Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Five

[UKCruiseJeff]

2 hours ago, silkismom said:

Just put this page in "favorites" to try your bread after I get some ingredients.

 

Hi,  I hope you try it.  Once started there is no going back.  

 

You may have noticed that you need no mixer, as there is no real mixing and you might have also noticed you need no kneading!   I think the mess, the mixer and kneading is one of the main things that puts people off of regular real bread making.  You also need no recipes for any type of bread.  Just remember the rough hydration rate of 80%ish.  

 

This exploits a weird characteristic of flour ie autolysing and also takes advantage of the fact that higher hydrated bread makes better bread and also improves in flavour if allowed to develop more slowly.  So much less effort, less mess, much more flavour, better crust and better crumb.  I now use this method for all types of non-machine bread and just vary the flour blends.  I have a shelf of around a dozen different flours and treat it a bit like cocktail making. 

 

 

Edited February 25, 2019 by UKCruiseJeff

[mysty]

Wow J!  Looks like a bakery display!  I can savour the aromas from here!

[silkismom]

I'm in the US so will have to figure out the grams--help?

[Lois R]

5 minutes ago, silkismom said:

I'm in the US so will have to figure out the grams--help?

 

Hi, you can google weights of measure and a lot of hits will come up.....converting it from grams to lbs should be listed.

[UKCruiseJeff]

1 hour ago, silkismom said:

I'm in the US so will have to figure out the grams--help?

 

 

The great thing about understanding a principle rather than a recipe is that it releases you completely to experiment.  So if for example you use 12 ounces of flour .... to achieve 80% hydration you simply add around 9.5 ounces of water.  Or if it were a milk loaf then milk.  Or if it were an enriched loaf 9.5oz of egg and butter and milk and water etc etc.  Or ciabatta oil and water.  The great thing about highly hydrated bread is that it is forgiving when you start adding wholemeal flours.  The only challenge you then have is the bread keeping shape but that is why baguette tins are so good.  Once baked I suppose that will give you two half pound baguettes or so.

 

So try 12 ounces of flour with half a teaspoon of instant yeast and around a teaspoon of salt all mixed and then - only after mixing the dry ingredients, add around 9.5 ounces of water and mix it with the wrong end of a wooden spoon.  You have to mix the dry ingredients first before adding water because salt is the sworn enemy of yeast and will kill it on sight if side by side in water.  It ignores it if you mix the dry first. So always  mix before you wet!   The other good thing is that dough keeps for yonks in the fridge and exactly the same mix is also what you would use for pizza. So if you have room having a few dough balls in the fridge means that you always have spontaneous fresh bread and it improves each day in the fridge.  So you fancy some fresh bread ... you simply take adough ball from the fridge, shape it and bake it.  And you cannot beat a late night spontanteous pizza.  Storing in the fridge for a week or so gives you  “sourdough lite ....”.  I have used dough that has been in the fridge for several weeks and it has been scrumptious.  Once you understand these basic principles you need never have the need for a bread recipe again.  Except bagels.  But that is a different chapter. 😉

 

You will also have a new hobby of retaining all those shower caps from hotel bathrooms .... Singapore a few weeks ago provided me with so many ...... 🙂

 

 

Edited February 27, 2019 by UKCruiseJeff

[jpalbny]

Ah, all this bread talk and pictures is making me hungry.

 

Hate it when an unexpected change throws a monkey wrench into something that's been carefully planned out. Had to completely rearrange the last day of our Ukraine trip yesterday.

 

We were planning to fly out of Lviv (Lwow) to home but there are no good connections. So we'd put together what seemed like a good approach, flying out of Lviv on Sunday afternoon to Frankfurt (Hahn) on a cheap European carrier that flies that route, then renting a car, staying overnight in Mainz (which we like a lot) before flying home from Frankfurt (Main) the next day. Separate flight itineraries, of course.

 

Well, yesterday the carrier informed us that they no longer fly that route on Sundays! So they rebooked us on a flight on Monday. That clearly doesn't work to connect to the Transatlantic route... So I had to cancel that flight; luckily there was an option for a full refund if the new itinerary was not acceptable. We will see how long that takes to actually happen.

 

So we found an itinerary from Lviv to Frankfurt on LOT, but it has a stop in Warsaw. And it goes to Frankfurt Main, not Hahn. All is good in the end I guess. We will not have to use a rental car, but we won't get to stay in Mainz. Instead we'll just stay at the Hilton at Frankfurt Airport, and take the S-Bahn into town for the evening to have dinner and wander around. We missed dining in one restaurant when we were there last year, so I guess we'll get to try it sooner than anticipated!

 

So we traded a direct flight plus a drive for a one-stop flight with no drive, and a hotel that's more convenient to the airport for our flight home Monday morning. And I got to book the airport Hilton with points that were expiring soon if I didn't use them. I guess it's a net positive. It will be fun to have a few hours in Frankfurt again. But it was a little stressful sorting this out yesterday!

Edited February 27, 2019 by jpalbny

[TLCOhio]

1 hour ago, jpalbny said:

Ah, all this bread talk and pictures is making me hungry.  So we traded a direct flight plus a drive for a one-stop flight with no drive, and a hotel that's more convenient to the airport for our flight home Monday morning. And I got to book the airport Hilton with points that were expiring soon if I didn't use them. I guess it's a net positive. It will be fun to have a few hours in Frankfurt again. But it was a little stressful sorting this out yesterday!

 

WOW!!  That was complicated and challenging to sort out yesterday with your flights back home from the Ukraine.  Some of those lower-cost Europe airlines look good on paper, but it can get messy in sorting out things when they change schedules, etc.  

 

YES, those breads do make me hungry.  

 

Enjoying today seeing various visuals and details from Hanoi and Vietnam that we had visited just a year ago.  Interesting history and background with Vietnam.   On one of the news programs this morning, they had the prime CBS evening anchor, Jeff Glor, discussing this Vietnam history.  BUT, he was not even born until 1975, long after most of those key events had happened in Vietnam during the 1950's, 1960's and early 1970's.  

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

SE Asia/Mekong River, Etc.!  Live/blog from early 2018, first adventure through SE Asia, stops in Hong Kong and Bangkok, before exploring all over Vietnam and Cambodia, seven days sailing on the Mekong River. Now at 43,954 views.

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2591474

[Reef Knot]

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?

 

 

 

 

 

[jpalbny]

52 minutes ago, TLCOhio said:

 Some of those lower-cost Europe airlines look good on paper, but it can get messy in sorting out things when they change schedules, etc.  

 

Yes, I use them when convenient but I don't go out of my way to use them. EasyJet has worked well at times, when their route is one that we want.

 

We tried this one because they offered a direct flight from Lviv to Frankfurt, which was exactly what we needed at the time. But alas, it was not to be. Good thing we are compulsive planners and we usually have a Plan B.

[jpalbny]

Reef Knot, something occurred to me about your baking question.

 

Flour contains varying degrees of water, depending on the ambient temperature and humidity. In the summer it's wetter and in the winter it's drier.

 

So at 26C and humid, adding 80% water to flour that's already wet might be too much. I'd try incrementally less until you get a workable dough.

 

But Jeff makes more bread than I do so we will see what he says.

[Reef Knot]

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

 

[UKCruiseJeff]

53 minutes ago, Reef Knot said:

 

 

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?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

Edited February 27, 2019 by UKCruiseJeff

[UKCruiseJeff]

One other little thing that is odd and you may not notice unless I mention it. 

 

Use your scraper to scrape the dough out of the mixing bowl.  You will have dough stuck on the scraper. You'd normally wash it off and clog the sink.  All you do is pat the scraper on the dough and the dough that was on the scraper will "rejoin" it's mates and jump into the big dough ball. 

[Reef Knot]

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.

 

[UKCruiseJeff]

Hi,

 

My original version of this was a quarter teaspoon of yeast because of the amount of salt (wifey likes salt) and so you may even now have it to high.  I think you need to halve the yeast and reduce the salt a little so as not to totally kill the yeast. By all means reduce water if you want. 

 

I meant to add  that I share your joy of handling the mix with water rather than flour during the regular knock downs.  It is so unexpectedly silk smooth.  And to avoid misunderstanding I suggest you do,the knowckdowns with water on your granite and only the floured shaping on a rough board.   

 

Looking forward 

[Bill B]

I've been travelling toward embarkation (March 7) on my Silver Cloud, 'Cape to Cape' cruise starting with a night in Santiago (March 6), and have been checking the cooler but not posting. When I get home, I'm going to try making some of Jeff's bread (I have an oven, but it may be difficult to find the 'hardware' in Vietnam).

 

Had nice flights on JAL from Saigon to San Diego where I spent two nights - did the HOHO trolley bus and spent an afternoon visiting the USS Midway.

 

Embarked HAL's Volendam Feb. 2 (15 days, San Diego to Lima). The cruise was not great - flooded room from leak under the shower among other problems... and the Volendam was a floating, geriatric 'looney bin' (although I met some nice people). There was (almost) nothing to do on board. The ship is not aging well and is all icing and no cake.

 

Spent three days in Lima to see the sights. I'm glad I stayed in Miraflores.

 

Flew to Cusco, spent five nights and saw most of the Cusco/Sacred Valley sights/sites; Inka Rail's 360 train to Aguas Calientes (two nights) and up to Machu Pichu - lucked out on the weather (6:00 am entry and clouds at times but no rain). Train back to Cusco for three more nights... and yesterday was a day of rest. Today, I tour to Maras and Moray in the Sacred Valley.

 

Tomorrow, I fly direct to La Paz on Amazonas... after Peruvian canceled my 1 hr. direct flight and wanted to put me on an 13 hr. international odyssey with a horrendous layover in Lima (horrible airport). I told them to "Just give me my f#@kin' money back!"... still waiting for a response.  I have four nights in La Paz before flying to Santiago.

 

Did I tell you how much I HATE airlines? Oh well... only six days until 'heaven' on the Cloud.

 

TTFN,

Bill

 

 

[jpalbny]

Sounds like an adventure so far, Bill. Glad to hear from you and I hope you find the Cloud to be as great as you're anticipating.

 

We have not yet been to Bolivia, but on a few occasions we've been within 2-3 miles of the border. Close enough to see it, at least.

 

Ah, airline adventures. We almost had one in Chile this past January but luckily it ended well. And our latest adventure with Wizz Air from Ukraine to Germany. Hopefully that's straightened out, but I am also awaiting our refund.

 

Enjoy the rest of your travels and looking forward to hearing more as you can.

[tgh]

Interesting place Bolivia, pregnant with possibilities off the beaten track and I would like to revisit.

Go some time ,  JP….

[UKCruiseJeff]

Good Afternoon all .....

 

JP those changes are most dissapointing.  I must admit when I read your changes I had a search and couldn't find a fix.  Even tried via Vienna but it doesn't give you what you want.  Hope it doesn't mar the trip.

 

Bill .... those are some travels .... safe journeys and .... hope you do try the bread. 

 

And on that subject todays's lunch bread was the same procedure as above but using a blend of strong white, wholemeal, malted bran and some rye and Marldon sea salt to make some "baguettes". 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 2019 by UKCruiseJeff

[jpalbny]

All good, Jeff. We found a workable solution. And an evening with dinner in Frankfurt, at the place we missed last time, is certainly not a bad trade. The direct flight would have had us in earlier, so that's the only downside.

 

Loving the bread pix! May bake some this weekend. Or I may be lazy. First weekend at home in a month that we are not working. So we need a break!

Edited March 1, 2019 by jpalbny

[UKCruiseJeff]

Hi JP 

 

Is this a car purchase trip?

 

Hope the bread piccies tempt you.  This “previous day” version  is the way ....  some more of today’s to tempt  you ...

 

 

[Fletcher]

6 hours ago, Bill B said:

 

 

Did I tell you how much I HATE airlines? Oh well... only six days until 'heaven' on the Cloud.

 

 

 

 

Totally agree and sympathise.  I recently completed a month in South America - Peru, Ecuador, Silver Galapagos, Colombia.   11 flights and 11 hotels plus the ship, plus some very long drives on terrible roads etc etc.  Got home completely exhausted and vowing never again will we do a trip like this.  The flights were the worst thing - amazingly every flight was on time but it was the endless security checks, the masses of people, the hanging around.  Worst of all was the transfer in Bogota from international to domestic - would never have made the connection had we not jumped the queue of about 1000 people.  Try doing that at Heathrow.

 

By the by, we flew Amsterdam to South America in Business Class on KLM.  In every way, so much better than British Airways. 

 

Anyway, Bill.  Have a great trip on the Cloud and tell us all about it. 

Edited March 1, 2019 by Fletcher

[Bill B]

I'm flying from Cape Town back to Saigon April 1 on Emirates and am allowed two checked bags. I think I'll fill the backpack I brought (and haven't used) with heavy stuff from my 'hard case', and buy 20 kg or so of South African wine (and bubble wrap).

 

Last time I flew with Emirates - Incheon to Copenhagen - I was upgraded to Business Class on the A380s... nice!  What are the chances of lightening striking twice? 🍀

[jpalbny]

Bill, the Stellenbosch wineries sell something called a "wine check" which is a thick styrofoam 6-pack insert that is used for shipping, and fits inside a nylon ballistic shell. You can get them for about 100-150 rand each (I got two for 110 each which ended up coming out to about USD15 in total).

 

We checked them as is, full of wine, and they made it home fine. But I'd imagine you could fit two of them inside a standard suitcase. Bubble wrap does work in a pinch but I prefer these guys. We have brought them to Australia and also to South America and they've done very well. Nothing like getting a case of wine shipped home from Australia for $15 (plus airfare, but hey, we were going anyway...)

 

Most wineries also sell "wine skins" which are bottle-shaped containers made of bubble wrap but a bit tougher, and they have a fairly waterproof seal. Groot Constantia was selling them for 2 Rand each which was about 15 cents. We bought a few for the extras, when we went over 12 bottles.

 

Enjoy the wine country! Stellenbosch is gorgeous. And prices are reasonable.

[Lois R]

Good morning friends  Well, it is March so now I can say "I sail next month".  

 

Hope everyone has a good weekend.