Shoring up the gaps...

SOOOOOOoooo...  It's been quite some time since the introdction of Corned Beef.  Thanksgiving is, well, upon us, and here we are remembering that we have a blog.  I guess we could have worse problems, becuase that means we are too busy to do it.

That being said, I'm afraid we have to keep this brief.

We are running a FUN contest for a new, Fancy-Schmancy, ceramic, Dishwasher-safe, 16 oz. Refill Mug with Nifty Silicone Lid.  It comes with a free refill of Indigo Roaster Coffee.  Here's how it goes:

You will need a mobile phone with a camera and the Instagram® App for that device.


The contest will end when the first participant fulfills all the requirements or the contest term expires on December 15th, 2011 at Midnight or sooner if a winner is selected by fulfilling all requirements:


1)  Post Five (5) original photos of our official Underground Bakery oval bumper stickers on ALL DIFFERENT VEHICLES to your Instagram® Feed with the hashtags #undergroundbakery and #mugcontest (How? It's described here) by the closing date.  *BONUS: if all the vehicles are all Red, White, and/or Blue, (in any combination) you'll also get your choice of a muffin, cookie, or slice of crostata, pending availablilty.*


2)  Notify the Underground Bakery in writing via email to  info@buckiesundergroundbakery.com when you have completed the requirements.  In your email, please include:  

1. your instagram user name (or "nick")
2. your full name
3. your mailing address
4. your birthdate (mm/dd/yyyy)

Your information will be kept private.  We do not share your information with anyone.  Missing information constitutes an incomplete submission and will render said submission invalid.


The contest is open to all residents of the U.S. over the age of 18 who use Instagram®.  Employees of the Underground Bakery, their friends and families are NOT eligible to enter.  The contest will close on December 15th, 2011 at Midnight or sooner if a winner is selected by fulfilling all requirements.  One (1) winner will be announced via the Underground Bakery in Dennis Village Facebook Page on Sunday, December 18, 2011.


PLEASE REMEMBER TO BE SAFE WHEN DRIVING.  Participants are discouraged from taking pictures while behind the wheel.  Please take photographs safely from the roadside or while parked.

Any questions?  Send us an email with #mugcontest in the subject line!

Good Luck, and GET SNAPPING!

Six Days until Corned Beef (not counting today.)

I am a long way from Corky and Lenny's.   It is the last place I have had a decent corned beef sandwich on good caraway (or 'Jewish') rye bread.  There are loads of arguements over the Proper Pickles (Dill vs. Half-Sour vs. Garlic) and Mustards, (Spicy Brown vs. Dijon vs. Yellow)  but there are few arguements about Corned Beef.  Everyone seems to agree that corned beef should be somewhat salty, have the slight seasoning of celery, spices, and mustard seed, and be tender enough to be eaten in clean bites without having to tear away at one's sandwich.

Corned Beef is said to have originated in Europe in the 16th century or so.  One of the earliest references is from Richard Burton (not to be confused with the 20th century same-name actor) later on in 1621.  There is also great and ongoing arguement that it is or isn't from the British Isles, (made by the cornish?) Germany with 'Salt Corns,' (from the Old German "kurnam" for "kernel") or France.  It seems that the german is more likely than any other, which makes sense when you consider that it goes so well with Sauerkraut.

You will be relieved and excited to know the truth.  Corned Beef starts from a Big Bucket in our Walk-in cooler where it is Brined (soaked in salted water with spices) for seven days.  It is then drained, rinsed, and simmered for several hours in a fresh batch of brine until it is tender and well-flavored.  Then, for our purposes, it will be served on bread with condiments and / or sauerkraut and cheese.

If you like it with Swiss Cheese, we can acommodate.  If you like a Rueben, we can acommodate.  Maybe you'll choose another kind of mustard.  Maybe it's Ballpark Mustard.  I can't remember if Corky and Lenny's serves Bertmans' Ballpark Mustard  or not.

In any event, I have high hopes for a quality Corned Beef Sandwich Next Tuesday.  It'll be delicious with a big cup of spiced hot cider.

With apologies to any and all who have happened upon our blog or even gotten here on purpose, I will, repeat WILL start blogging for the weekend.  With any luck, I will be able to keep up with it regularly, giving everyone the chance to see what's new at the Bakery.

For those of you social medial devotees, I will be linking to those pages as well.  Hope to see you back here soon.

UB

Wednesday: Olive bread

Soup: Creamy Mushroom (encore)

Specials: Buffalo Chicken Sandwich - bleu cheese, Provolone, Lettuce, Tomato

BBQ Pulled Pork - English Muffin, Cheddar

Egg Salad - Lettuce, Toamto

Fried Bolog-NOT - Mortadella, Tomato, Fontina / Provolone

We have to say that Cape Cod is looking pretty great right now. Sure, maybe it's a little humid, rainy, even, but who can beat sixty-degree temperatures at four in the mornning? Yesterday was gorgeous. It's not really Indian Summer yet; we haven't had a frost. It does get hot in here with all the ovens on; we may have to turn on the air conditioner today...

One related note is that the oven has been on since 04:40. Pulled Pork Shoulder in there, roasting, braising away, getting all stringy, getting ready for the Pulled Pork Sandwich. It's a simple one: Pulled Pork, Cheddar Cheese, English muffin. Served alongside a little cupper of "BBQ 3000", our not-so-secret sauce (formerly "BBQ ISLAND".)

Egg Salad is back by request, as is Creamy Mushroom soup. Olive bread will be out and ready at about nine o'clock.

See you soon.

Bread: Caraway Rye

Specials:Fried "Bolog-NOT" (Mortadella [because it's NOT Bologna,] Tomato, Provolone.)

Buffalo Chicken Sandwich - Bleu cheese, Tomato, Lettuce, Provolone.

Soup: Creamy Mushroom

It has come to our attention, through the generous sharing of a link on Facebook, that we have failed to mention Cape Cod Beer and the integral part they play in the Underground Bakery's bread lineup as well as our lunch offerings.

Every week, we deliver transport a delivery of Cape Cod Beer Spent Grain Bread to the Cape Cod Beer Brewery's retail outlet. After leaving a tray of still-warm, hearty bread to be sold to the brewery customers, we retrieve a large bucket of spent grain. The Beer brewing process begins with malt, a sort of blanket term that refers to a mixture of toasted grains. Most often, as we understand it, malt consists of barley and wheat, sometimes oats and other grains, seeds, etc. These are combined in a giant tank with hot water and steeped for some time. When the time is up, the folks at the brewery there drain the grain by gravity (no pressing!) leaving what is then known as Spent Grain. Here at the bakery, we combine this still-flavorful, toasty mash of grain to high-strength flour and our natural seed culture (a paste of flour, water and local airborne microorganisms that give our breads their unique sourdough flavor.)

After about two hours of kneading and rising, the finished product looks like this:

This is the bread that is used for our breakfast sandwiches, many of our lunch sandwiches, Toast and Jam, etc.

We're ever grateful to Cape Cod Beer for their cooperation in this endeavor and for being such great neighbors and friends. Their product is consistent, delicious, and is an integral part of our business and our personal lives. Stop by on a Tuesday or Saturday for a tour to learn how beer is made. In the process, you will start to understand why they have such a great product. Tell them we sent you!

Sunday, again. we've missed a couple days, here. That's because we've been busy. That's a good thing as near as we can tell.

Returning as a favorite today are the Pear-Butterscotch muffins. Laurie Couldn't stop herself. Also in the case are Pear-Maple-Oat scones, Sweet Potato-Cream Cheese muffins and Apple Cider cookies.

Bread: Raisin Spice

Soup: Chili

Specials: Coney Dog, Chili Dog.

Fried Bolog-NOT sandwich: Mortadella (because it's NOT Bologna,) Tomato, Provolone.

Buffalo Chicken Sandwich: Bleu cheese, Tomato, Lettuce, Provolone.

So, the mortadella is delicious. It comes from Parma, Italy and it's pretty flavorful. Since it's remeniscent of Bologna (and we wanted to do a fried bologna sandwich out of childhood nostalgia,) we decided to give it a little sear, fold it over some cool tomatoes and provolone and make it the guts of a panini. We have been serving it on couuntry white bread, but suspect that it will be delicious on the Semolina Sourdough Ian will be making tomorrow.

There have been a lot of people asking about their favorite breads. Ian decided to come up with a schedule for them and stick to it. If you'd like to see when your favorite comes up, you can below:

Sunday: Raisin Spice

Monday: Semolina Sourdough

Tuesday: Caraway Rye

Wednesday: Kalamata Olive

Thursday: Dirty, Salty Potato

Friday: Brioche

Saturday: Whole Wheat Sourdough

A few people have asked about the Thanksgiving and Holiday menus. We will be publishing the former in the next week or so - the former by the first of December.

Both will include both sweets tarts, crostata, etc.) and savory items such as bread and rolls. YES, the squash rolls will be back this year. There will also be Pannettone again for Christmas.

Bread: Kalamata Olive

Specials: Buffalo Chicken Sandwich - shredded chicken, home-made buffalo sauce, bleu cheese, provolone, lettuce & tomato

Soup: Creamy mushroom

New today: Apple Cider Cookies (in celebration of fall)

Halloween-decorated Sugar cookies

The Kalamata Olive Bread has been particularly good lately. I've been makink bread for quite some time, years, in fact, but I've really learned quite a bit. I guess you could expect that of a task you perform seven days a week, all year. I guess you could say that I've gotten pretty good at showering, too. I think that the biggest lesson in breadmaking is that nothing worth waiting for happens quickly. It does require planning and a great deal of...er...babysitting time. In any event, there is a schedule for breads, now. It's on our menu board as follows:

Sunday: Raisin Spice

Monday: Semolina Sourdough

Tuesday: Caraway Rye

Wednesday: Olive

Thursday: Dirty, Salty Potato (with potato skins, chunks, dusted w/ Kosher Salt)

Friday: Brioche

Saturday: Whole Wheat Sourdough

Now, remember that the goal in sales is to sell all your product. That being said, don't be surprised if you arrive at 3:00pm and there is no bread left. This happens often, if not regularly. There are a great many days that I run out of one or other of the breads, sometimes all of them. If you are counting on a bread, depending even, PLEASE call me and I may be able to set yours aside. As demand increases, so does production volume.

Do I make baguettes? Sometimes. For those of you who ask for baguettes let me just say one thing. Here we go:

"Gosh, I'd love to. Everyone asks for them, but I make them and no one buys them."

In other words, I will make baguettes with 48 hours notice any time. The recipe I use calls for a heavy percentage of semolina, so they are moist, light yellow, and chewey inside with a thick, dry crust that crisps when rewarmed in the oven. They make a great open-faced sandwich, brushcetta, or french bread pizza. I am not joking, here. I would not make this up.

The Buffalo Chicken sandwich is seasoned with our own Buffalo Sauce and southwestern spice blend. It's very flavorful and a little spicy to warm you up on a cool fall day, but that all gets cooled right down with some crumbled gorgonzola, lettuce and tomato, all held together with some melted Provolone Dolce.

Apple Cider cookies are a returning favorite. They were sold here long before Laurie and I came along as owners, but we're just finding time to bring back some old favorites. They're glazed with gooey glaze, too, for all you "Sugar Glaze Addicts" out there.

Also, a reminder that we are changing our facebook page from the group page to which many of you have become fans to a business page you can "like." The new, improved page can be found HERE.

Hope everyone has a great wednesday.