Brenchley's Biscuits made me the man I am today

I am making ship's biscuit for Talk Like Stephen Maturin, Cook Like Preserved Killick Day (which it is Sunday, since you ask).

It's a wonderfully sophisticated process. Mix flour, salt and water into a very stiff dough, then beat seven kinds of hell out of it - they recommend a mallet; I am using a rolling pin - until it is smooth and pliable. It'll take half an hour, they reckon. Me, I am taking it more slowly, and giving myself the dough a chance to rest between bashings. Even so: oof. I haven't been so vigorous for years. My poor hands will probably regret this.

Happily, now that I have no teeth, I'm not obliged to eat the stuff afterwards. I'm expecting it to come out like Roman roof tiles. It's very odd, making food that's really not for eating. (I plan to break a couple of 'em into crumbs - if indeed they can be broken - and use those in the lobscouse, so neither the biscuits nor my labour will be wasted; but really I'm only doing this for science.)

I had some other news, but I don't remember it. Pardon me, I have to go and bash stuff now.

Also for science (I am reminded)

That's what I wanted to tell you about: the bread!

I was fascinated by the various commenters, who all make their sourdough in completely different ways tho' it's presumably the same scientific process that's occurrin'.

Anyway, my shockingly over-riz dough did more or less what people were predicting: it stood very high in its proving-basket and then more or less collapsed when I turned it onto the peel [side-note: I love my peel! I wasn't sure beforehand, I thought maybe I was just Playing Baker, but it's been astonishingly useful in fact; I cannot conceive of a better way to get the loaf onto the baking stone in the oven]. It had developed a fairly dry and leathery skin overnight, where it had lain against the floured cloth; and it didn't develop as much oven spring as I expect from this process. So, yup: it's a fairly flat and disappointing loaf, at least to look at. Tastes fine, mind. If it's more sour than normal (which I was pretty much expecting), it's only a little bit so, and that may be wishful thinking.