The beautiful simplicity of bread must not be confused with the apparent ease with which it is commercially mass produced. Let's face it, folks, we have absolutely taken the loveliness of bread and sacrificed it upon the heathen altar of industrialization.
**Industrialization - good for things like indoor plumbing and penicillin, bad for things like food.**
Our ancestors would have taken our daily bread and stared at it in wonder and dismay.
What are you supposed to do with it? Build things? Wear it? Throw it at your enemies?
People are always musing on the idea of Pilgrims with iPhones and how funny that would be - I think Pilgrims would be much more interested in the plethora of non-food-foods we consume without a thought, just because someone put it on a shelf and told us it was to eat.
"Forget that little magic box, my dear, what on earth is that which you putteth in thy mouth???"
**Pilgrims - probably didn't talk like that.**
Bread is simple - but we have abused its simplicity and turned it into an unrecognizable nonfood our founding fathers would have refused to feed their livestock. I think it's safe to say that if they had eaten what we eat, we wouldn't be here today to eat what we're eating. How long can a civilization survive on nonfood? I guess we're going to find out.
**Steps down off soapbox and returns it the laundry room.**
There was a wisdom that these ancestors of ours possessed that we are lacking. A knowing. A rightness that worked with what God had naturally given them.
Before frankenfood and Wonderbread, there was sourdough. There was flat bread. There were community mills and genetically pure grain. It seemed like necessity and a lack of technology forced this wisdom on them - and maybe it did - but it worked. It had to work, because if it didn't there wasn't any Walmart up the street selling fake bread for $.99 a loaf. It worked and in many instances it worked better than what we have now.
It's simple because you can take the seed of a grass, some water and tiny, funky little creatures that live in the air we breathe and end up with BREAD. Bread, which sustained life for thousands of years. And people question the existence of God... when there's bread??
I love it. I love the science and the process and the endless possibilities it adds to my daily life. I want to honor the Old Ways while not being afraid to use some of the new ones too (thank you, refrigerator, oven and KitchenAid mixer!)
I've found that The Old Ways can be summed up with 3 S's:
Soaked
Sprouted and
Soured
The Ancients would either sprout their grain and then dry it before grinding it to flour and using it for bread, use a sourdough starter to leaven their bread or supposedly (this is a new one for me) soak their flour in an acidic medium before baking. I'm not pretending to be an expert in this, I read mostly before I go to bed which means I am deliriously tired and bleary-eyed. I absorb enough to make it work and make a mental note to go back and get sciency with it later.
Why all this trouble? Phytic Acid. It's something in wheat that makes it hard to digest. Yuppers.
And then there is the fact that commercially produced yeast wasn't available as leavening, and refrigerators weren't available to keep things from spoiling - neither was the cocktail of chemical preservatives, softeners and conditioners.
Food had to be tough (in a good, 'I can handle this' sort of way). And as it is with a lot of things in this life, sometimes a little *good* toughness does us a whole lot of good.
Preparing bread The Old Way pretty effectively solved these problems. It was easier to digest, lasted longer and was satisfying to eat.
**I am a Pilgrim, and I approve of this bread.**
I'm working my way up to a no-yeast sourdough bread (and variations) for us for every day and the next step was trying a soaked bread where the flour was mixed with water and an acidic medium (I used whey) and then left to culture for 15 hours before preparing. HERE is the recipe and method I used. I did NOT use the ascorbic acid, simply because I don't have any - - - and it turned out just fine.
This recipe uses yeast (and she explains all about that in her article) but it seemed to be as easy to digest as the bread I've been making - and it took One day instead of Six. It was also nice to have a not sour wheat bread instead of a white sourdough for a change. This is definitely an excellent sandwich loaf I will make again!! Let me know what you think...
The soaking
The rising
The cooling (after baking)
The consuming
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