Originally published on 24-11-2009. Relevant to having dug up the post about my centenarian Italian sourdough starter, and resurfaced here partly to goad me into trying it again so that I can repost on Fornacalia.com. There are definitely changes I would make to the recipe and the method.
Later in the summer I'll be offering some bread-making courses, and as part of that I've been excavating part of my personal baking history. Today, that was the story of how I came by one of my sourdough starters, the 100-year old Tuscan pasta madre. I snapped this portrait this morning.
A...
Until recently, the Mangalitza, or Mangalitsa, or Mangalica pig was the stuff of stories for me. This woolly pig, first selected in Hungary, has been raved about as a very tasty pig indeed, a breed whose salvation lay in being eaten more widely. On a couple of trips to Hungary I did keep half an eye open for it, but at least on my sketchy investigations it appeared to be without honour in its own country.
Alex Blumberg interviewed Pierre Sutton and his daughter Keisha on a recent episode of his series . Sutton's giant achievement was to create black-owned "race" music radio stations, and listening to the episode triggered a memory from long, long ago.
I haven't seen that video of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dancing her ass off, and nor will I, but kudos to for using it as a peg on which to hang a good story about copyright, mash-ups, fair use and the like.
