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  • From: Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Black Russian Bread Addendum, wheat type, kneading, sourdough mix
  • Date: Mon, 04 Oct 2004 20:30:19 -0700



Black Russian Bread Revisited---yeast vs newly opened Fleischman's Bakers Yeast, Kneading etc,

Unless I was going on a long sailboat passage where packaged yeast might get wet, I used Fleischman's Bakers Yeast for my Russian Black Bread---the regular, not quick-rising kind. I might be wrong, but I think the regular yeast makes better-tasting, better textured bread.
Anyway, though NO yeast is exactly uniform in nature, the big yeast manufacturers have labs and testing procedures to make their commercial yeasts uniform enough, so you won't detect any difference between a yeast you buy today and one you buy a year from now.

You can make a sourdough yeast that might develop a unique regional (or your galley) flavor, but this may depend on the temperature swings a lot. Sourdough goes dormant in cold weather, is happy in the 70's and under intense heat (think Douglas, Arizona at 130 degrees F. in summer daylight hours), may turn toes up.

Your basic bread ingredient is flour, not sugar, so you want sourdough liquid to feed and grow well in flour and water---the small amount of sugar you add in your bread dough is just to give the mix a sharp kick in the ass---er-rh mass.

Black Bread uses wheat flour (no problem), barley flour (little or no problem), rye flour (unpredictable problems), so your sourdough should not contain or be fed by rye flour ar all---think Ergot Poisoning.

How you contain and handle sourdough is important. I like a wide-mouth GLASS container, two-quart size is pretty good. Glass, because glass is easier to clean than plastic, doesn't support strange bacteria beneath its surface, as does plastic. I like a screw-top container because you can leave it a little loose (sourdough has to breathe), while still excluding those nasty little gnats that will otherwise get in the liquid sourdough, all through your kitchen and living room.

Keep the glass container nearly full. (less an inch), of liquid sourdough---with a clean paper towel, wipe off the inside above liquid level---you don't want strange bacteria and molds growing above your sourdough mix---dry flour is full of strange bacteria and molds..

The container top should be wide enough in diameter so you can easily dip in a CLEAN measuring gadget, probably plastic, half or full cup capacity. Recipes usually call for a cup of sourdough mix, makes it easier to dip out what you want, immediately feed the sourdough with a cup each of flour and water (plus more if you take out more). The flour and water should be mixed together thoroughly, mixed thoroughly with the sourdoug mix still remaining in the glass container. You will probably take out more than a cup to begin with---half a cup more is typical, including skimming off a thick scum on top with a tablespoon, throw both away.

If you don't make bread each week, you still have to feed the liquid sourdough---be consistent, same day each week so YOUR feeding habit is formed. The liquid sourdough will "work off" and go dormant in two or three days, start separating in three layers, thick scum on top, next a light yellow liquid layer, and below that the digested flour will settle.

The whole thing will smell---that's what it is supposed to do, don't worry about it. At some time or other a batch of liquid sourdough will go bad---not to worry, you will be able to see and smell the difference even if you do not know why it went bad.
Always keep a small jar of good liquid sourdough in your refrigerator to use if your major container of sourdough goes bad. At around forty degrees F. it will go dormant, and not require feeding. Warming quickly revives it and it will spread through a new batch of mixed flour and water duplicating the sourdough mix you lost.

Your INITIAL sourdough culture is two cups flour, one cup water (I like boiled and cooled water), one cup of cooled potato water to supercharge events, and one package of BREAD yeast in a CLEAN glass container. Mix well and let stand in a warm place until fermentation ceases (you will Know when bubbling stops and the solution starts to separate.

If you bake at irregular intervals, plan ahead and give a small feeding of mixed flour and water to your sourdough mix two days prior to making bread---it will stimulate bacterial growth and your bread will rise faster---or add a package of baker's yeast for the same effect.

You need gluten to make good bread. Don't expect to get any from barley or rye. AND get the right kind of wheat grains to grind from the following URL. http://www.baking911.com/pantry_flour,grains.htm
Stick with the same wheat grains time after time, or you will be unhappy with being unable to consistently make the kind of bread you want. And as the prior Russian Black Bread post mentioned, use a Corona grinding mill with corrugated steel plates, NOT ceramic plates. Set the steel plates not too tight so the wheat grains are not crushed too fine, and regrind the initial flour grind once again. Also a trial and error thing you have to relate to the texture and moisture you like best in Russian Black Bread.

And knead the dough to bring out the gluten, again using the same time period and appearance of well-kneaded bread dough---it will take on a surface sheen you will soon learn to recognize as producing the baked bread texture and taste you like best. You will of course knead the dough on a floured surface (same flour you use in the bread), as any good cookbook specifies. If you don't knead long enough, you will have big holes in your baked bread---longer you knead dough the finer the baked bread texture. I don't like superfine texture, knead dough only long enough to produce a coarse-textured, moist baked bread. Trial and error to get exactly what you or I want---we will not have the same preferences in bread. They can be strong, I used to drive fifty miles out of my way every couple of weeks to visit my favorite Russian Jew bakery in Chicago to get the best Black Russian Bread I ever found in the Midwest. You could find a similar bread in the New York City ghetto, but who wants to drive anywhere in New York City.

Ess a bisel eppis, tztelleh.
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