New Orleans French Bread Recipe

That is a lot of yeast. 2 TBL Spoons seems out of whack.

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My first thought exactly. Sounds like way too much.

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Not being a baker, I would have no idea, but now I'm curious as to how that would turn out.

I always heard the secret to New Orleans French Bread was that the ovens are able to inject steam, in the correct amount and at the right time, and that makes the crust we all love.

I have seen recipes where you are told to use a spray bottle to add moisture to the oven. You spray into the oven, or even at the wall of the oven, but not onto the bread.

Here's what Fitzmorris had to say:

"The French bread we eat around New Orleans, from the small loaves that come out with the oysters Rockefeller at Antoine's to the long loaves that enclose gravy-saturated roast beef at Mother's, is a unique loaf. There's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Certainly not in France, where the bread may look the same from a distance but has a much denser texture and t thicker crust.

What distinguishes New Orleans French bread is the lightness of both the crust and the interior. A classic New Orleans French bread has large air pockets inside, with tendrils of baked dough stretching across them. And a light, thin crust that's so fragile that it easily shatters into hundreds of little shards when you break it.

I've been told by the old bread bakers that this style of bread can only be gotten by using the special yeasts they employ, along with ovens whose humidity is kept high by pipes spraying a fine mist of water inside at intervals. Whatever creates that texture, I have been unable to duplicate it at home. Nor have I seen any other baker in a restaurant accomplish it."

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home bakers usually only can add a pan of water to approximate this...unless you have a steam oven (there are residential options)

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Correct and I do it all the time, but I have heard that it can cause your oven to deteriorate a lot faster doing this. I have an old school 1980s oven so I just keep doing it.

I'm wondering if the two tablespoons of yeast produce a more airy french loaf? It definitely would rise fast as hell in my opinion.

I also went on King Arthur's, just for a quick reference, and looked at their recipe for NO FB and they also show 2 TBS of yeast.

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I always heard the secret to New Orleans French Bread was that the ovens are able to inject steam, in the correct amount and at the right time, and that makes the crust we all love.

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Me too, but I figured I'd share anyway for discussion and maybe someone has tried this one or even the King Arthur version.

Yeast amount looks ok for a double-fermented dough. The hydration level looks a little low. Should be closer to 60-70% for French bread.

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Not being a baker, I would have no idea, but now I'm curious as to how that would turn out.

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When I bake straight doughs (using yeast), I ferment for typically 24-48 hours. For two boules (round loaves), I use 1/8 of a teaspoon.

You're talking almost 3 full packets of yeast with this recipe.

Not saying it's wrong, but I've never used even close to that much

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you can't duplicate New Orleans' French bread anywhere else, because everywhere else has clean water.

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I think they say the same thing about NYC pizza dough. You need the rusty sewer pipe, Hudson River water to make the dough right.