“Wheat, n. A cereal from which a tolerably good whiskey can with some difficulty be made, and which is used also for bread. The French are said to eat more bread per capita of population than any other people, which is natural, for only they know how to make the stuff palatable.”
The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
Ambrose Bierce
Back before I started this blog, I had envisioned doing at least one post, if not several on the ‘artisan’ bread situation here in the Pacific Northwest. I even considered some comparative tastings between the bakers here in Seattle and those in Portland, but over the last eight months it seemed like it would be a waste of time and effort given the ever shifting variables involved in the contemporary ‘artisan’ bakery scene here. The growing number of bakeries in the Seattle over the last four years has had me on quite a rollercoaster ride between expectations and realizations, the variability in the quality of bread has tied my mind and my palate in knots.
Things had gotten so estranged that my routine for much of 2008 was to bring back a rustic loaf from either Ken’s Artisan Bakery or the Pearl Bakery or a focaccia slab from little t american baker in Portland every other weekend while I enjoyed Pain de Campagne from Seattle’s Dahlia Bakery in between. This bread stasis was disturbed early in 2009, when I got my first totally mediocre loaf from Ken’s Artisan Bakery - the country brown loaf had a poorly formed crust. This made me realize that there was obviously a difference in skill or quality control from shift to shift. Even more distressing was the fact that the Dahlia’s Pain de Campagne started coming out flattened and dense on a regular basis, suggesting problems similar to those at the have been plaguing the Tall Grass Bakery for years. Needless to say, I ate less bread last year.
On my most recent trip to Portland, I got to the little t earlier than normal and the only breads that had come out of the oven were their long skinnies and double longs. I had never tasted a double long before, and these golden brown loaves that resembled extra-long baguettes were quite stunning in the window. I ordered my two baked currant doughnuts and while they were being wrapped, I decided to give little t’s double long a try - after all, I needed something to hold the thinly sliced house-smoked ham I was going to get at the Laurelhurst Market for the trip home.
I bought my usual four shot Americano for the road at Ristretto on Williams, and before heading to the Interstate, I pulled off a hunk of the double long and split it lengthwise to load it with ham. I was amazed by the creamy color and of the interior and pleased with the open and irregular but firm texture. I bit into the hastily constructed sandwich and was overjoyed with the great crunch of the crust and the chewiness and flavor of the interior of the double long. Even though it was also probably the tastiest ham I had ever had from the Laurelhurst, by the time I was half way through the sandwich I was fixated on the flavor and texture of the bread! I didn’t care what they had called it, this was the best tasting baguette I had eaten anywhere in this country in over five years - it was even possibly better than the Tall Grass Bakery’s baguettes during the years when quality was the rule there! I took some shots of the loaf under my usual erratic lighting conditions and you can see them in my An Amazing Baguette photo album - especially notice the well developed and properly browned crust and the irregular hole structure. One can only hope that little t American baker produces this quality of loaf on a consistent basis…
More background to come on artisan bread in the Pacific Northwest.
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