Tudor MercWench Smith

It's late - not too late but the inky depth of the night sky and the Erie silence settling over this little corner of the cosmos, makes it feel later. "Who's barkeeping tonight?" I call out as I approach the Kate, hoping to find some other insomnolent preparing for a long night, rather then bedding down for the duration. "And what have you by way of contraband russian vodka? Only the good stuff, if it can be found?"

Looks delightful, but unfortunately, I am a terrible sailor, and only eat fish if its haddock, beer battered, and deep fried (excluding the occasional sea-bug, drenched in butter). Should make long voyages a bit more complicated. Can I offer up some chocolate chip banana bread to make my refusal more gracious? One of my current specialties . . .

Yes, please, thank you! I'd take that in IV bag if I could . . . Should provide a delightful, rustic, addition to my otherwise faux pretentious brekkie . . . poached eggs, a feta & spinach chicken sausage and a slice of sourdough... Just what the Steward ordered for a day for endless zoom meetings.

In my house, we call 'em "Popplers" . . I'll take three please, and whatever coffee that can be rustled up that isn't this weak as water stuff my Keurig spat out at me. . .

T'was far to small, and far too short supply. Not a dessert I have managed to master myself, though I once did a very pleasing Tiramisu cupcake. Next on my agenda to conquer however, will be pain au chocolat. Breakfast of choice round these parts for the powder monkeys. Hopefully the bacon and eggs treated you well!

Walking along old familiar beaches, a light in the distance beckons me back to a a place I hadn't thought to see again. Same, 'Kate Ol' Girl, Same. Much like in lives past, I sneak in and find a quiet corner, and one chair in questionable condition, nodding my regards "Mistress; Sir".. . Strange how things change, yet stay the same. Twenty years ago I was working too much and odd hours, trying to piece life together, finding succor in this place. And here I am again, much the same. Too much work, not enough Tiramisu. "Here's to jobs . . . and cakes . . .one can sink one's teeth into.. . "

Look into flying into CLE and see if that is any better. I could scoop up at least 3-5 people and haul them out with me in the Mom Tank. Would suck to have to do a flight immediately followed by 5 hours in the car, but if it's more cost efficent, it's not like I wouldn't be going that way anyway.

Let me know when you are ready and I can send you some starter!

Oh hey! It's only a five hour drive for me! I'd be in!

People make maintaining a starter sound so much more complicated then it needs to be, I have found. And honestly, I've had better luck with it then conventional yeast, which I find dies and goes inactive in my cupboard pretty quickly. Meanwhile, my starter gets fed maybe once a week right before I bake. I've only had maybe one loaf out of a dozen or so, so far, not rise. Other misc failures abound of course, but rise hasn't been one off them too much. Temp is a big deal, but can be adjusted for with more time to let it rise. That's the other thing I am learning - it's an art, not a science. It may say x hours rise, but that literally depends on the weather. Let it rise til it looks good. Put in as much flour or water til it feels right. Recipes are more like guidelines anyway, to quote a favorite pop culture pirate. I actually had a pretty good discard dough recipe I used back at Thanksgiving, it was nice with the apples, but it would probably lend itself well to a savory pie. If you'd like, I could dig it up and you could play with it for you pigeon purposes.

I am low key obsessed with that site lol. I had intended to do donuts and Shrewsbury cakes from there at the event too, but the donuts didn't cook up well and I wanted to prioritize the wood and the cooktime. Maybe next time I will make them ahead of time.

This is the recipe for the Chocolate. https://rarecooking.com/2016/01/28/chacolet-from-rebeckah-winches-receipt-book-at-the-folger-shakespeare-library/ I recommend reading it there rather then having me transpose it over, because the original creators have so much good insight and provide the recipie in the original text as well as the modern transcription. Sadly, I do not recall which shortbread recipe I used back at FKG1 specifically, but this tends to be my general procedure: Shortbread: 1 c butter 1/2 c powdered sugar 1 3/4 c flour 1/3 c cornstarch Cream together softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift the flour and cornstarch into the butter and mix. Scoop into small balls and flatten with your hand or a stamp. Bake at 300 for 20 minutes

The bread is still very much a work in progress, and I am perpetually making adjustments but here's the basic jist of it... Bread flour - 4 cups/450g Water - 1.25 cups/ 275g Starter - 1/3 c/100g Salt - 1.5 tsp/10 grams Feed your starter the night before Mix all ingredients in a bowl until shaggy Kneed for 8-10 minutes (can use a stand mixer) until elastic and smooth and "feels" right Cover and let rise 6-8 hours or til double Tip out onto lightly floured surface, and shape Put on parchment paper and put into Dutch oven and cover for another 2-4 hour rise or until doubled (will vary based on temp). Score the middle with a very sharp knife then bake at 475-500 degrees - if starting from a cold over bake for about 50 minutes, then do 5-10 uncovered. If starting from a preheated oven, do about 20-30 minutes. If baking in a wood fired brick oven, bake at whatever temp the oven gods will allow the thing to get up to for as long as it takes for it to resemble bread. . . For fun a few days ago I ran this through chatGPT to write it as if it were an early modern recipe. It was not disappointing lol . . . Edit to add: while this recipe is entirely appropriate to period in that soughdough starters have been used since at least documented the Egyptians, and this was the only way to get levened bread, from all research I've found, use on board a ship would be highly unlikely due to the conditions being tricky to keep a starter healthy and alive and the difficulties of keeping flour fresh in storage - so this bread would have been a landside treat only, unless I can find some documentation otherwise.