Statistics

This is my favourite statistic for the day.

In 2005 more men died in the UK of breast cancer (82) than testicular cancer (67) (Hands off my Balls, Spiked). So there you go.

Text Books

Just a quick note on the text books listed in the profile as "favourite books". Becky expressed some dismay and wondered if she had the right Flourboy. I expect it will shortly become apparent. The first I will address is "Principles of Neuroscience", Kandel, Schwartz and Jessel. This I will admit is a little out of character for me. However, despite the pain of a PhD, I still like neuroscience and most of this book has nothing to do with the ventral cochlear nucleus. I also attended a plenary lecture by Eric Kandel at the 2004 Australian Neuroscience Conference in Melbourne. It was one of the most interesting and entertaining lectures that I have attended in neuroscience. He is one of the big people in memory and long term potentiation. (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2000/kandel-cv.html). Not only was it great to hear from someone with such experience and stature, he had also not lost himself in esoteric research as many nobel laureates and what not do, but actually presented a fantastic talk with new data and ideas (something along the lines of a prion like protein (as goes bad in mad cow disease) that could be involved in the laying down of long term memory). This is of course esoteric for many but is right down the ally for his nobel win (synaptic modification in a sea slug). Anyway, this is one of the few text books that I have read significant chunks of without the need for study purposes.
If you managed to get through that, the next one will be easier. "Biology" Campbell. Firstly, the various editions normally have a fantastic black and white photo on the front. Mine, the second ed, has a photo by John Sexton, a large format photographer and possibly a student of Ansell Adams. Secondly, the information in the book is easy to understand. Thirdly, there are these grey sections between chapters that have an interview with an eminent biologist relevant to the field. Eg, the head of the CDCP in the USA, and various others. Basically, it is a good textbook with added bonuses.

Yesterday Morning

I thought I might quickly share the happenings of yesterday morning. Bec and I had arisen to face the world. As many may know, Bec is not really a morning person. Generally I try to make something happen breakfast wise. This would be simple except that some days Bec is a little fussy about what to eat for breakfast. I try to find out what she would like this morning through her bleary eyed haze (at 11:30, but she has a cold too so it is ok). The choices are cereal, porridge or toast as we are out of eggs. Eventually, after much hesitation, porridge is decided upon. I leave her to her shower, shutting the bathroom door on the way to the kitchen. There is one problem. Some idiot has stuck their thumb in the corner of the door near the hinge. The resulting girly scream was blood curdling. As I ran to put ice on my now thinner thumb, Bec rinsed of herself and came to help, only one leg shaved. She grabbed ice and wrapped it in a tea towel and placed it upon my finger. I felt very sorry for myself.
We then faced one more hurdle before our day could begin - breakfast. What were we to do. I felt far to sorry for myself, not to mention the pain, to cook the porridge. What were we to do? Well, Bec is an ideas girl. Not wanting me to go hungry in my distraught state, she dressed and we went for Bagels at Fitzroy. That's right, we drove the 10 Km to Fitzroy rather then Bec cook the porridge. I have to say, the Bagels were fantastic and the coffee smooth. I gained a new appreciation for Bagels since my sister visited and spotted the "licensed Bagelry". They both boil and bake their own bagels AND roast their own coffee beans. For all those wondering, the thumb will be fine but I do feel very sorry for myself. Most importantly, it was well enough to make the porridge this morning.

Flour Justification: Part 1

As promised I will explain why so many different versions of flour are necessary. I shall list the flours that I have in the cupboard and then give as many possible uses as I can for each.

Wheat Flours
Plain White
This is the stock standard that is in the supermarket. This is just endosperm from the wheat grain. Protein content about 9.5 - 10.5%. Use this in your Roux for making a gravy or in buttermilk muffins or pancakes and adding a little bicarb. Not really very intesting.
Self Raising White
This is exactly the same as plainwhite but with a bit of baking powder (and possibly some "numbered" additives) added to make it go up when you bake with it. The baking powder is basically bicarb and phosphate aerator (apparently...). What I think the phosphate aerator does is add a little acidity to the flour which together with the bicarb gives off some CO2 and therefore makes bubble which expand when heated, causing the baked good to rise. You may note that buttermilk pancakes etc just need a little bicarb as the buttermilk contributes the acidity. Some people think that you can taste the selfraising agents in the final product and I tend to agree. YMMV. This is probably the most popular flour (not because everybody goes down the supermarket aisle and sees it and says to themselves "I must gt me some of that!" but because it appears in most recipes).
At the moment, I have White wings organic SRW. Personally, I tend to prefer my food produced with as many chemicals as needed to keep pests off my food and make the grain grow big and strong but on this occasion I made an exception, it was on special and thus, cheaper than nonorganic.
Plain Wholemeal
Same as plain white but for those trying to be healthy with a little bit of roughage. Wholemeal flour is meant to be made by just grinding the grain and not taking anything out. Based on rumour, I think that most wholemeal is actually made by making white flour and then adding a wee bit of grain husk back in. I could be wrong though. The point is, it should be more healthy than the white as it still has husk and germ. The germ contains good proteins and nutrients, vitamins etc. This all means that Wholemeal will have a bit more fat (the good kinds, and still not much) and protein than the white flours made from the same wheat.
SR Wholemeal
Same as Plain Wholemeal but with the same additives as SRW. Used for "healthy" versions of all the above mentioned foods except for Roux. Only use white for this. On the health front, it won't be the flour that will make your cake just a little naughty, it will be the sugar, chocolate, butter and icing that make it less than a healthy all round meal.

All these flours are what we might use for regular home cooking in the early 21st century. The main difference between these and the flours I am about to mention is the protein content. As a general rule and all else being equal, the higher the protein, the denser and chewier the product. Use the above flours to make light scones and biscuits (biscuits and cookies for my american readers). Large commercial bakeries will also use these low protein flours for bread (they are cheaper) but will add various improving agents to the mix. But for home bread making, these flours are totally inadequate. What we need is higher protein.

That is probably more than you wanted to know about the flour you probably all have in your cupboard. For the next exciting installment, I will begin the specialised flours. I know I can't wait!

My First Post

To be honest I just finished one of my homebrew beers. It's quite strong, and a delicious boutique beer. However I have been under a bit of pressure to begin my blogging life. Finally I have caved into the modern day and Flour Boy is on the web. Tune in for my next post where I might explain to you exactly why you need about 9 varieties of flour in your pantry - they all serve very different purposes and are used for different things. If you're very lucky, you might be the recipient of a product baked from one of the many flours of my pantry.