Wheat bread.

[Loyalist Dave]

Really?.. how so?

King Arthur is a baking company that wants to sell it's product. :wink: Any flour made from durum or hard red wheat are not akin to the flour of the Civil War or before.

Durum and Red Winter Wheat are imports from Russia, the Ukraine, and are post 1898, except in very small Mennonite communities that had it prior to that date.. Prior to that date, the year it was brought back from Russia to be used to replace the white wheat which was "rust" prone, the wheat raised in North America is what is today called Soft White Wheat, and can be found in whole wheat pastry flour.

The modern whole wheat has a lot more gluten than did the wheat of the 18th century. Thus the product is a lot better for pizza dough, it's very bad for making ship's biscuit or CW Hardtack. Further those two "breads" were made from the lowest quality flour, aka "ship's stuff" which had a LOT of bran and straw in it. So if one is going to make ship's biscuit or hardtack in addition to the whole wheat pastry flour, one should duplicate the low quality flour by adding 1/3 to 1/2 wheat bran.

IF one is making biodegradable black powder shooting targets..., any cheap wheat flour will do, plus some water and heat.

LD

 

[coloradoclyde]

Thanks, that was helpful.... :thumbsup:

 

[Nomadexpedition]

Thanks for the tip on how to lower the quality of modern day flour.

 

[Nomadexpedition]

IF one is making biodegradable black powder shooting targets..., any cheap wheat flour will do, plus some water and heat.

LD

oh any more info on how these are made never heard of this kind of target before.

 

[coloradoclyde]

ff ...But, things like charcoal briquettes hanging from a string or saltines held by a clothespin. Make cheap biodegradable targets.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Sure..., it's called "ship's biscuit" and it was the hardtack of the 18th century. I first made them with modern whole wheat, and water with a little salt, and they could not be chewed, even with modern teeth. YET with the bad teeth of the 18th century journals spoke of men eating them straight so I went lookin'....

That's when I found out about the wheat being wrong for making 18th century breads. When I made ship's biscuit with whole wheat pastry flour and wheat bran..., you can chew them...,

What we found though was the original experiment made for good hard targets that were safe to leave on the range or in the woods after shooting. It's just flour and water.

You need:
Modern, whole wheat flour from the super market.
water
a mixing bowl, and a rolling pin
a fork
a round cookie cutter or a large, empty, steel can (we used one that once held green beans)
a non-stick baking sheet

Mix 2 cups flour with enough water to make a stiff dough. (If you want them colored and still environmentally safe..., add food coloring at this point. Red, yellow, blue, etc. :wink: )

Roll the dough flat to about 1/4 - 1/2 inch thick. Cut it into circles with the can. Lay the dough-disks on the baking pan and poke holes in them to help allow the water to escape. Poke one or two holes near the edge the diameter of a pencil to give you a place to attach a cord to hang them up when you're ready to shoot.

Bake at 250-300 degrees for a couple of hours until hard and dry. Voila, biodegradable targets.

You can save a lot of time if you simply buy "safe" clay pigeons, BUT they only come round and if you wish something different, you may cut the dough into squares or diamonds or even get really large cookie cutters for shapes. (how about a winter shoot where you fire at the "evil Yellow snowmen"? )

LD

 

[NeilMacleod]

tried my three week old Dough (Fife), just used Kieffer/yoghurt, fried it up, very nice sour-dough.

White Bean soup

 

[coloradoclyde]

:thumbsup:

 

[Hairy Clipper]

I have two thoughts that I will add here today. I, too, like to make bread and have experimented a lot over the years. Additionally, my mother went to school with two brothers that became bakers and ran bakeries 12 miles apart. One of them became a mentor as a longtime customer at my barber shop and for 25 years I would ask questions and he would provide insight into the process.

There are two things that stand out in these discussions over the years:
1) The ash content in the flour can make a huge difference in the flavor of the bread. High ash content means BIG flavor. Each grain of wheat has seven
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flour different layers of flour. Of the seven layers there are two layers that have high ash content and they are called first clear and second clear flours. In baker supply terms most of the flour millers combine these two flours and call it some trade marked name such as Powerful Clear, et. al. Clear flour here in Minnesota is impossible to find on the retail market. I buy directly from bakery suppliers. It comes in 50 pound bags and at the bakery supply house you can buy 50 pound for about the same price as 10 pounds at the grocery store. Unfortunately these suppliers are usually located in major cities Here in Minnesota it means a 65 mile drive to Minneapolis.

2) this I learned from my Grandmother and the baker confirmed and added a comment. Grandma always heated the milk to the point that small bubbles start to form around the perimeter of the saucepan. These bubbles and steam rising from the milk are the indicator for when the milk is scalded. The scalding of the milk kills an enzyme that makes the bread crumb tender. The baker confirmed this and added that the process of making dried milk heats enough to do the same thing and is why bakers use dried milk ... it is faster than scalding gallons of milk and much cheaper.

If you what to learn how to make some really good old world or artisan type breads there are a number of books authored by a fellow named Peter Reinhart on bread baking. Peter's book, THE BREAD BAKERS APPRENTICE would be a good one to start with. Having baked using his books' processes I can attest to the quality of his writings and experience as a baker being excellent.

On a more serious side of things that perhaps only bread bakers and brewers can appreciate: When you are loading your muzzle loader adding some flour on top of the powder you will get the aroma of slightly burnt toast when you pull the trigger of your weapon. The sulfur will overpower it though.

Bread and beer use the same ingredients only different ratios.

 

[Hairy Clipper]

If you do not think you will be able to use 50 pounds of flour fast enough you can always repackage it in plastic bags and freeze it. When it is time to thaw it remember to place it in your refrigerator for a day or more to keep it from having condensation form and making a sticky mess.

 

[Kansas Jake]

Very informative post Hairy. I learned some stuff today and that always makes for a good day.

BTW, I have baked bread for years and didn't know about the difference in flour or the milk enzyme.

 

[Hairy Clipper]

Hello Kansas Jake!

I am glad to hear that something that I added to the forum was useful to someone.

My baker friend also mentioned that these layers of flour also have different gluten making levels and is the reason why recipes call for different types of flour. The topic of this discussion being wheat bread I think you will find that most recipes call for the addition of all-purpose four being added to the mix. The reason for the all-purpose is to create enough gluten to the wheat flour to keep the crumb from becoming to weak that is a crumbly mess when you slice it, toast it, eat it, etc.

Additionally, cake flour is a flour that contain little gluten forming elements and while I have yet to try it I have had an idea for a while that I must try soon. Biscuits can be a real problem with being over worked and it is the working of the dough that creates the gluten. With two or three folding of the dough being too much sometimes. Since cake flour has less gluten making elements, I have had a thought that using cake flour for 75% of the amount of flour being used might make for some light and tender biscuits. If someone tries this before I get to it, please report back with your results.

 

[NeilMacleod]

I buy 25lb/10kg bags of berries, I vacuum pack them right away and grind as I need them. One of the biggest problems people face I find is to get grain that not GMO or perverted in other ways. Even buckwheat makes great bread when doing it properly and that takes a couple days.

 

[Kansas Jake]

When I was young, my mother cautioned me not to mix the pancake batter too much or the pancakes would become tough.

 

[coloradoclyde]

I prefer a "tough" English style pancake to the Fluffy American ones...

 

[Kansas Jake]

Clyde, I have Danish ancestry, so make thin Scandinavian style pancakes.

Pancakes for breakfast and whole wheat bread with a slice of cheese for mid morning coffee.

 

[coloradoclyde]

Along the same lines? :thumbsup:

You can roll an English pancake and slice it into strips and add them to soup like noodles...(Known as pancake soup)...Delicious, and easier than making traditional noodles.

 

[Hairy Clipper]

The last time I had some of those thin pancakes I was at a shooting match in the U.P. of Michigan and staying near the town of Crystal Falls. The only cafe in town served them and were they ever good. Probably made me shoot better that day.

 

[Hairy Clipper]

I have never heard of that before. I will have to give that a try.

 

[coloradoclyde]

I make mine very simply.
Take an egg and scramble it, then add about a teaspoon of water, then whisk in enough flour to make a pourable batter (If making noodle whisk well) pour into pan (non-stick work best)swirl to spread evenly across the pan. When the edges begin to lift, shake the pan to loosen, then flip and cook the other side.