I stink, therefore I ham

experiments with digits and appropriated imagery

 

by kevin walsh, 2011

i have no idea

and you have no idea

what vulgar sentiment we each embody

these scripts are at the end of an edit

meditations within a sick madness

wish to escape

will soon escape

the release is no longer possible by chemical interaction

now, it's physical

the movement

the being

the existence is completed in a known shape

invite the neighbors over for brunch

realize not everyone has the stomach

this bile can choke the movements

we have grown to appreciate

as coincidence

there is no longer time to accept fate

behold the purpose

behold the mind
our mind
it is the future

by kevin walsh, 2011

The Big Twist Theory

Artist Statement: the following photographs are by no means false images but their titles are admittedly misleading. All imagery I ever represent is captured in camera. Although much of my recent exposures have been digital, the only "Photoshoping" preformed in no more than the common contrast and color correction any respectful photographer should employ. The following imagery mimics very possible cosmic activity. The links within the titles offer third party imagery of known objects in astronomy and man-made representations that hint at the materials I have photographed. There are also linked images that could be considered "over-corrected". These are complicated educational devices that are viewed by a large audience of our terrestrial population. Such composited imagery acts as mental segregation, creating an elite class whom have viewed the cosmos unfiltered while the rest of us are feed manipulations. We are a species that is very reliant on our sight to define many truths in our universe. It is our evolutionary benefit to question what we see and to imagine the infinite possibilities that we exist within.

all links are no larger than 720 pixels and will open in a new tab

Aurora over Terra Cimmeria region on Mars

Gravitational Lensing near Black Hole of Candela Galaxy

Liquid Methane Tributary of Saunerk Lacus on Sedna

Sunshine on Potassium Hydroxide Clouds in Jupiter Atmosphere

by kevin walsh, 2009 - 2011

these mineral tightropes

these mineral tightropes

the walled area we see

we know

you know this new canvas

deny

or trace the text

find laws to obey

decay

or relive another day

1. calcite

2. pyrite

by kevin walsh, 2011

my tribute in bread to uncle steve

 Brother Stephen Vincent Walsh 1941 - 2011

my uncle, my godfather, my internal voice of reason

i've always respected uncle steve's wisdom and taste. his appreciation of art was, of course, one generation more refined than my post-modern tendencies could produce. throughout my photographic evolution i would often find myself in the darkroom with a wet print in hand, thinking - yeah, even steve should like this one - then sometimes i could hear that deep voice of his say - hmmm...

i would often understand his issue with the piece and continue working. uncle steve was an artist himself, his best studio was the kitchen. he made magic with food - a good example of his expertise and strict judgment lies in his cheesecake. he could bake a cheesecake to end all cheesecakes - funny thing was, he hated cheesecake.

each culinary endeavor i undertake involves a generous proportion of steve's quiet critique.

it was last week that i began experiments with an apple cider bread

the first batches ranged from pancake to brick in terms of failure.

between then and now, uncle steve suffered some complications of human biology and eventually passed on monday.

when i visited him last weekend at the hospital - he was connected to maybe a dozen different things, the one apparatus i zeroed in on was the tube that kept him breathing.

in steve's past presence, i could always catch that subtle alarm in his breathe

as he was always so calculated and patient in conversation.

a narrow sigh, a quick inhale, a hardy chuckle - i would tune into these as much as his words.

and a word with steve was always a good one, it was complete.

that visit to the hospital ushered in a new context, one i was not prepared for,
and so has began some long days of incomplete silence.

but it is now and it is today and i began kneading myself forward...

i picked up where i left off with the apple cider bread, and there he was, the voice of reason.

helped me nail the apple cider bread.

uncle steve taught many folks throughout his years.

i was never formally a pupil of his

but with my attitude toward education, he was my best teacher.

steve, you will always be my obi-wan kenobi

and i'm sure several others will honor you the same

our work is yours

your life is now ours

so now, i present the batch inspired by my uncle

those baguettes are just sweet bread, the other four are the apple loaves. the following is the apple bread recipe and it's legit - the first recipe i've put up here that could actually be replicated by another, enjoy...

mulled apple cider sourdough

percentages:

flour 100%

starter 45%

water 25%

apple purée 60%

other flours 15%
fat 8%

salt 3%

specific ingredients and proportions used:

400g bread flour

30g coarse rye flour

30g buckwheat flour

5g vital wheat gluten

180g elaborated starter at 100% hydration

100g water

240g mulled apple cider purée*

30g unsalted butter (about half a stick)

10g sea salt (approx 1 Tbsp for 5 c flour)

topping: milled pecans and egg wash

*mulled apple cider purée:

2 apples 

1 long cinnamon stick

8 whole cloves

4 whole allspice

indiscriminate mount of apple cider, no more than 2 cups will do

any kind of apple works. granny smith apples are used for traditional mulled cider - which i used for the first couple of batches - i used some of the red variety for my successful batches - the lower acidity most likely helped the bread's structure but the flavor is what i found most pleasing over the granny smith apples.

preparing the cider:

start heating cider in shallow metal pan with cinnamon, allspice and cloves

peel apples and grate into the heating cider

bring to a boil - foam will begin to form at surface - lower heat and keep at a low boil

allow foam to fully develop around all shreds of apple

keep heating until this foam turns from a pale green to a browner color

remove from heat and cover

allow to cool until able to handle 

- i begin mixing the dough at this point, once i need the apples the dough is ready to rest and ready for a warm liquid infusion

remove cinnamon, allspice and cloves 

drain most of the cider - save excess cider for a nice drink

mash and/or cut apple shreds - this should be quick and easy - just make small uniform chucks of apple

whip softened apple into a chunky slurry 

whip it good, too - so that you stir in some air - like you're making scrambled eggs correctly

you do know how to scramble eggs correctly, right?

add small amounts of cider if needed to get to desired consistency - drink the rest

extra cider should not be added to replace water in the final dough

this adds too much acid to the bread. like adding vinegar, any ingredient that introduces acidity to a batch of dough will condition the gluten - in appropriate proportions, this can have positive results but too much will retard the yeast. 

my abridged and generalized method:

elaborate starter (approx 8 to 12 hour)

prepare apple purée (30 min to 1 hour, see recipe above)

hydrate starter with total water

mix bread flour and salt, then mix in  starter and water

mix to a shaggy mess - it won't look like dough yet - not enough liquid

allow this mix to rest for about 10 min

add the apple purée, it's good to still be quite warm

add other flours, butter and salt and mix

autolyse for 20 min once everything starts to hold together with first visible signs of gluten development - i've learned that the autolyse step should not be skipped even when mixing by hand - this gives the flour time to take in the moisture and ultimately makes kneading a lot easier.

begin kneading dough by letting it stick to a clean surface - stretching it - folding it to provide air pockets - turning and - repeat - repeat - repeat - repeat - repeat - repeat - repeat - repeat 

this dough was odd, the first couple trials took me probably 45 minutes and 900 calories and i took the dough well into gluten development

- once i got my shit together, i kneaded for less than 10 minutes and just let the dough get a low level of gluten development - i could of kept on for about 5 more minutes to get the gluten fully developed but i reasoned this led to some of my past failures.

so the dough was sticky when ready to ferment but still held a good round body.

i decided to change up my fermentation rules

i allowed the dough to double, as normal, which took 70 minutes in this brutal texas cold, and then gave it a quick second session of kneading instead of simple folds.

the dough can be pulled to a thin film with little grit (there will be some due to the nature of the ingredients) and this is a similar result as when i had when i busted ass for 45 minutes in previous trials.

after kneading, shape back into a ball and return to bowel to continue ferment

ferment another 2-3 hours with a "punch-down" fold in the middle

the entire fermentation step lasted no more than 4 hours for me

divide dough and preshape, rest for 20 min

shape loaves and place in proofing baskets

proof loaves until less than doubled (approx 50 minutes)

ready stones and preheat oven to 450º-500ºF

bake at high heat with stem for 10 minutes

lower heat and remove water for remaining baking time (another 15-35 minutes)

allow loaves to cool for at least 4 hours
below are some crumb shots

 

thanks for reading, i'll end this post with some words from my uncle
a formal obituary can be read here

peace - kevo

"The best among us do not excuse themselves from matters of the heart. 

The heart does not know the Pythagorean Theorem, 

the parts of speech or plant phyla. 

The heart knows love and its loss, 

craves compassion and responds to hospitality. 

The heart struggles with ambiguity, 

weighs choices and considers consequences. 

The heart, given space, learns to risk once it finds courage and hope. 

In the stillness of listening, it is the heart that hears the gentle breeze"

- Brother Stephen Walsh

Inaugural Convocation of the Holy Cross Institute

March 27, 2006

by kevin walsh, 2011

what is marshmallow soup?

as i've recently leveled up in my baking practices with the wild yeast starter, i figured i owe it to myself to better understand what i've been doing. so i invested in a cheap scale to break my bad habit of guessing measurements. it may sound impressive when i say i've been  mixing everything to feel - but it's a real headache sometimes and my poor math skills delay me too much (hence the silly ratio graphs).  so, with my new instrument, i've run some experiments to unite the two sides of my brain. however this scale doesn't help too much - in fact it's rather annoying. my local supermarket carries only one scale - not digital and unbearably hard to read. i aspire to obtain a digital in the future which would make this scale i have now useful for weighing my dough before shaping, whereas a digital scale can better accommodate my ingredient measurements. for the meanwhile, i've been using the scale to finesse my starter feeding.

i took a whole wheat starter and weighed my usual measurements at feeding - which is about a cup of starter to a cup of water to a cup of flour. here's what those measurements weigh out to as my crappy scale reads...

1 cup starter = 7 oz

1 cup water = 7.5 oz

1 cup flour = 4 oz

didn't surprise me much - guess this means i've had my starter over 100% hydration. beg the question: is this ratio incorrect? i have baked 9 successful batches from the starter being fed at this ratio. the consistency in this mixture is kind of soupy and i normally don't see a considerable rise after feeding. i've likened my starter to a marshmallow soup. talk to many bakers and they'll tell you my starter is too hydrated and probably shouldn't work - but hey it does. 

i referred to this article from the Fresh Loaf to retool my methods. i can't say my understanding is improved by it's information - i've become really quite confused. so, i went ape shit and carpet-bombed my starter stash with all kinds of new feeding ratios. 

i had several different mixtures using the following ratios (starter:water:flour) and the photos are 6 hours after feeding...

1:1:0.5

1:1:1

1:2:2

1:2:4

1:0.5:1

after observing the reactions of my feedings i came to the obvious conclusion - whatever works, works.

using correct ratios by weight, i found that the 1:2:2 ratio does what a starter should do - it's not the soup i've been using and i see the rise that i should within 6 hours after feeding. somehow, the old ratio i've been using seemed to kill my starter, the 1:0.5:1 ratio makes a sponge-like mass. the other mixtures proved successful and i baked a batch with the starter fed at 1:1:1. my dough was quite different than what i've recently come accustomed to, as my previous starters were over-hydrated. no matter, i'll adapt. i remember the immortal words of Hunter S. Thompson - "anything worth doing, is worth doing right"

factors of the environment will affect the starter and not one recipe can claim to have the perfect solution. in my opinion, this is a good thing, creating a diversity from baker to baker. this is why san franciso is so famous for their sourdough, as the yeast that flies about that city is evidently unique to the city. there are two variables i believe should be understood when reviewing my work.

1. the elements of my location: i live in the central texas hill country - and for those of you with a foreign knowledge of texas, let me explain that the hill country ain't like what's 40 miles in any direction. many rivers join in confluence around me and things are quite green even when there's very little rain - so i'm not in the western sand or the eastern mud or the northern grass or the southern nothingness. the weather is just as schizophrenic as the state's geography. for instance, earlier this week, in the middle of december, the temperature reached highs above 80ºF and the forecast is calling for below freezing nighttime temps in the next couple days. barometric pressure in my area can normally remain rather high for extended periods of time until a front comes in and everything drops. my apartment has no central air or heat, so the outside elements influence my kitchen considerably.

2. something is in the water: some bakers recommend using bottled water - shun - bottled water is the biggest con perpetrated on our society since the democratic party - not to mention a horrible waste. i use water from the tap. i heat the tap water in a kettle and let it cool - this should remove any chlorine. then i filter it through a brita - now all other impurities should be removed. i have no water softener - so i assume there's some minerals in the water even after the heat and filter. during any step of my method, i always use the water at room temperature. 

i realize my lab work is poor and my explanations leave much to the imagination. but it's creativity that i wish to promote. there is no single answer to solve any riddle in bread baking and what i've spelled out here are just a few of the possible solutions to the mysteries of wild yeast. as an apprentice under no master, i will continue to relay my findings to this blog no matter how obtuse. i think there's a purpose and i think someone can benefit. peace out - kevo

by kevin walsh, 2010