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.