Fermented breads

[Darlene]

aka Sourdoughs

 

The other night I watched a series that went into an in depth analysis of various food preparation/preservation techniques. One of the episodes was on bread and some of the things they talked about really struck a chord with me.

 

As we head into increasingly unknown days ahead, and as I have assessed and reassessed my preps, one of the things that has always been at the core of my preps are grains. Whether they be the soft grains for various desserts or the hard grains for bread making, it's something I've been using for decades at this point.

 

Anyway, when I watched the episode on bread, it really got me thinking. A loaf of bread and ??? (fill in the blank), and we will be ok. With our European background, bread has always been high on our list for enjoyment but I took notes as I watched this episode because I really learned alot, which in turn, solidified my commitment to storing grains:

 

In a 1 kernel of wheat there’s everything to support a life. There’s carbohydrates, minerals, proteins, and it’s locked up real tight. If you take the seed and start chewing on them, there will be no benefit…it’s actually very difficult to digest. All grains need to be fermented, where you use a culture of bacterias

 

Bacterias are everywhere. Sourdough culture is a mixed ecosystem of bacteria and yeast that were used to ferment bread for millennia.  When you expose wet flour to air and stir it and you will get a sourdough culture that transforms the wheat into a very nutritious substance. This is how the ancient Egyptians 6000 years ago accidently learned how to leaven bread. 

 

Building a culture is like the art of baking and is where it becomes the skill of the orchestrator. Working with natural starters is difficult because it has a mind of its own. It changes all the time because it is a live process but is essential because if you don’t do it, you won’t get the nutrients out of the kernel of wheat.

 

Wheat, even in the form of milled flour, is hard for our bodies to digest. One of the advantages of the long sourdough fermentation is that it allows bacterial to fully break down the carbohydrates and the strong, stretchy gluten in the dough. It also releases the healthy minerals in the grain so that our bodies can more easily absorb them. The sourdough fermentation has all the variables of any natural system – far more than are manageable on a large scale. To simplify the process, food scientists came up with a reliable shortcut in the form of fast acting commercial yeast.

 

The yeast was isolated and then bred to get the biggest rise as fast as possible. This caused the rest of what was going on in a natural fermentation to be overlooked. As it turns out, that represents one of those simplifications of industrial food that had unintended consequences that we’re dealing with right now.

 

When yeast is used, you have no fermentation, no acidic breakdown. The bread becomes harder to digest and when things are harder to digest, it taxes the body’s system. There is currently a trend where there’s so much food sensitivity, whether it’s gluten or wheat. There are so many bad wheat products out there, so it is not surprising that people are not feeling well. The corporations promote eating more whole grains, so everyone gets on the bandwagon eating whole wheat macaroni, etc but they didn’t say fermented whole grain.

 

There needs to be a distinction of a properly fermented loaf of sourdough bread and all the other form in which we get gluten.

 

When you bake a loaf of bread, essentially the bread becomes a pressure cooker. This thoroughly cooks the starches in a way that makes them delicious and digestible.

 

When you take your first bite of a piece of sourdough bread, it will make you salivate. This process is essential to trigger digestion. If you chew a piece of yeasted bread, you typically need something to wash it down as it doesn’t make you salivate.

 

You start with wheat. If you smell wheat flour and after the whole process of fermentation, it doesn’t smell like wheat anymore. It smells like something new. 

 

Taking traditional foods and making them in traditional ways is important because those foods worked for a very long time and are the product of a kind of cultural evolution.

 

I have a sourdough starter that I've had for several years. Last week, however, I had made up some pizza dough. For some reason, I forgot to put it in the fridge after we were done making pizzas. Long story short, it sat on the kitchen counter, covered, for a week. It began to bubble and release that familiar sour dough smell which was quite pleasing.

 

I ended up making some pizza with the fermented dough and it was absolutely amazing. To the point where I want to make some sourdough bread in a similar fashion, just to experiment, without the aid of the refrigerated sourdough starter.

 

I don't know if that makes any sense, but the notes I shared above, sure made alot of sense to me and makes me want to play even more with sourdough breads.

[Mother]

I hope you do make your own and let us know how it went. 
 

Sourdough can have many different tastes depending on the culture you use or develop.  It is easy to make and, like cheese culture, if you have a good tasting one you will be able to reproduce it again and again in the room you use for it.   Likewise, a bad culture will also persist.  That is why sourdough starters were often shared with others.  If you already had a great tasting pizza dough chances are your next batch made in that area will have that same taste if it hasn’t been a several months since making it. 
 

Wheat bread, even good quality sourdough bread, contains gluten.  Gluten is the elastic component of wheat, barley, rye and some other grains that allows it to loft (rise). Some people with gluten intolerances or sensitivity can handle a natural sourdough raised bread.  Those who have gluten allergies or Celiac disease cannot.  However, it is possible to make gluten free sourdough bread.  
 

When you make your ‘starter’ be sure to use some of it to make sourdough biscuits.  When our home schooled grandson was about 9, he’s twenty now, his history test was to cook a whole meal for eight people over an open fire. He made biscuits from his own sourdough starter with grain he had ground, and baked them in a cast iron Dutch oven over a fire he had started.  He also made baked beans, baked potatoes, and fried chicken but the biscuits were the star of the ‘test’.  

 

 

[Homesteader]

I found that sourdough needs feeding regularly. Because there are only two mouths to feed here and no animals, I've learned to toss the jar of sourdough in the refrig and give myself a break for a few days or weeks. It's several years old and was started around the time of the virus coming to our shores. I freeze plenty of yeast, but the sourdough sounded like extra insurance. And like Dar said, the bake goods are easier to digest.  

[Darlene]

1 hour ago, Mother said:

 

Wheat bread, even good quality sourdough bread, contains gluten.  Gluten is the elastic component of wheat, barley, rye and some other grains that allows it to loft (rise). Some people with gluten intolerances or sensitivity can handle a natural sourdough raised bread.  Those who have gluten allergies or Celiac disease cannot.  However, it is possible to make gluten free sourdough bread.  

 

 

Yeah, that was one of the points/questions they made. While there are definitely, legitimate gluten intolerant people, the unknown is what percentage of those that are intolerant, are actually intolerant to the commercial processes we've used forever...and whether or not those that suffer from intolerance, would remain so if they ate the types of fermented breads that were more common 100+ years ago.

[Darlene]

8 minutes ago, Homesteader said:

I freeze plenty of yeast, but the sourdough sounded like extra insurance. And like Dar said, the bake goods are easier to digest.  

Same here. I have the frozen yeast but after watching that program, I like the potential freedom with the fermented too.

[Mother]

30 minutes ago, Darlene said:

whether or not those that suffer from intolerance, would remain so if they ate the types of fermented breads that were more common 100+ years ago.

I’m not sure there would be any way to test scientifically but I believe it could be possible.  The issue could also be the changes in the wheat from 100 years ago and the chemicals used to grow it.  I tested allergic to yeast and for years used sourdough and fresh ground whole wheat to make bread.  I used raw organic goat’s milk and yet became more intolerant the older I got.  In 2012 I tested positive for a gluten allergy.  A year later they found the DNA for celiac.  So in my case it didn’t work but I believe if someone wasn’t severely intolerant and had been tested negative for celiac and allergy it would be worth their effort to try the experiment.  
 

Have you looked into the Nourishing Traditions book? It is a wealth of information on fermented foods and eating ancestral or traditional foods.  

[Littlesister]

I have made sour dough yeast before. It has been a long while but will be starting that again. Though I do have a lot of store-bought yeast in freezer as well. I am sure we will all be going back to basics and making not just bread, but a lot of things will be cooked differently. Skills are important.

[euphrasyne]

I had GI surgery back in 2016.   I'm missing a lot of my stomach and most of my intestine.  Carbs are tricky for me.   I can eat a small amount of many things, but I cannot even lick ice cream or I vomit.   I'm a huge baker and I've made bread for a long time.  I've always loved sourdough.   Ciabatta is one of my favorites.  I have found that my tolerance has more to do with density and cooked.  Pizza is a no-no unless it is made on pre toasted thin bread.  In general sourdough doesn't sit any better than yeast or white bread.   Quick breads (corn bread, muffins, banana bread) sit better than yeast bread.  Cake is a big no-no as I always regret it.  Tortillas and Naan do not cause me very many issues even though naan has yeast.    Cream of wheat is fine as long as it has low sugar.  I guess for me, digesting wheat is more about lower sugar, finer crumb, and being well done.

[Midnightmom]

16 hours ago, Mother said:

The issue could also be the changes in the wheat from 100 years ago and the chemicals used to grow it.

Have you read "Wheat Belly" by Dr. William Davis? You can ignore the "diet" part of the book if you want, but he explains how a lot of present day issues revolve around "modern wheat", which he labels a "perfect, chronic poison." 

 

Here is a video that may serve instead of reading the book:

Quote

The wheat of today is not the wheat of our mothers or grandmothers. Modern wheat is the product of genetic manipulations that have transformed its properties. Modern wheat is now a 2-foot tall, high-yield semi-dwarf strain, different in both appearance and multiple biochemical features from traditional wheat. Introduction of this new strain of wheat was associated with the appearance of a long list of health problems, along with weight gain and diabetes.

According to Dr. Davis, saying goodbye to all things wheat provides outsized and unexpected health benefits, from weight loss, to relief from acid reflux and bowel urgency, to reversal of diabetes, migraine headaches, and learning disabilities in children.

 

Dr. William Davis is author of the #1 New york Times bestselling book, Wheat Belly: Lose the wheat, lose the weight and find your path back to health (Rodale, 2011), now debuting internationally in over ten foreign languages. Wheat belly has helped spark a nationwide reconsideration of the conventional advice to "eat more healthy whole grains."

 

 

[Mother]

5 minutes ago, Midnightmom said:

Have you read "Wheat Belly" by Dr. William Davis?

I have as well as Grain Brain by David Perlmutter and a few dozen more.   Our wheat has changed primarily because of diseases that had become resistant to modern controls.  Now, it seems, they are trying to produce enough original wheat seed to insure enough to supply the world.  It appears the heirloom wheat is now resistant to the diseases?    
 

It’s nice to fool with Mother Nature!,   

 

Seriously though.  At the time they first started modifying the wheat there was a serious shortage of wheat in areas of the world that depended on it to sustain their people.  I believe it was a type of ‘rust’ they were trying to resolve.  Not all crop manipulation is for monetary gain.  Some is for humanitarian reasons.  Humans are only ,,,,well human though and we don’t always win over Mother Nature. Our bodies evolution doesn’t always keep up with man’s mechanisms.  

[Midnightmom]

@Mother Do you have any idea if fermenting bread reduces the glycemic load of the end product?

[Mother]

31 minutes ago, Midnightmom said:

Do you have any idea if fermenting bread reduces the glycemic load of the end product?

It has been my understanding that it does because the fermentation uses the sugars in the process.  It would, of course depend on how long the bread is fermented.  I highly doubt the commercial sourdough loaf would have the attention to that detail as you would in your own homemade traditional starter and bread making processes.  

[euphrasyne]

If you are asking about testing blood sugar after eating sourdough vs eating white or whole wheat......  All 3 of them make my BS go up equally.   I cannot speak for other people, but I have a decade of testing that says it doesn't matter for me.  

[Mother]

1 hour ago, euphrasyne said:

All 3 of them make my BS go up equally. 

Yes, they do mine as well.  In fact all complex carbs do to some extent, some more than others. I am not diabetic though but test because of hypoglycemia.  For me it is a matter of keeping my carb intake fairly regular and balancing it with protein, fat and fiber. 

[Littlesister]

I get e-mails from healthy traditions. they sell gluten intolerant or glyphosate intolerant flours and other things. You could check them out also on some things. Though right now I think they are sold out of flour but has pizza flour on sale now.