Here’s the science behind the amazing power of sourdough bread to resist mold. Turns out specific bacteria in the sourdough mixture create fatty acids which have intensely anti-fungal properties. Researchers of course have isolated the specific bacterial species and want to introduce them to “regular” breads to lengthen shelf life while eliminating toxic preservatives. I’ll …
Category Archives: GRAIN
Kimchee for breakfast
People often ask me, “what do you eat sauerkraut with?” and my answer is an enthusiastic: “EVERYTHING!” Few meals around here are complete without at least a sprinkling of fermented cabbage. It adds flavor, crunch, nutrients, beneficial microbes, and color. What’s not to love? Two rounds of antibiotics I recently took following a pig incident …
Staples never stale
According to Weston Price’s engrossing book “Nutrition and Human Degeneration”, remote Swiss villagers in the 1920s aged their sourdough loaves of rye bread before consuming them. His photographs show enormous, flat wheels of bread with a hole in them so they could be hung for TWO WEEKS before being eaten. A school child’s usual lunch …
Pies in the skies
Pie dough is incredibly important during the holiday season. It’s easy to make and keeps well, especially when it’s a fermented version from Sally Fallon’s wonderful book Nourishing Traditions. I like to make a giant ball of it and keep it in the fridge, ready to be flattened and filled with savory or sweet treats …
Breakfast, then lunch
I made possibly the best breakfast ever the other morning, and then I took a totally mediocre picture of it right before we devoured it entirely. I make an effort to crow about culinary triumphs only when it is truly something worth repeating. Again and again and again. Basically, it’s stuff layered between crepes, and …
stove-top muffins and unpredicatble pizza
English muffins are a neato stove top flat bread that anyone without an oven should master, promptly. They have the perfect shape to hold a fried egg (no wasted corner space as on a square peice of bread), and the slightly browned exterior of each muffin invites slathering of particularly extreme quantities of dairy products. …
Not-so-sour dough
It’s the holy grail of home bakers who are also a certain strain of health nut: bread made with only whole wheat flour, no sugar, and no commercial yeast. And – because I’m a foodie health nut – preferably NOT a brick. I set out on this quest because I simply didn’t want to buy …
Waffling is a dance
There is nothing instant about our waffles, and no electric toasters are involved. The process begins twenty four hours before I warm up our cast iron waffle maker, made in Pennsylvania probably a century ago. Yesterday morning, I mixed some freshly ground, entirely whole wheat flour with some of my faithful sourdough starter who I …
Pickling eggs, and salad as a bonus
Pickled eggs might be my favorite fermented food. It’s exceedingly rare that I have “fast” food on hand, but a pickled egg all by itself is an amazing and immediate source of calories and nutrients. It’s a near tragedy my kitchen has been without their presence for so long. A few weeks ago, I decided …
Pre-digested and fully hydrated carbohydrates
Grains in general, wheat in particular, have acquired a rather tarnished reputation in recent years. They cause gastric distress for many folks. I’m not suggesting that celiac’s disease doesn’t exist (my sister lives with it), but I do suspect that part of the problem may come from our modern lack of knowledge about the proper …