Julianna Visco Bread Molding Field Notes

28 September Julianna Visco (partner Emogene Cataldo)

location : Springfield NJ
temperature: 72 F
activity:l sour dough REDEMPTION

27 September Julianna Visco (partner Emogene Cataldo)

26 September Julianna Visco (partner Emogene Cataldo)

location : Springfield NJ
temperature: 72 F
activity:light tallow candle (side effect of tallow experiment)

22 September Julianna Visco (partner Emogene Cataldo)

location : Springfield NJ
temperature: 66 F
activity: to make tallow

Fat is cooled to room temperature but still quite liquid. Put in refrigerator to try to solidify. Whole kitchen smells 'beefy'.
note: * I have lots of photos but they are not properly loading right now, will try again later

21 September

location : Springfield NJ
temperature: 75 F
activity: to make tallow

Set crockpot to low. Add 3 lbs of beef fat. Monitor each hour. Total rendering time: 5 1/2 hours
Ladled melted fat into bowl (using two layers of cotton cheese cloth), bits of beef strained out etc.
Let cool overnight in pyrex container covered on counter.
Observation: smell of beef and fat permeates house. I poured small bit of the tallow into a candle holder, adding a wick. If I were to do this again, (for candle not molding purposes, I would add essential oils to mask the beefy smell (reminiscent of elementary school cafeteria in 1980s on cheesesteak or meatloaf day)

21 September

location : Springfield NJ
temperature: 75 F
activity: feed both batches with 1/2 cup each more flour, and 1/2 cup warm (100 F water) stir vigorously

activity: to make tallow : Pick up beef fat at The Pork Store in Union NJ (3 lbs packs, ground)

20 September

location : Springfield NJ
temperature: 68 F
activity: feed both batches with 1/2 cup each more flour, and 1/2 cup warm (100 F water) stir vigorously

19 September

location : Springfield NJ
temperature: 72 F
activity: feed both batches with 1/2 cup each more flour, and 1/2 cup warm (100 F water) stir vigorously

18 September

location : Springfield NJ
temperature: 68 F
activity: feed both batches with 1/2 cup each more flour, and 1/2 cup warm (100 F water) stir vigorously

17 September 2014 Julianna Visco (partner Emogene Cataldo)

location : Springfield NJ
temperature: 66 F

Mix up two batches of sour dough starter.
Batch #1 Whole wheat flour
Batch # 2 White wheat flour and spelt flour; ration 1:1

17 September 2014 Julianna Visco and Emogene Cataldo

location: 142nd street
ambient: hot - 88 degrees
activity: baking bread

TRIAL RUN
baked 3 loaves of bread
first two (french recipe) in baking loaf pans
third (Donna's recipe) in cast iron pot with lid
temperature approximately 550 F
all baked 25 - 30 minutes

Once removed from oven - let cool 10 minutes. sliced first two loaves in half horizontally, then impressed objects.
we were amazed at how dense french recipe loaf was.
The third recipe baked in the cast iron pot, we removed the crust on the bottom and the skin on top to access the "pith" which we hand molded around several object 1. keyring, 2. plastic key label 3. wrench

• while bread baked we had a discussion of bacon fat in Hugh Plat

from
TITLE: The jewell house of art and nature. : Conteining diuers rare and profitable inuentions, together with sundry new experimentes in the art of ....
AUTHOR: Plat, Hugh, Sir.
DETAILS: London, 1594. 245pp.
Full Citation eTable of Contents List of Illustrations
page 59 / image
"molding in crumbs of bread" manchet bread, search of wikipedia reveals 1588 recipe for manchet bread "The Good Huswifes Handmaide by unknown author" that particular edition is missing in Clio,

15 September 2014 Julianna Visco (partner Emogene Cataldo)

Location: at home (springfield, nj, indoors, about 66 degrees)

For possible molding, made a fake medallion out of play-do
1. grabbed fistful of play-doh (old play-doh I found in my closet
2. rolled in out by hand into circle (press on each side to compress)
3. made imprints of varying sizes with 3 objects (a binder clip, a quarter and a led pencil bar)
4. leave out to dry

see images.

Found this link on rendering tallow

http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2012/02/how-to-render-beef-tallow.html
note: I have a friend who is a butcher – I can see if he can get us enough animal fat to try and make these.

Also this site (below) suggests that kidney fat / kidney suet
makes superior tallow candles but is more expensive. If we are going the route of tallow because it was more affordable perhaps reg. fat will do . .
http://candleandsoap.about.com/od/soapmakingoils/ss/rendertallow_10.htm

10 September 2014 Julianna Visco (partner Emogene Cataldo Preliminary Bread Molding Research

Cellini
- pane definition
-another better way of casting (81)

Theophilus
-clay molds (132-138, 165 - 182)
-iron molds (67 - 69, 93, 99, 103)
-wooden molds (69, 70, 183)
-cire perdue (106, 132-138, 165 - 182)
-iron mold binding (140, 141, 170)
-bell metal mold?

Cennini
-casting in sculpture (130)
-casting in lead (129)
-casting medals (how to make mold from a coin!) (130)
-box for casting (127, 129)

from JSTOR

• Aesthetics and Alchemy in the Contemporary Kitchen
• joanne molina
• Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies
• Vol. 10, No. 1 (Winter 2010) (pp. 145-148)

"In the fourteenth century a recipe in
the Secretum Philosophorum turned water into wine by
soaking bread in red wine, drying it, and then immersing
the bread in water.2"

Quick search of "Arte della cucina: Libri de ricette, testi sopra lo scalco, il trinciante e i vini dal XIV al XIX secolo, Volume 2" on google books, need to go to rare book and manuscript library to see whole thing, anyway did search of "Pane" and found
-pane dorato (186) golden/gilded
-pane fritte ( 199) fried
-pane grattata ( 310) grated / scraped