Sam's Kitchen

No 3 child

When No 3 was born last August I vowed I wasn’t having anymore children.  That was until we decided to start making bread from scratch.  Sourdough to be precise, made from a wild yeast starter that once established you have to feed and nurture.

Nicknamed ‘the kids’ I’ve suddenly found I’ve four additional mouths to feed and, quite frankly, they are almost as demanding as our brood.  At least with the children I can put them to bed before evening service and more often than not I’m not disturbed until ohh, at least 5.30 in the morning.

No3 Yeast

The ‘kids’ on the other hand need attention from the moment we enter the kitchen. Firstly, there’s the weighing out of the first batch of yeast to make bread. Then there the 1st feed and a small drink after which it does little other than mooch about in a bowl in the cosiest part of the kitchen for 8 hours whilst it contemplates rising a bit for the 1st prove. Feeding time again, a light massage (otherwise known as kneading) and then another little lounge whilst it proves a second time at which point it suns itself in the oven. Out again, it needs to cool for a couple of hours before the baker might actually get to eat something – well after you’ve feed the starter it’s evening snackette that is….

Taking on board that the bread is now flying out the door with a fair amount of repeat custom – seems quite a lot of people like it – we’re having to go through this process twice daily with all 4 of our starters.

Admittedly, we’ve kind of got into the swing of it now and the next step is to try and make bread from some beer.  I’m trying to find a brew that’s made from a wild rather than processed yeast which is proving hard to come by so we may well have to make our own (Ok, ok chaps I can here your groans from the office!)  In the meantime, Pete over at the Hopdaemon brewery is helpfully giving it a go for us with some wort  so we’re waiting with baited bread for the results…..

The finished product

It’s not often I give up a cry for help in the old food history stakes – in fact never – but in this instance no amount of googling or old fashioned page turning seems to be coming up with the answer.

Now I realise that there probably isn’t anyone left in the world I haven’t bored rigid about our bread project but just in case here is the précis…  We’re making bread from a wild yeast culture we have grown from scratch.  Well, in researching the whole sour dough starter thing I came up with a comment about a bread and beer connection I hadn’t thought of.

We’re currently growing yeast from grapes (which, apparently, is how our warmer European cousins would have done it) along with a simple flour and water version that just relies on being exposed to oxygen.  However, the Gauls and Iberians apparently made a jolly nice bread from using the froth for the top of their beer.

This makes absolute sense because it would have sped up the bread making process immensely as well as making a lighter loaf than the usual brick type affair.  Anyway, it got me thinking and, digging further, I came across notes that the Babylonians in 6000BC wrote the first known beer recipe which used under baked bread to serve as the live yeast culture added to make beer.

Which brings me to my question…. Does anyone out there know either how to speak ancient Babylonian OR, possibly more helpfully, could advise me how to make a beer using our simple sour-dough starter (eg the one without the grapes)?

Nigel is muttering darkly about duty so I guess I need so say I only want to brew a few pints so I can use the froth to make bread – we’ll probably have to throw the actually alcohol away (never thought I’d ever write that…) in any case,  I think I’ll leave the drinkable beer brewing to the experts!!!

Answers on a postcard please or to thecoastguard@talk21.com