Don’t skip this step.
I’m scanning a recipe for sourdough challah — not that I make sourdough or challah but where’s there’s life there’s hope and the word foolproof in the title drew me in, I admit it — and I stop dead in my figurative tracks. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen this instruction in a recipe or, indeed, in any set of instructions.
Cover the dough with a damp towel
and rest for 15 mins to relax the gluten.
Don’t skip this step.
We’re going to jump over the question of who is supposed to rest for 15 minutes – the dough or me – because it amounts to the same thing. If the dough is resting, the dough is resting. If I’m resting, the dough is, perforce, resting. Moving on.
But not too far. What’s this Don’t-skip-this-step bit? Isn’t the whole idea with instructions that the instructee executes each step identified by the instructor? What kind of world would we have if in addition to telling you what to do, they told you to do it? An extremely tedious one, that’s what.
Turn left at the third road. I mean it.
– GPS voice-over
Wash in cold water. Seriously: do not use hot water.
– Care tag on clothing
Step 1: Sort the bolts by size. You’ll be sorry if you don’t.
– Instruction sheet for furniture assembly
Yeah, no. Tell me what to do, full stop. I don’t need no haranguing.
And yet, I keep thinking of that bread dough. We can’t see, smell, or hear the gluten relaxing. In an impatient and speed-driven culture prone to shortcuts, what’s a conscientious recipe writer to do about instructions that are critically important to the end result BUT the benefit/rationale for doing them isn’t obvious?
Exactly what they did, I think. Don’t skip this step. But boy howdy do I ever hope that we don’t get into an escalatory loop, requiring ever-greater emphasis to achieve the same communication and compliance. Talk about your tedious.
Cover the dough with a damp towel
and rest for 15 mins to relax the gluten.
Don’t skip this step.
I mean it.
Seriously.
You’ll be sorry if you don’t.
Yeah, no. Some things work best as exceptions. Many things, maybe. Less, as someone said, is more.
I hadn’t realized that gluten — whatever it is — had to relax. I assume, then, the up-tight gluten doesn’t make good bread?
Many years ago, my family visited old Fort William, the reconstruction of the original fur trading fort. Joan was a bread maker, so we got into conversation with the actor in the bakery building. As we talked, the lid of a huge trunk behind him started opening on its own. I had visions of something out of the Addams Family, but the baker just said it was a batch (a very big one) of dough rising. He calmly sat on the lid to hold it down. Could that be seen as repression of gluten’s freedom to rise?
Jim T – 🙂 There’ll be street marches for gluten’s freedom to rise, just wait and see. As I said, the process is invisible and silent – so how would you even know it existed, much less that it had happened?
I received a recipe from a friend in Hungary for Chicken Paprikash. At one point, she wrote “Let simmer for 20 minutes and go do your emails.” Presumably, one was not to disturb the pot. I don’t do emails, but neither do I disturb the pot.
Judith – 🙂 Nice. Same idea, different execution. Whatever works.
Well, can’t fault the instructions for not being thorough.
Tom
Tom – 🙂 That’s a fair point.
On the British Baking Show is that step called “proving”? — Oak Run English Muffins used to be excellent, but about 2 years go they began to have a gluey layer in the middle. I suspected underbaking OR not enough proving time and I wrote to them about it — I still do emails– no response. Obviously they missed a step and lost my custom. Maybe I should try them again, but Farm Boy doesn’t seem to Oak Run on a regular basis anymore… hmmmm.
Barbara – Why won’t They listen? 🙂 Gluey insides are never good.
I, for one, would need that caution. When I read recipes I tend to scan, compare with others, get used to what is familiar to me and assume one approach to bread-making must be generally applicable. I’m not an expert, just very busy. So telling me to slow down would be necessary.
Bread-making is one of the joys of life. I hope your challah came out well.
Laurna – 🙂 Yes, speed is the curse of the age (as I read somewhere a long while before it actually became true). I didn’t make the bread but if I ever do, I’ll remember to let the gluten relax. 🙂
Maybe it would be less controversial if it said:
This Step is important:…..
Jim R – 🙂 Or maybe a big, bold arrow pointing at it? Instruction writers have an interesting decision to make: Are they instructing you on the steps for this recipe/task or are they teaching you about it, or both?