New Blog: The Savage and the Sage

Salt-rising bread: it’s made with botulism!

Since January, I’ve been working with an intern, Jill Paradiso. She has been helping me with my book (recipe testing and research, amongst other projects). I have been helping her launch a food blog–which is now live!

Welcome to The Savage and the Sage! Jill is a divine technical chef; join her as she explores recipes that are bizarre (monkfish liver), complex (puffed beef tendon), and simply delicious (super easy sour cherry jam). And, like me, Jill loves the historical; so be sure to check out her posts on candied angelica, a historic ingredient in European confections, and salt rising bread.

Jill is continuing to work with me even though her formal term as my intern is done. She’ll be getting a huge thank you in my book for all the grunt work she’s done so far, but she’s also going to be one of my official recipe testers moving forward.

If you’d be interested in an internship opportunity at Four Pounds Flour, I’m looking for a new assistant for the fall. They’ll be more details posted here soon, but you can also send me an email for details. 

4 Responses to “New Blog: The Savage and the Sage”


  • Her blog looks great. When is your book coming out?

    • Approximately Fall 2015. It’s a ways off–I’m still writing. Although I just turned in my first draft, which I am pretty pumped about! Thank you for asking!

  • The salt rising bread link reminds me of one of our old family recipes, which we call Boss Bread. My great grandparents were homesteaders in NM, and regularly made a cornmeal, hot water and salt bread that fermented on the counter top overnight, then was baked in a cast-iron dutch oven in the morning (I believe after stirring more cornmeal into the now somewhat funky batter.) When I was little and this was still being made, we ate it for breakfast with fresh side meat fried like bacon, and a gravy made with milk but thickened with cornmeal and poured over everything on the plate. It was so good! I wish I could find other references to Boss bread, but always fall short. One of my aunts still makes this for family events, but everyone says it doesn’t taste the same. There’s probably no competing with the memories from childhood!

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