the main house.

douglas said...

That's beautiful, Tex.

Cassandra said...

What Douglas said - I'm envious! (but happy for you)