Cooking appliances – Page 2

Slow Cookers

I used a slow cooker for many years, and invested time and effort in learning that method of cooking.

Slow cookers braise food in liquid at low heat. Most slow cookers made from the 1950s to the early 21st century used ceramic crocks heated by a single electric heating element- low powered and poorly insulated. Elements were like elements in electric ovens and toaster ovens: straight metal, shaped into a circle or oval to surround the lower part of crock. Elements in modern machines are ribbon or wire elements in a belt. In some modern machines the element may have insulation. In basic devices the power is turned on to allow a constant electric current produces constant heat stated as in watts. The element heats the crock which heats the food. The heat at the element will be greater than the temperature of the inside surface of the crock. The element may be contolled by a switch or a control panel.

The ceramic crock slow cooker was inspired by the ceramic beanpot. This article on CNET has pictures and illustrations of old devices. Ceramic beanpots, like Dutch ovens and casseroles, cook dry beans in water or broth. Beanpots involved long cooking times at low heat. The constraints for dry beans are heat and time. The heat source had to provide steady low heat, and keep the cooking water below the boiling point of water (212 F. or 100 C.). A slow cooker can be used like a beanpot, to cook beans in fluid. If heat is constantly applied, the beans will be heated, and simmered or gently boiled. Writers (e.g. Anupy Singla, The Indian Slow Cooker; Rick Bayless, Mexican Every Day) suggested several hours on high in a normal ceramic crock slow cooker. Some beans need a long time on high. e.g. chickpeas (garbanzo beans), black urad beans, or red kidney beans. Some recipes incorrectly suggest that dry chickpeas cook in 6 hours on low.

The ceramic crock slow cooker would cook root vegetables in a few hours; less dense material more quickly. Rival (now a Jarden Brand) began to build and market the Crock-Pot in the 1970’s (by the 1990’s “the Original Slow Cooker”) as a device to cook stew and chili. Rival and its competitors pushed the standard size of the crock from 5 quarts to 6 or 7 quarts. The manufacturers increased the wattage of elements to meet concerns that the device was not cooking the food well enough to be safe and palatable after 8 hours of cooking. Another innovation: the three and four position switch. With the latter the cook can select Off; Warm; Low; High. Warm is not a cooking setting. High means the element runs hotter than low. This article says that 7 hours on low is equivalent to 3 hours on high.

I used a 6 quart ceramic crock Crock-Pot with a manual off-low-high switch for years. It heated the ingredients enough: it created humidity under the lid and some bubbling in the pot; some ingredients would bake to the sides. I made stews and chilies that filled the pot to 2/3 to 3/4, cooked on low for 5-7 hours. I refrigerated or froze leftovers. The chilis I made were American chili con carne, a stew that may involve meat, beans, bell peppers, chili peppers, and vegetables. Mexican and Central American versions feature the flavour of chili peppers, and use beans. American versions often stress meat and minimize beans, but there are bean free and meatless recipes.

These slow cooker recipes require precooked or canned beans. Many slow cooker recipes for recommend using canned beans, because beans take long than any other ingredient. Most canned beans (most canned vegetables) are cooked in the can in a salty broth; salt is used to counteract the effects of this cooking – manufacturers think that without salt, the food takes on offensive flavours. This is a problem for many people – no sodium beans are available but consumers have to find them.

I tried a recipe with dry white chickpeas in that device once. The other ingredients were well cooked at 6 hours on low before but the beans were not done – rather crunchy. Chickpeas are said to need 3 hours or 4 hours on high in a crock pot or slow cooker. I haven’t tried that; I won’t. I am suspicious about recipes that say that chickpeas can be done in less than 10-12 hours. I have since done curried chickpeas (using a chana masala spice blend); cooking time of 14 hours on high.

In June 2015, Rival published a statement about Crock-Pots that can still be seen in the Wayback Machine archive here. It includes these assertions and disclaimers about cooking, food safety and slow cooker:

The simmering point of water is 209 F.;
The contents of a crock should reach that point in 7 to 8 hours on low or 3 to 4 hours on high;
Food doesn’t need to reach the boiling point for safe eating – the simmer point is acceptable;
The safe to serve internal temperature is around 160 degrees, which your food may reach well before three hours.
Just use your best discretion.

Rival did not say which ceramic crock slow cookers could bring food or fluid to 209 F. in under 3 hours on high or low setting. The simmering point of water usually refers to a range from 185 F. to 205 F. The water has thermal energy and bubbles slowly. A small amount of water turns to gas, condenses, and becomes visible as a mist. The water is not actually boiling and the mist is not steam, which is the gas made up of water molecules at a temperature in excess of the boiling point of water.

Simmered food should reach an equilibrium that is will be sustained for a time. The situation will change when heat is added to the system, too much evaporation has occurred, or the food is cooked.

The food safety aspect of cooking is to avoid the conditions in which bacteria contaminate the food. Bacteria are dead in frozen food, dormant in cold food, and die off at about 140 F. They thrive in cool to warm food. They digest the food and excrete complex chemicals that spoil or poison the food. Most cooking methods raise the temperature fast.

Books and recipes before 2016/17 assume 5.5-6 quart ceramic crock slow cookers with high and low cooking settings. Culinary writers try to get a stew, chili or curry done in 6 hours or less – fast slow cooking. Cook’s Illustrated/America’ Test Kitchen produced three America’s Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Revolution cookbooks 2011-2015. Each discussed the uses and some of limitations of the device, and provided workable techniques and recipes – addressing the ceramic crock slower. Each book had product reviews of a few products. The products tended to work the same way.

Innovations extended product lines and marketing opportunities; some innovations added some value for consumers. Timers give cooks an option to turn off or turn down the heat. Jarden/Rival had a line of Smart-Cookers with buttons that allowed the user to select 4 or 6 hours on high, or 8 or 10 on low. These are not what a user may want. The Crock-Pot Count-Down timer was a good innovation and has been widely emulated.

The limitations of ceramic crock slow cookers include:

A 6 or 7 quart crock is heavy;
The crock could not sauté, fry, or roast food. Some ingredients have to be cooked in a skillet or other vessel first to ensure the dish would be fully cooked, or to enhance flavour (bloom spices, heat onions and garlic, brown some ingredients);
The ceramic crock cannot be used on stove elements, in hot ovens, or in microwave ovens;
Manufacturers and culinary writers warn users
- to not lift the lid or stir the food;
- to not add cold ingredients into a hot crock;
The food near the element gets hot first and is always hotter. Food touching the crock near the element may brown, stick or even burn;
Ceramic crocks develop cracks and break down. The heat source is in a belt around the lower part of the crock; recipes place variable demand on the device. Manufacturers deflect by blaming users for ignoring warnings and limit their liability to short warranty periods.
Replacement ceramic inserts are hard to find – out of production, or out of stock;
The device draws power constantly. It is cheaper and more efficient than using an oven, but not as efficient as other appliances.

Devices sold as slow cookers or having a slow cooker function, in 2019:

oval or round vessels with surrounding elements with ceramic cooking vessels or chambers;
oval or round vessels with surrounding or bottom elements, with metal, coated metal cooking vessels or chambers
round metal pots with bottom elements (electric pressure cookers and other multicookers).

Slow cooker sizes vary. There are many 3 and 4 quart devices. 5, 5.5, 6, 6.5 quart models were common – nearly standard. There have been a few 7.5 and 8 quart models. There are roasting pans/ovens in the shape and style of slow cookers – these are larger than slow cookers.

Some modern slow cookers have metal pans, with non-stick or ceramic coatings. Metal pan slow cookers may have the heating element in an aluminum hotplate below the pan – like rice cookers and electric pressure cookers. A rice cooker heats a metal pot of rice and fluid to a boil, and uses automated controls to change the heat to low simmer. An electric pressure cooker brings the contents of the pot to a rolling boil with a hotplate element (e.g. Instant Pots: 1000 watts in 6 quart pots). A pressure cooker heats food and fluid to the boiling point; under pressure the temperature rises higher. The elements in these devices are below at the cooking vessel, and temperature and pressure sensors are outside the inner pot.

Machines with high wattage elements and/or metal pots rely on temperature sensors and programmed controls to prevent the food from overheating. Temperature sensors are typically outside the cooking vessel, and read a temperature at a point on the outside surface. The chip makes progammed calculations that control the current and the read out/display, if any. Usually, the control chip turns the element off when a set temperature is reached, and turns it for short periods on maintain temperature at the point calculated by the manufacturer’s team. The temperature of the contents of the vessel over time should rise and then graph as peaks and troughs along a mean.

Cook’s Illustrated/America’ Test Kitchen The Complete Slow Cooker (2017) recommended modern slow cookers with features including temperature sensors, countdown timers and electronic controls. CI/ATK tested heating performance by heating 4 quarts of water in 6 and 7 quart slow cookers Parts of the tests and results are in a YouTube video and a background story. There is a graph which shows that several devices in their tests will heat the water to 210 F. on high heat in about three hours; other devices take longer. CI/ATK pointed out that many newer machines run too hot to execute the CI/ATK library of slow cooker recipes. They like devices that heat the food to nearly the boiling point in a few hours and stabilize the heat. CI/ATK highly recommended a 6 quart KitchenAid ceramic crock model with a 350 watt belt element, and a Cuisinart model with a coated aluminum pan and a 250 watt hotplate element.

Wattage does not necessarily predict results. A 200-250 watt element is not hot enough to to fry in a metal pot. It heats the food faster in a metal pot than a ceramic. Ceramic crock machines with lower wattage elements will not heat water to 210 F. in 3 hours on high. Crock-Pot has 370 watts for an 8 quart crock, 240 watts for 6 quart models and 210 watts for 4 quart models. These machines would execute most recipes within the parameters of the recipe books, with a little variation depending on the crock and the contents of the crock. A few hours at low may be enough for soup, stew and chili. Several hours at high will do dry beans.

Pots and Pans

The hypothesis of Catching Fire is that cooking food was a learned cultural practice that affected the physiological evolution of human beings. It used “external” energy to make eating and digesting food take less time and liberated people to get on with life.

Ceramic cooking vessels were the dominant technology in societies in which people had stable homes. They were/are heavy and might be fragile, as compared to metal. They were the dominant technology until metal could be mined, refined and worked at scale – economically accessible. The Romans had sophisticated ceramics – the decline of the Roman empire is marked in the archeological record by the decline of the quality of ceramics. Ceramic vessels have been regarded as primitive and superceded in most cultures and have hung on as a specialty method of cooking.

The metal cooking vessel was allowed food to be fried, roasted, boiled or braised. The combination of metal cooking vessels and reasonably safe and efficient stoves that created heat with electricity or fuel enabled people to work with raw ingredients and “staple” processed ingredients (e.g. rice, dried beans, flour) to cook. The kitchen stove in the 20th century, heated by electrical energy or gas, provided direct heat applied to base of the cooking vessel by elements or burners, and an oven. The top worked with metal vessels, primarily. The user had to set the energy level, monitor the time and temperature and work the food around the pan. It is better than cooking with wood or coal, but it required some skill and effort and used energy.

Cast iron was a dominant technology in 19th century Europe and America. Carbon steel became (and remains) was a popular material to make woks and karahis in Asia. Thick walled vessels were durable and managed to distribute heat evenly. Thin walled vessels were vulnerable to dents and dings, and could easily scorch food. Lighter and less expensive thin-walled, vessels dominated the markets in Europe and America for most of the 20th century. Technological innovations included stainless steel, clad (bonded layers of stainless steel surfaces over other metal that held and conducted heat) bases, multi-ply vessels, induction pans.

American and European tradition culinary writers favoured using heavy cast iron or steel pans to fry or roast to get the outer layers of some food to carmelize (brown), and using technique (e.g. deglazing) to get the carmelized matter out of the pan and into a sauce or gravy that would reach the plate. Enamel on iron and enamel on steel coatings make metal less prone to stick, more resitant to corrosion, and simplied maintenace and care. Bare iron had to be treated or seasoned. This was the folk wisdom of cooks, recited by culinary writers. Cast iron cookware was durable, which led to interest in restoring and using old cast iron ware. The modern manufacturers and culinary writers theorized, experimented and tested the principles of seasoning iron. The idea of seasoning by baking a coating of flaxseed oil became a dominant theory around 2010:

American writers favoured the large skillet to fry and sauté most food, and as shallow roasting pan – even as a substitute for a wok.

Teflon and other chemical non-stick coatings developed in mid to late 20th century had benefits and drawbacks. The coatings could be scratched during use or cleaning – the utensils have to be softer than the utensils that work with bare metal. Some coatings degrade if the pan is overheated, or under heavy use. Hard anodized aluminum is marketed as non-stick. There have been technical advances. True advances cannot be readily identified in the background noise of product marketing “reviews”.

A few pans and utensils and a stove will see most cooks through most tasks. A few specialty applicances can cook some food with less adjustment of stove temperatures and work over the stove. A flat bottom wok, with a durable non stick coating, is a versatile pan which can serve as a skillet, a deep sauté pan and a wok.

Introduction

Purpose

Bread machines came on the market about 1986, and became popular outside Japan by the late 1990s. My first bread machine was a Black & Decker B1561. I replaced it with a Panasonic SD-YD250 in 2016, and a Zojirushi Virtuoso (the 2016 model, the BB-PAC20) in 2020 [Updated].

A bread machine is a labour saving tool. A bread machine makes one unsliced loaf at a time. Bread machine bread will have a dense uniform crumb that is strong enough be sliced. The crust will be firm but not crisp. Lacking preservatives, bread machine bread may become stale or grow mould after a few days.

Bread machines process milled grain flour with water, salt, yeast or another leavener, and other ingredients to produce the processed food “bread” – yhey bake bread. They start with processed or plain ingredients. Bread machines use standard bakers’ supplies – flour, fluids, sugar, salt, rising agent (yeast or chemical), seeds, herbs, fruit, nuts etc. They mix the ingredients, process dough and bake dough until the dough becomes a baked product.

A bread machine has a heating element, a motor, a removable pan mounted to the frame, a paddle shaped mixing device (it may be called a dough hook or kneader) connected to the power train by a shaft in sealed bearings at the bottom of the pan. Machines may be used 2 or three times a week for several years. Modern machines have durable no-stick coatings. The pan is a mixing bowl and a baking pan. The size of the pan determines the maximum or optimal amount of ingredients to avoid a loaf that overflows the pan. It is possible to bake loaves that are smaller than the space available inside a bread machine pan, but it takes some planning.

Expectations

Bread machines follow the series of steps followed by professional bakers and home cooks. The designer can program combinations of steps that should produce results with some combinations of ingredients if the machine is loaded properly. The ingredients are mixed and kneaded. The machine has to wait while the dough rises, and then bake the dough into bread. Each step takes time. Manufacturers try to speed up the process by processing the dough differently or adding more rising agent to increase the speed and magnitude of the rise of the dough.

Bread machines are not all the same. Web sites may say that they all work the same way. Beth Hensperger tried to write recipes that worked well in all bread machines in

Robotic Kneads, a chapter in The Bread Bible: Beth Hensperger’s 300 Favourite Recipes (1999), and
The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (2000),

A bread machine can produce enriched (sandwich) bread similiar to the bread produced by commercial bakeries, generally without preservatives. Some bread machines can produce unbaked dough. Some can be used to bake cakes or mix jam.

There are a few conventional ways of talking about some features of bread machines.

Bread machines all have containers that serve as mixing bowls and baking pans. Bread machines are described by reference to the volume of the pan and the capacity to bake a loaf (by comparison, 1 pound loaf would be regular in a bakery or a home baking recipe; 1.5 pounds would be large:

small loaf – 1 lb. – 2 cups of flour;
medium loaf – 1.5 lb. – 3 cups of flour;
large loaf – 2 lb.- 4 cups of flour; and
extra large – 2.5 or 3 lb.

The pans have similiar shapes – there are a few general types. The mixing pans have mixing paddles inside the pan, with mechanisms to connect the paddles to a drive system in the machine.The Bread Lover’s Bread Machine Cookbook (Harvard Common Press, 2000) (BLBMC) calls bread machine pans tall, horizontal, and vertical rectangle. Pan shape dictates the shape of the loaf :

The tall pan has one paddle in the middle at the bottom; it may be square or oval. A machine that makes small and medium loaves will have a “tall” pan.
Machines with horizontal pans produce loaves shaped like bread produced in a bakery. These pans have two paddles.
A machine that makes 2 pound loaves may be tall, horizontal or vertical rectangle.
Machines that bake 2.5 and 3 pound loaves will have vertical rectangle pans, with a single paddle – e.g. Panasonic 250 or 2500 models; Breville Custom Loaf XL.

Bread machines usually have basic bake and whole wheat bake programs.

The basic program is for dough made from white flour milled from wheat – usually higher protein “bread” flour. Basic bake is for enriched bread, made with bread flour, with sugar, milk, butter or oil, or sandwich bread. This program is usually the choice for loaves that use a blend of bread flour and whole wheat, rye and other flours . The basic bake program is versatile enough to make some lean loaves, although lean breads may also be baked in a French bread program or a custom program if a machine has those features.
The whole wheat bake program will knead longer and change other phases. These programs work with thousands of recipes,

Whole wheat flour and bread flour weigh the same amount per unit of volume, Bread flour has more of the proteins that bond to form gluten. It is mixed, kneaded and handled differently.

Other cycles:

Bake (Rapid), Turbo, Quick Bake, Rapid, etc. They will knead for close to the normal time. They shorten the rise phase(s) but require more yeast for faster fermentation, hence the “Quick” or “Rapid” rising aspect of these programs. Some knead more vigorously. Most will call for more rising agent, or a different rising agent (e.g. a quick-rise or rapid-rise yeast) for a rapid rise or quick-rise program. The dough, to reduce the total time, is programmed to rise once and not knocked down or risen a second or third time.The BLBMC noted there were serious differences between machines with regard to these programs.
French or European Bake. These programs have longer rise and bake phases to bake lean crusty loaves. Some machines allow users to create custom settings (e.g. Breville BBM800XL and some Zojirushi models) to set the times for phases to get this program as a custom.
Cake or Quick Bread. Quick Breads is a term that bakers use to refer to bread leavened by rising agents other than yeast. This program is for bread and other baked goods leavened with baking powder or baking soda e.g. corn bread and cakes. It mix ingredients into a batter. The leavening agent starts to act as soon as the batter is wet, until the batters sets. Batter made this way can be baked as soon as the mixing has stopped
Dough programs mix and knead, and rise but omit the baking phase
Bake only – a feature on some machines noted in the BLBMC. It is not common.
Jam – some machines have programs to mix jam.

The differences between basic bake, French/European, and the custom program. Times (Panasonic medium loaf, Zojirushi default) in minutes. Baking temp. not tested or published by manufacturers.

Machine	Program	Rest	Mix/knead	Rise	Rise 1	Rise 2	Rise 3	Bake
Panasonic SD-YD250	Basic	30	15	110				50
Zorjirushi BB-PAC20	Basic	31	19		35	20	40	60
Panasonic SD-YD250	French	40	10	175				55
Zorjirushi BB-PAC20	Custom – French/Euro	22	18		35	50		70

Some gluten-free recipes involve chemical leaven e.g. baking powder, baking soda and can be baked in a cake program. For loaves leavened without yeast, which are traditionally called “Quick Bread’ (BLBMC p. 538) Hensperger prefers the quick bread program or cake program hat mixes a batter and bakes. In the BLBMC (2000), Beth Hensperger addressed gluten-free (p. 170) baking as making bread with yeast as the rising agent, from specialty flour – flour that lacks gluten but could form crumb with additives that made dough gummy. Hensperger suggested using a quick rise bake program. Gluten-free dough has to be mixed and kneaded which occurs in the mix/knead phase in a bread machine program, and then requires time to rise. Some manufacturers including Zojirushi have built their machines with that kind of gluten-free program

Manufacturers are competitive and rely on marketing to sell their own machines. Manufacturers have not agreed on standards and do not use language the same way.

Most bread machines have a user manual and a recipe booklet. It is worth reading these to determine the basic amounts of flour, water, salt and yeast for basic loaves in the machine’s wheat flour programs – basic bread, whole wheat, European/French. A recipe that has worked in one brand machine cannot be used in another brand. Recipes have to be adjusted for different machines.

Resources, Conventions

There are a few more books and a few web sites about bread machines (and many sites with recipes). Some web sites:

Wikihow – How to Use a Bread Machine
King Arthur Bread Company – Bread Machines

There are reviews on the Web – buried in search engine result under superficial reviews and marketing material (SEO is not the consumer’s friend). Some review site are platforms for marketing and promotion or gateways to marketing sites. Comprehensive reviews by knowledgable reviewers are rare. Consumer Reports may never have done breadmakers or bread machines. Culinary magazines snip and snipe. Amateur reviews tend to recite manufacturer marketing claims or focus on features that someone believes are persuavive to consumers, and not on the machine or the bread. The reviews at Breadmakerguides.com are throrough and informative, but the site is not comprehensive. The New York Times affiliate Wirecutter site tackled the subject periodically (eg. 2019), but only covers a few machines.

A bread machine can be used to bake artisinal loaves but there are usually no built-in programs or functions. The machine can be used as a mixer in a dough program, and the dough can be rested, shaped and baked. It is possible, for some loaves, to leave the dough in the pan and stop the machine, and put the pan back and bake the loave after it has fermented and risen.

In bread machines, as in industrial bakeries, the product depends on the recipe, the process and measurement. Beth Hensperger in the BLBMC, consistently with other baking books, list ingredients by volume but suggests weighing ingredients. A user selects a program, which a manufacturer or writer may call a “course” or “cycle”. It takes from 3 to 4 hours or more, after loading the machine, to run a program and bake bread in a “regular” baking program (as opposed to the quick or rapid options available with almost all machines). Some reviewers say a long cycle is a drawback. But a long cycle may bake a better loaf more consistently.

These are expensive appliances. There is little discussion of repairs after the warranty period, and little public discussion about the ability and willingness of manufacturers to supply repair parts, at any price, over the life of a machine.

The machines are susceptible to failure. The drive system, including the drive shafts, is largely not accessible. Some manufacturers will sell a replacement assembly such as a mixing/baking pan. Replacing a pan may be the only way to repair a failure in the bearing and seals of the drive shafts in a pan.

Constraints

Baking

A home baker needs space, several vessels or machines to mix and rest dough, baking pans and an oven.

Bread dough has to be viscous (the standard engineering term) or tenacious or elastic (bakers’ jargon) but extensible (more bakers’ jargon). Dough must be tenacious (elastic) enough to hold shape until the loaf is baked – the dough has become a loaf of “crumb” coasted in “crust”. A tenacious dough holds its shape until the loaf bakes and the heat kills the yeast. When the baker is producing loaves in pans in industrial ovens, the baker needs extensible dough that flows, fills the pan and rises. A home baker may put the dough in bread pans or shape the dough by hand before baking it in the oven. A bread machine pan, like an oven pan, shapes the loaf.

Most programs require the use of wheat flour to form gluten and and yeast to biologically ferment dough. High protein white flour (USA bread flour or Canadian All Purpose flour) and regular grind whole wheat flour (coarse ground is available) are similar in density, weight, starch and protein but form gluten, ferment, rise and bake differently. Whole wheat flour has bran and wheat germ. In traditional baking, it has to be mixed longer to distribute fluid and ensure hydration. There are different approaches to kneading, with some favouring less and others more. In a bread machine, kneading is a succession of stop and go operations of the motor and drive train.

If the user has not loaded the machine properly, the dough will be wrong after the initial mix. The wet flour should be a sticky mass that forms into an elastic, tenacious ball of dough. A dry dough will not knead, flow and rise. A wet dough may collapse. A dough may be saved by the addition of water or flour during the initial mix and before the knead/mix starts – or ruined by an excessive or untimely intervention. Ideally, the machine should be paused and then allowed to return to mixing. Stopping and restarting the machine will go back to the start of the initial rest. It will eventually get back to mixing, but time will be lost, gluten will have started to form, and some fermentation will have occurred.

Controls

Baking programs have four main phases called, usually, rest, knead, rise, and bake. Bread machine programs vary the length of time in the phases and other parameters. Most machines will count down minutes and seconds to the conclusion of the program in the timer display. Some machines will display the program phase:

In the intitial rest phase for a half hour or an hour after being started, bread machines appear to sit and do nothing. Some machines may use the heating element for a few seconds at a time, to warm the ingredients to a common temperature before mixing.
The first active phase is mixing and/or “kneading”, about 20-30 minutes or more. A bread machine mixes or kneads by turning the padde(s). The machine will not identify mixing and kneading as separate operations on the machine display:
- Mixing involves turning the power on and off in short intervals, for 3-5 minutes, imitating the action of a mixing machine at slow speed. The flour, once wet, becomes a mass and then a sticky ball adhering to the paddle(s). The BLBMC calls initial slow mixing Knead 1.
- The machine pause for less than two minutes between mixing and kneading. The BLBMC calls the second phase mix/knead Knead 2. The bread machine is kneading when it is starts turn the dough quickly for longer intervals, broken by short pauses. Centrifugal force stretches the dough away from the paddle(s). In a machine with two paddles, the ball passes back and forth from paddle to paddle – occasionally the dough tears into two balls – this is not a good thing. The edges of the ball stick to the paddle(s) and pan. The movement stretches the dough until the dough pulls away and moves.
During the rise phase the gluten relaxes, the yeast ferments some starch producing gas trapped in little gluten balloons, which makes the dough rise; the dough flows to fill the pan and take the shape of the pan. A baker divides dough and puts it in oven pans. Two hours in a bread machine is short compared to the rise/rests in some artisinal baking techniques, but compares to the combined times for bulk fermentation and proofing (bench and pan) in many bakeries. The machine turns the paddle(s) at intervals in the rise phase, deflating and moving the dough ball – in most machines and programs, twice. The deflated dough fills up again. It is supposed to flow across the bottom of the pan or flow to fill the pan, and expand upward. After the second knock down the dough should relax and flow to fill the bottom of the pan and rise again. When the oven element is turned on, the dough rises in every direction. This “spring” is supposed to push the dough into the four corners of the pan, and fill the pan. Some machines – e.g. – Zojirushi graph the rise into Rise 1 , 2 & 3 and display the subphases in the display.
The heating element is switched on for a bake phase. The designer expects the machine to reach the right temperature with that element heating the air inside that space – there is no direct temperature control setting in most machines. A bread machine does not bake quite as hot as kitchen oven; any machine puts out enough heat to bake the dough completely without burning the crust.

Tag: Cooking appliances