Reef Knot

I understand that trivia is a popular event , but from what I've read it appears that you have to form/join a team at the beginning of the voyage. If this is the case does it mean that one should be committed to attending every trivia session so as not to let the team down?  

My wife and I like the idea of playing trivia but maybe not every time. So would it possible to turn up randomly and just play as a couple ? 

Thanks

Nick

So looking around it seems that the way to go is to book and pay by credit card and then once on board ask the Seabourn staff to "cancel" the excursion and rebook using the OBC. It seems that your credit card will be reimbursed at the end of the voyage.

I'm hoping that works !

Jumping on this post, How do I apply OBC to pay for a shore excursion? When I try to book an excursion Seabourn want to charge my credit card at the time of booking. 

Should I wait until we are on board to book shore excursions with our OBC?

Thanks.

Thanks Boatmans Lady, 

Thats good to know about the Excursions , and also nice to know that we can get a bottle of wine/gin in suite.

Now back to the brochures !

Hi everyone, 

We are very new to cruising only 2 so far, a Cunard transatlantic 10 years ago and a Silversea trip in March but after our recent voyage I can say that we have definitely caught the bug.

I'm keen to try Regent next to compare. This forum is proving invaluable to my research. Very useful info about shore excursion restaurant booking and suite grades .

Just a couple of questions, 

What are the chances of getting your preferred choice of shore excursion, do they get booked up very quickly ? 

Is there a definite advantage to booking a concierge suite when it comes to shore excursions and restaurant reservations.

I see that in all suites the fridge is stocked with beer/soft drinks and water. Can we request wine/gin to be stocked or is that only available in the public areas?

There will be more questions I'm sure but as I said this forum is a font of info.

Thanks for any feedback,

56 minutes ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

 

 

Good Afternoon,

 

Firstly - must congratulate you on the crumb of that bread.  It looks wonderful.

 

Next the final shaping.  A problem you are having is that you are doing this on a granite board which intuitively is the right thing because all proper chefs use granite don't they for pastry and stuff  😉 ... but in practice it isn't - because granite is far too smooth for the flour to sort of pool and stay still on - it just moves around.  So if you have either a rough plastic or wooden chopping board more of the flour will stay on the board in the groooves of the board. You just literally use your hand to spread the flour around on the board -and it stays whereas on granite it simply sits on the surface rarther than is trapped in it if you can see what I mean.  I had the same learning curve.  So when you scoop the bread out of the bowl onto the floured surface all you need do at this stage is simply rough cut the dough into portions so if you used the 300gm/240ml mix it would be two.  I think you just made one big loaf. You then cover your hands with flour stretch each bit out a bit and fold the longer edges into the middle making a sort of sausage then in the thick flour on your boad hgently roll the short stubby sausage into a longer sausage by sort of rubbing it gently back and forth whilst stretching out from the middle if you get my drift.  This process is around 5 seconds and the least handling the better.  This guy here seems to me to be using around 80% hydration although yours will not be as long as this to start or end - it just shows a rough idea on how to stretch the dough into shape.  He is a bit too much but it gives an idea. 

 

 

Yes the flour does vary but to be honest with all due respect - so much precious baloney has been written about this which has contributed to the whole idea that bread making is much more difficult and precise than it need be.  For example you have discovered rather astonishingly that whilst you were in bed last night the bread kneading fairies got out of bed and kneaded your bread and good loaves do not need to be kneaded at all and hardly even need to be mixed when highly hydrated. You just combine the stuff and let it do it's own magic. The water does the work. Water wouldn't effect the rise if anything low water inhibits rise.

 

However, I think one thing that may be happening in your environment might not be too little yeast but what may have happened is that the higher temperature overnight gave you a much faster rise and the bread became a little exhausted overnight and collapsed.  It really needs a slow overnight rise so in the fridge for example.  So this morning it was smaller because it had proably risen and collapsed poor chap so perhaps counter intuitively you might need a little less yeast rather than more.  Only your experimentations there will tell you.

 

The other thing is that you used a traditional one pound'ish bread tin to cook the bread rather than a baguette tin.  This meant that the ratio of crumb  (us breadies call the inside boring non-crust bit the crumb) to crust was so high that leaving it in the tin rather boiled the bread rather than bake it.  To me the whole reason why a good baguette is the best bread you can eat is because it is (when good) mostly crispy crust with a little bit of relatively boring crumb.    You also need to cut the top so as to let some of the water escpae and protect the shape a bit and also it gives you more crust surface.

 

A work around for you is obviously to buy some baguette tins but until then by all means reduce hydration if you wish but also half way through baking decant the bread onto a baking tray so the surface hets baked rather than boiled.

 

How does this sound?  Have I given you enough to go on with?

 

I am so pleased you have made a start and one thing you can be sure of that you might have a few odd ones to start but in no time at all you will start your way on the utterly irresistable path of regular breadmaking.

 

All sounds perfectly logical. I've just made a 2nd batch using the 80% mix and a pinch less yeast, I'll take on board your baking tips tomorrow.

Thanks again for all this advise.

JP, 

That makes a lot of sense, not only is it end of summer here but also the rainy season so very humid. I was thinking of toning it down to 70/75% but will defer to the bread guru on this

On 2/25/2019 at 1:24 PM, UKCruiseJeff said:

I'm an experienced bread maker but this method of bread making is totally counter intuitive and produces unbelievable bread. It is disarmingly easy and you think it can't work. It does. If you are a bread lover then you should make this a daily ritual. It involves a long time but very little actual work or activity and once you have done it a couple of times much less mess than tradtional approaches as water is used and no mixer to clean.

 

Night before … do just before you go to bed. Do it every night.  This is for two baguettes ish.  Double for four ....

 

Put your mixing bowl on the scales. Take around 300 gms of flour, (hard bread making flour …. I use Canadian …. and I also prefer to use around 250gms of white and I add around 50 gms of rye flour which is the way that traditional bagueete makes do ...) ….. and mix it in a bowl with half a teaspoon of instant yeast and a teaspoon of salt. Just lightly mix it for a second or two with a wooden spoon handle until it is all combined.

 

Once the flour is mixed add 240 gms or so of water. This is extremely wet ie 80% hydration. Most bread is around 65%. More water makes better bread. You do not need a mixer but instead simply combine all the water and flour until there is no loose flour left in the bowl with the wrong end of a wooden spoon. This takes 10 seconds. No kneading or further mixing. Put a shower cap over the bowl and leave out in a cool place over night.

 

When you get up the following morning it will be twice the size with some surface bubbling. Spray your work surface with some water and scoop out the dough with the scraper. The mix will look silky. Wet your hands thoroughly and just fold it gently a couple of times, “ball” it and drop it back into the bowl. Do this again whenever you walk past if for at least a few hours and every hour or two. Don't be precious about this. Forget the timer. Just whenever you think about it … no soone than an hour and any time up to every three hours. So perhaps two or three or four times.

 

An hour or a bit more before you want your fresh baguettes, dust a board with some flour and scrape out the mix, dust your hands with flour and cut the mix in two with a larger dough sraper if you have one. Do not over handle or knock out the air. Take one of the tow pieces and fold a long edge inwards so you have a sort of fat sausage shape. Press the folded in length into the dough so it's sort of sealed (think of when you played with Plasticine) and then roll the dough from the middle back and forth to stretch it out to a rough baguette shaped bit of dough that is just a little shorter than the tin. Do the other one. Plonk into the tins.  Cover the bread with a tea towel. Because it has flour on the surface you need not treat the tin in any way as the dough will not stick. Turn the oven on to around 230 ish. And let it warm up for up to an hour or so with the rdiged steak griddle in the bottom of the oven.

 

After an hour or so the baguettes would have doubled in size. Don't bother trying to perfect using a bakers lame, but instead use a pair of scissors to curt diagonal overlapping cuts deep into the bread ie at about 45 degree cuts. As many as you need. Spray the bread with water and drop some sea salt on it if you want. Put the bread in the oven spray inside the oven and drop half a mug of water onto the griddle and slam the door shut so steam is produced. Take the bread out when it is the right colour and cooked and put it on a rack to cool with a tea towel over it.

 

This method produces what to me has the flavour of the best baguettes I have had in France and is also sort of “sour-dough light” using the biga/poolish method that the French use,

 

These are a lot of words to explain the easiest method of baguette making I know which also happens to produce the best bread I have ever made.If they are mishapen and rustic looking  .. so  much the better. 

 

Ask any questions ... and post some piccies!

So Jeff,

Obviously this is work in progress!.

However, the pics might not look pretty but surprisingly the taste and texture is wonderful. Springy to the touch, a little crusty on the outside and soft in the middle. And actually delicious.

I really like this idea of the 80% water dough, I found that wetting my hands and spraying the work surface (granite) made it fairly easy to turn out and ball every few hours.

However the final process of turning onto a floured board: This is when the problems started.  Ok I floured the granite work surface and then floured my hands, however the dough instantly became very glutinous and was impossible to work with. It stuck to the surface and stuck to my hands, managed to somehow scoop it into a loaf pan. Note: I couldn’t find the baguette baking pans here, so will pick up a couple when in the UK in April.

So a couple of questions that might have an impact on baking bread here.

1: It’s coming to the end of summer here so the temperature in the kitchen is 26c. would that make working with the dough more tricky?

2: Antananarivo is at 1300m altitude. I understand that adjustments may be necessary to cooking times, ratios and oven settings?

I’m going to make another batch this evening, but will use a teaspoon of dry yeast as  the dough didn’t double in size probably 75% bigger. Maybe another consequence of temperature and altitude?

37 minutes ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

 

 

Hi Nick,  your most welcome.  I do like to get us men bread making.  🙂

 

For what it's worth ... bread is really important to me and I have spent a lot of time learning and studying.  I even have a professional Neapolitan pizza oven in my kitchen that gets up to 950 degrees or so for an authentic 90 second Neapolitan pizza.  If you use the steaming method I devised you actually have a French bread steam oven.

 

Once you have your stuff get into a daily ritual and make your two or four baguettes every day.  Because I used a lot of words to explain something so so simple it sounds more than it is ... but it is so easy and after the first four five times it will be second nature.  It becomes a part of the rhythm of the day.  I suggest this is even truer for you than for me becasue you will be shocked at how good this bread is.  If you are a real man and an emotional man it will bring a tear to the eye.  😉

 

This approach apes the exact approach many traditional French bakers use except they sometimes use a sourdough starter but I prefer this sour-dough lite approach and the rye flour adds that little bit of character.  I know that once you tried it a couple of times and get it right that the simplicity will draw you in it will become a key part of your eating day and a day when you don't do it you will mourn the baguette.

 

Also .... you can make double the quantity say 4 baguettes.  Take two out when they are firm and coloured and put them in a bag and in the cupboard amd then rebake on day two so that you are only baking every other day.  The 2nd day bread to me tastes pretty much the same as the 1st day bread.

 

Good luck.

 

I hope you do give it a try.

Jeff,

I have a le creuset griddle pan, I'm hoping that will be Ok for the steaming in the oven. Also, I have a gas oven which is notoriously difficult to regulate the temperature. However if anything it veers toward being too hot which is probably not a bad thing.

40 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

Wow - where do you live in Madagascar? We went there in 2016 and loved it. But I don't remember the bread...

I rest my case-  you don't remember the bread!

We live in Tana the capital.

The country as a whole is something else, but Antananarivo is not. But then people don't come to the island to stay in Tana for any length of time.

I'm sure you would have seen some unforgettable sights from forests/parks/wildlife to white sandy beaches.

Jeff, a big thank you for that. I live in Madagascar and frankly the bread on offer here (despite the French influence) is pretty awful.

I will try to source the baking tin and griddle (could be tricky) and look forward to trying this out - and posting the results

Thanks again 

Nick

I promise. 

19 hours ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

Today’s Sunday lunch is going to be a couple of freshly made  baguettes which are currently cooling with Marldon sea salt and some Cumberland sausages and slow braised caramelised red onions and some Colmans mustard.  It is the simplest things that give the most pleasure.    These are the bguettes cooling down.

 

 

They do look good,

Any chance of the recipee?

So we will be in Myanmar-Yangon for 3 days in March. I understand that the port is an hour drive from the city ?

Do Silversea provide a shuttle into town (and back to the ship)  or is it up to us to arrange out own transportation?

Thanks 

Thanks for the heads up.

Currently showing under my documents is the Guest information form and the Travel journal (86 page pdf)

It does say that tickets will be emailed 6 weeks prior to sailing.

something more to look forward to.

Nice, will look forward to receiving our box - we sail on the 21st March.

Presume it is one box per cabin and not per person ( thinking of the trees)

Ok , I'll bite. What's a Silver Box?

Just wondering what kind of coaches Silversea uses for excursions. Do they have on board toilets? I'm looking at excursions in Myanmar .

I've recently created an account cant but add a booking .The Venetian, Bookings and Journal  squares are all shaded out and wont allow me to click on them? 

I'm also using chrome, is this normal?

I see a lot of shore excursions listed some of them overnight tours away from the ship. For this cruise it says that a selection of shore excursions are included in the price. Does this mean one excursion per port ? and is there any way of knowing which excursions are included and which require payment ?

Thanks again,

Nick

You will stay on the ship for three nights in Yangon.

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Hi,

I'm looking into a 12 day Silversea cruise on the 21st March next year- Singapore to Singapore, however looking at the itinerary she stays in Yangon for 4 days.

Do we stay on the ship or move to a hotel ? I've only been on a couple of cruises before but neither of them have had to experience 4 days of "non cruising" Can anyone let me know what this is like.

Thanks,

Nick

Thanks for that, good to know that I'll get the USD rate. I'll look into these non commission cards also( every little helps)

Hi,

I'm living in Madagascar and am looking into a cruise next March/April. When accessing the Silversea/Seabourn /Cunard sites I usually end up on the .com pages with fares quoted in US dollars. If I go ahead and book will my credit card be debited in US dollars ?

Thanks for any help on this,

Thanks for the info, might just give Cunard a ring.