Whats the point of an ear?
Controlled bloom! This topic is not about the auricular anatomy of elves (or Vulcans). It’s about scoring breads. Scoring loaves creates a visually pleasing pattern, and it helps control the expansion of the loaf as it bakes. These San Francisco Sourdough breads illustrate a more “advanced” aspect of scoring that is alluded to by both Hamelman (in “Bread”) and Suas (in “Advanced Bread & Pastry.”) San Francisco Sourdough Breads (from Peter Reinhart’s “Crust & Crumb”) Detail of bâtard crust, with “ear,” grigne” & “bloom.” What Suas called “the classic cut” is parallel to the long axis of a baguette or a bâtard. The cut is made with the blade at a shallow angle to the surface of the loaf. The cut should be shallow – about 1/4 inch deep. Paradoxically, this shallow cut results in the flap lifting better than a deeper cut would, thus forming a nice “ear.” Hamelman (pg. 80) points out that “a deep cut will simply collapse from its own weight.” The angle is also important. “If the angle is no
