If the change is distinguishable AND is worse, resolves NO
If the change is distinguishable AND is better, resolves YES
If the change is not distinguishable AND does not greatly (25%?ish) reduce time or inputs, resolves NO
If the change is not distinguishable AND does greatly (25%?ish) reduce time or inputs, resolves YES
If I determine the change is too difficult (I have my own mill but sifting by hand could be maybe too tedious?, stuff like grow my own wheat), I am liable to resolve that option N/A
If I determine the change departs too far from the categories "bread" or "loaf of bread" (such as suggesting I make a bread bowl with split pea soupπ or a BLT π or cinnamon rolls π), resolves N/A
I will judge all changes on the criteria:
Crust, Crumb, Moisture, Taste
blinding or double blinding as needed, including tests to verify that the changes are distinguishable and not subject to order effects.
I may have others, as available, provide their input on these at a rate of 50% or less of my ratings for a weighted avg.
I will extend the overall market until some period x where noone's interested and I've iterated through the suggestions.
Base Recipe:
800 g All-Purpose Flour, Unbleached (King Arthur)
600 g Water, RO filtered (Waterdrop G2P600)
17 g Salt, Coarse (Morton Kosher)
4 g Yeast (Fleichmann's/ REDSTAR)
Heat water to 30Β±1 Β°C
Add 17Β±0.5 g salt and 4Β±0.3 g yeast to jug
Mix in 600Β±5 g water to yeast and salt jug (prevents salt & yeast clumps in dough)
Weigh out 800Β±5 g flour in big bowl
Mix jug into bowl until no dry flour
Wait 14Β±2 hrs, bowl covered on dinner table
Preheat oven to 465Β±15 Β°F with Lodge cast iron dutch ovens inside
Split dough and shape into rounds
Place rounds on parchment paper and cut design
Open dutch ovens and place loaves
Spritz 30Β±2 g water around each loaf
Bake 30Β±3 min, closing and placing dutch ovens in oven
Spritz 30Β±2 g water around each loaf
Bake 15Β±3 min, placing dutch ovens in oven without lid
Place loaves on cooling rack
I never really disliked AI until this bot. It's worse than bad autocorrect.
Update 2025-07-12 (PST) (AI summary of creator comment): The creator has indicated that testing and resolution of options will be delayed. They anticipate being unable to work on this market for at least 6 more weeks due to their work schedule.
Would this get N/A'd?
St. Petersburg / Zeno's Recipe - After you've cooked the bread for its initial 30 minute segment and prepared it for its next baking segment, perform these instructions: Flip a coin. On heads, bake for half the amount of baking time as the last baking segment. If tails, stop baking. Repeat these instructions until you get a single tails.
There is an infinitessimally unlikely universe where I would curse you to an eternity of baking.
Does factoring in time used include acquiring or preparing ingredients? Specifically, Iβm envisioning a potential scenario where using a special flour causes a small taste improvement, but increases complexity through dedicated shopping trips (or milling it yourself, as the case may be). Would these still be net improvements?
@AlexanderTheGreater I'm not sure what it would do, actually! I'm wondering what effects a convection cooking method instead of a conductive one would produce.
@Quroe I'm baking a bread in a few hours and am contemplating trying this. One logistical issue I worry about is the loaf, even with parchment paper between it and the rack, getting a weird pattern or going partially over the sides of the rack and getting a slight donut-like ring around the bottom perimeter π€
I asked the new manic version of Bing Copilot for ideas and got this:
### π₯ Offbeat Enhancements for Superior Bread
- **Aquafaba swap for part of the water**: Use chickpea water (from a can) in place of some hydration. It adds protein and a subtle richness that can soften the crumb.
- **Ice cube fermentation**: Freeze your preferment or sourdough starter into ice cubes. Then toss a few into warm dough β the slow melt evens out fermentation and encourages complex flavor.
- **Gelatinized starch boost**: Make a tangzhong or water roux from a bit of flour and water before adding to the dough. But twist it: use leftover porridge or mashed potato instead. Killer moisture retention.
- **Low-effort lamination**: Between stretches and folds, sneak in a super-thin layer of butter (or olive oil). Minimal effort, max layering effect on the crumb.
- **Smoke the flour**: Lightly cold-smoke the flour for a few minutes (in a cheesecloth or fine sieve) before mixing. Turns basic dough into something primal and campfire-scented.
Are any of these worth me adding to the market or are they total nonsense?
@TheAllMemeingEye also a few novice stabs in the dark that I'm not sure if they would be so unhelpful that they would be considered spam:
Add an amount of MSG equivalent to half the current salt content
Use flour made from an unconventional grain e.g. barley, millet, oats, rye, sorghum, maize etc.
Carve smiley faces into the rolls
@TheAllMemeingEye They might not explicitly violate a Manifold rule, but a general guideline is that
Users strive to be excellent to one another
The bettor @GleamingRhino has explicitly requested that people don't spam this market, @MarySmith called it out, as well, and also given that it additionally spams everyone's notifications (unless they block the spammers), it's not excellent behaviour.
Like many things in life, only great with consent and in moderationβ¦
@4fa IMO a big issue is that some people gave the market creator bad ratings for resolving joke answers as NA. That said, she only has two ratings total...
@AlexanderTheGreater oh good when I saw it in the notifications it looked like 5 bad ratings or somesuch