The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book Part 21

The most usual and least serious cause of tearing is not letting the deflated and rounded dough rest long enough before you shape the loaves. Give it more time. If for whatever reason the gluten is fragile, handle the dough gently to prevent further tearing. Use plenty of dusting flour on the board, or water if you prefer, to minimize friction.

With weak dough, extra handling will just make matters worse, so press the tear with your wetted fingers, repairing it as best you can. You may have to turn the loaf in the pan to find a smooth top surface. The final rise should be not too warm and not too humid-and, for sure, not too long.

Although it may mean a yeasty-flavored loaf, turn the dough out, shape it again, and let it rise once more. If you suspect that the dough has gotten old, adding cup of chopped toasted walnuts will mask the beery taste.

The bread is underbaked If the loaf has cooled, it is too late to put it in the oven for more cooking. Pull the wad of raw dough out of the center of the loaf and throw it away.

Make the rest into crumbs or croutons, toasting them well.

The bread is overbaked Dry and hard, it will make good crumbs, croutons, or French toast.

Troubleshooting TroubleshootingSooner or later-mostly sooner-every baker produces a real bomb. The bread didn't rise, or it rose and fell, or the inside is gray and it tastes like old beer. It's embarra.s.sing, to say the least, but you can use the disaster to learn something about breadmaking. This section has been designed to help you figure out what went awry and, we hope, to prevent a recurrence. By the time you finish these pages, you'll be congratulating yourself for all the things that didn't didn't go wrong! go wrong!If you are a beginner, a few basic things cause the most trouble:Adding too much flour when kneading.Not kneading the dough well enough. (Or, in a food processor, maybe too well!)Keeping the dough too warm, or not warm enough, while it rose. Not giving the loaves long enough-or giving them too long-to rise in the pan.It is really worth reading through A Loaf for Learning again, and baking bread from it more than once.If you are not so sure that it was one of the above, here are more specifics that may help.The Bread Didn't Rise WellYeastWas the yeast fresh? Did you dissolve it according to the manufacturer's instructions? Was it exposed to water that was too hot, too cold? That had salt, or too much sweetener?RisingIs the bread grayish and strongtasting? Is the crust thick and the inside crumbly? These are signs that the dough rose too long or too warm. Perhaps you used too much yeast.Does the bread have a somewhat flat taste? The dough may not have had enough time to ripen. (If that's it, the bread will stale quickly too.) This can happen if the temperature is too low or the time given is too little; or possibly the yeast was old or its measure short.ProofingIs the bread coa.r.s.e and holey near the top? Maybe it rose too long in the pan. Did it (yoik!) collapse? Maybe you jarred it as you put it into the oven, overproofed or not.Is the loaf undersized and dense? Here's a tricky one: are the bottom edges of the loaf rounded rather than square like the pan? Did the crust lift away from the loaf and/or seem darker than you expected? If it's a hearth-style loaf, is the bottom rounded and the loaf cracked around the side? Very likely the solution to all these problems is to let the shaped loaf rise warmer or longer.FlourOnly hard wheat bread flour has the gluten content to make bread rise. All-purpose and pastry flours do not, nor do flours made from anything other than wheat (see this page this page). Is the slice dense and hard? Perhaps you simply used too much flour. Next time measure very carefully, and when kneading, try not to add any flour at all on the board, even if the dough seems really sticky at first.Other ingredientsAdding wheat germ, milk powder, or raw honey can reduce your loaves' size, especially if the bread rises longer than 4 hours total.KneadingDid you knead long enough, keeping the dough in a ball and pushing into the center? Did you keep at it for the full count or time? Did you overknead? Not impossible, but unlikely by hand-and easy with a food processor. Look at the slice: is the texture coa.r.s.e and holey? Next time work it less.Pan sizeIs the loaf squat, but inside, the slice is plenty airy? It sounds like the pan was too big.Crust ProblemsIs the crust pale, thick, and tough?Probably the oven temperature was too low.Did you use the sweetener and/or milk the recipe called for? Breads without sweetener or milk are best when baked with steam at a higher temperature (see this page this page). If you did include sweetener, but you can't taste it in the bread, the dough may have risen too long or got too warm, or both.Is the crust terribly dark?Is it dry inside? It just baked too long. If there are dark areas, or if the top or bottom are particularly affected, your oven has a hot spot. Rotate the bread partway through the baking or move it down or up in the oven to compensate.If the bread has a lot of milk or milk products or sweetener, the crust will brown deeply perforce. Bake at a lower heat, usually 325F.Are there dark spots?Condensing steam dropping on the loaves causes these.Did the top crust lift off?If the bottom edges are rounded, as well, probably the bread was underproofed.The dough may have been too stiff because of too much flour.The dough may have dried out and crusted over during the final rising period.Slightly overproofed bread made from rather slack dough will often collect a pocket of air just under the crust. Slashing helps, but best of all is not to overproof.Does the crust have blisters?These can be caused by not deflating the dough completely when you round and shape the loaf; by overproofing a dough that was underfermented; by letting condensed steam drip down on the loaf while it proofs.Crumb Problems (All that is not crust is crumb)Is the crumb coa.r.s.e and holey?Big holes in an otherwise even crumb come from careless shaping of the loaf.Did you grease or oil the bowl in which the dough rose? Some of this fat may not get absorbed; the dough separates at these points and gas acc.u.mulates. Using too much dusting flour can cause the same problem and so can letting the dough dry out during the second rise, or while it is resting.If the holes are only at the top of the slice, while the bottom is pretty dense, and maybe the loaf even collapsed a little, it was overproofed. Did you forget the salt? It is easy to overproof saltless bread. If your oven was not hot enough at the beginning of the bake, the bread will continue to rise when it should be baking.If all the crumb is open and also moist, the dough was too wet.Is the crumb crumbly?Usually, the crumb is crumbly if there was too much flour and too little kneading, but it can also be caused by "overing": overkneading, overfermenting, overproofing. Too much wheat germ, bran, oat flakes, and such will do it, too.Is the crumb uneven?Cold dough proofed warm may have an open texture on the outside and be dense in the center. Warm dough that is cooler in the final rise may be holey in the center and dense near the crust.Are there streaks or hard spots in the crumb?You get hard spots when you pick up bits of hard or gummy sc.r.a.p from the kneading table; the best place for the stuff that rolls off your hands after kneading is the compost bin. Avoid using too much dusting flour.You also get streaks when the dough is chilled or dries out during the risings. If fermenting dough gets really crusty there will be gummy places in the bread where it couldn't bake properly.Flavor & Staling

Is the flavor poor?

Does the bread get stale too quickly? Does the bread get stale too quickly?

If the bread tastes bland and flat, you probably forgot the salt. Bread that is underfermented will also be a little bland and will stale quickly.

Most of the factors that make poor flavor also make for poor keeping quality. Since no one wants to eat the stuff, it can be around a long time, which doesn't help either. Most of the factors that make poor flavor also make for poor keeping quality. Since no one wants to eat the stuff, it can be around a long time, which doesn't help either.

If the bread tastes yeasty and looks gray, its rising was too long or too warm or both. Or did you use too much yeast?

Overbaked bread is dry and hard, and seems stale from day one. Overbaked bread is dry and hard, and seems stale from day one.

Is the flour old or the oil rancid? Did the b.u.t.ter spend the night alongside a half onion in the refrigerator? Fats, flour, milk, eggs-all of them can absorb off-flavors in storage.

Bread made in a short time can never keep as well as leisurely loaves do, even when it is made properly. Bread made in a short time can never keep as well as leisurely loaves do, even when it is made properly.

Were you experimenting? A new combination of good ingredients doesn't automatically work well.

Some ingredients help bread stay moist and fresh-tasting longer: cooked cereal, stewed or steamed fruit, fat, honey, milk (particularly cultured milk). Some ingredients help bread stay moist and fresh-tasting longer: cooked cereal, stewed or steamed fruit, fat, honey, milk (particularly cultured milk).

Check your storage conditions (see Check your storage conditions (see this page this page).

About the Ingredients: Flour COMMERCIAL MILLS & THEIR PRODUCTS.

In the old days most towns had a small grain mill where everyone went to buy flour. We still have a mill in our town, and from across the river it probably looks like it did a hundred years ago. But today inside the Great Petaluma Mill are thirty-three Unique Shoppes, including two restaurants and a candy store.

It was after the invention of the roller mill that small local mills gave way to huge, centralized factories. Freshly ground brown flour from home couldn't compete with the manufactured white flour the new machines produced. With its nearly eternal shelf life and ability to tolerate travel, white flour was not only more glamorous but cheaper and less variable, too.

The modern commercial roller mill is a gigantic affair many stories high. The grain enters on the top and pa.s.ses through the first, shearing rollers. These break the grains and produce the first powdery-fine flour, which is sieved out through fine cloth. Strong air currents lift off the lightweight bran. What is left is "middlings." These are again milled and separated several times into many distinct flour "streams." The first fine powdery flour from the center of the kernel is patent flour. patent flour. What is taken out of the middlings is What is taken out of the middlings is clear flour. clear flour. When they are combined, the result is When they are combined, the result is 100 percent straight flour. 100 percent straight flour. It may be 100 percent flour, but it is only 72 percent of the wheat- It may be 100 percent flour, but it is only 72 percent of the wheat-72 percent extraction. All these are kinds of All these are kinds of white white flour. The white flour in the supermarket will be a blend of them, and very likely a blend of different kinds of wheat too, tested and standardized for gluten content and other characteristics. flour. The white flour in the supermarket will be a blend of them, and very likely a blend of different kinds of wheat too, tested and standardized for gluten content and other characteristics.

The other 28 percent of the wheat-the nutritious bran, germ, and "shorts"-is not considered flour and usually becomes animal feed. Shorts Shorts is whatever won't separate into any of the mill streams, a mixture of everything, about half of the 28 percent. Another milling product, red dog, is taken from the last reduction or tail of the mill, somewhere between low-grade flour and feed. To get whole wheat flour from a big commercial mill of this sort, all these different products are mixed together again in their original proportions. is whatever won't separate into any of the mill streams, a mixture of everything, about half of the 28 percent. Another milling product, red dog, is taken from the last reduction or tail of the mill, somewhere between low-grade flour and feed. To get whole wheat flour from a big commercial mill of this sort, all these different products are mixed together again in their original proportions.

Big mills have laboratories for a.n.a.lyzing their products. In addition to blending different varieties of wheat to standardize flour quality, various enzymes and chemicals may be added, some of which must be listed on the label. For example, diastatic enzymes may be added in the form of malted barley flour or malted wheat flour. Chemicals used to "bleach" or "improve" the flour include oxides of nitrogen, chlorine, acetone peroxide, as...o...b..c acid, and pota.s.sium bromate. These chemicals are used more often with white flour than whole wheat.

FLOUR FOR BREADMAKING.

If you mean to use the flour for making yeasted bread, don't buy all-purpose or pastry flours: they have too low a gluten content to make light bread. Flours high in gluten are often labeled bread flour, or if the flour comes from a small mill or is stoneground, it may tell on the package the kind of wheat it comes from. You should be able to count on hard red spring wheat, hard red winter wheat hard red spring wheat, hard red winter wheat, and hard white wheat hard white wheat to have enough gluten for breadmaking. These are bread flour: the hardness of the kernel is an indication of high protein content. Soft wheats, red or white, have less gluten, and are used either for pastry flour (including whole wheat pastry flour) or as animal feed. to have enough gluten for breadmaking. These are bread flour: the hardness of the kernel is an indication of high protein content. Soft wheats, red or white, have less gluten, and are used either for pastry flour (including whole wheat pastry flour) or as animal feed.

Much of the best wheat in the country comes from Montana, with its long summer days and good soil, but other wheat-growing areas may offer good wheat too: look for a protein content of at least 14 percent for making yeasted whole wheat bread. (Most all-purpose whole wheat flour is around 12 percent, and pastry flour about 6 to 8 percent.) White flour for breadmaking is about 12 percent protein-anything higher would make rubbery bread. Not so with whole wheat, though, because as much as one third of its protein content comes from the brown parts of the grain. Their portion of the protein, since it is not gluten protein, doesn't help make the bread lighter.

Once you have made sure that the flour you buy is high in gluten, the second requirement, no less important, is freshness. Whole wheat flour, unlike white flour, is perishable. Stored at room temperature, it will keep a month; refrigerated, two. After that, unless there are preservatives in the flour or in the packaging, the natural oils in the flour will be getting rancid, and the quality of the bread cannot help but be affected.

If you buy in bulk at a natural food store, find out how often they get flour, from how far away, and how they store it. Taste a pinch of it; it should have a bright flavor, be a little sweet, with no bitterness. If they know you will be wanting fresh flour regularly, they may be glad to get it for you.

If you're buying packaged flour off the shelf, watch out for the date it expires. The trouble is, sometimes these dates are given in a code the consumer isn't privy to. Ask your storekeeper to tell you how to read it, or at least find out how long the flour has been on his shelf. He may not know that whole wheat flour should be stored cool, or that it doesn't keep a long time. Once you get the flour home, store it airtight in the refrigerator.

There are subtler differences in baking quality that come from the wheat, and some from the milling. The most obvious difference in flours is how finely they have been ground. Hammermilled or rollermilled flour, even when it comes from a small mill that grinds in only one step, will be extremely fine, making light bread of a fine, resilient texture. Stone-ground flour can also be finely ground, but our own favorite among commercial stone-ground flours is quite rough. It makes wonderfully nubbly loaves of excellent flavor that are very tender. The large bran particles, softened in fermentation, make excellent dietary fiber. Properly stone-ground flour should feel smooth except for the bran particles-the white part shouldn't be grainy feeling.

Stone grinding is as controversial as it is full of mystique, but it is is true that the flour is different; whether it is better is perhaps debatable, but we very much prefer it for our daily bread. It is true that commercial stone-ground flour from a reputable mill is usually more expensive, because these mills can never match the volume of the faster hammermills or rollermills. true that the flour is different; whether it is better is perhaps debatable, but we very much prefer it for our daily bread. It is true that commercial stone-ground flour from a reputable mill is usually more expensive, because these mills can never match the volume of the faster hammermills or rollermills.

Advocates of stonemilling-ourselves included-have felt that the flour might well taste better and keep fresher because the slower speed of stone mills protects the flour from heating up as it is ground. This may still be true as a general rule, but now we know at least one conscientious commercial miller of whole grains who has air-coolers for both both his stone mill and his hammermills to make sure neither heats up as it grinds. The only way to be sure about flour is to see how it works. his stone mill and his hammermills to make sure neither heats up as it grinds. The only way to be sure about flour is to see how it works.

GAUGING FLOUR QUALITY.

If you shop around and try all the flours you can find in your area, you will hit on some you like much better than others, and probably settle on two or three that you like for particular strengths they have: a super high-gluten, finely ground flour for making fruited and mixed-grain breads, for example; a coa.r.s.e, slightly lower-gluten flour with outstanding flavor for French and other plainer loaves.

One thing to keep in mind is that whole wheat flour will also vary noticeably from year to year. Spring wheat is harvested in the fall; winter wheat, in early summer. Millers let newly harvested wheat cure for 90 days before they grind it, so some time in November, the first of the new spring wheat flour makes its debut. You will notice the difference in your bread.

Baking Test for Flour Quality - 2 teaspoons active dry yeast ( oz or 7 g) - 1 cup warm water (235 ml) - 6 cups whole wheat flour (900 g) - 2 teaspoons salt (14 g) - 1 cups water, approximately (355 ml) - 2 tablespoons honey (30 ml) - 2 tablespoons bland oil (30 ml) If you want to make a choice about what flour to get regularly, or, even more, if you want to choose a wheat to buy in bulk for grinding in your own mill, you may find it useful to take a more careful look at the baking qualities of the flour or wheat you are considering. This baking test is modeled on one professionals use for this purpose, and it can be very helpful in evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of any flour. Use these ingredients to make bread according to the basic Whole Wheat Bread recipe.

Date:Type of wheat:Type of grind: 1. CHARACTER OF FLOUR: coa.r.s.e/granular/fine/powdery/rough/soft Bran flecks: large/medium/smallTaste: fresh/stale/musty/sour/rancid/mild 2. AMOUNT OF WATER ABSORBED:cups 3. KNEADING TIME:minutes by hand/by dough hook/in food processor 4. DOUGH ELASTICITY: elastic/not very elastic/not at all elastic 5. Ga.s.sING POWER AT 80F: 80F:.

First rise: less than double/double/triple.Time: Second rise: less than double/double/triple.Time: 6. ROUND & REST Spring of tense dough to finger poke: strong/slow Spring of tense dough to finger poke: strong/slow Time required to relax:minutes.Dough stability: stable/runny 7. Ga.s.sING POWER AT 90F 90F PROOF PROOF: sluggish/vigorous Time required to proof:Rise:inches above/below pan rim 8. OVEN SPRING Baked height above pan riminches.Spring:inches. Baked height above pan riminches.Spring:inches.

9. CRUST COLOR: pale/medium/dark 10. BAKEDminutes atF 11. BREAD CRUMB Color: pale and bright/gray/dark/streaked Color: pale and bright/gray/dark/streaked Grain: even, uniform, thin, elongated cell walls/uneven, dense, coa.r.s.e, thick cell walls Texture: velvety/silky/soft/elastic/rough/furry/crumbly/harsh/brittle Moisture: moist/dry/gummy 12. TASTE: wheaty/gluteny/nutty/pleasant/sweet/flat/sour/acid/rancid COMMENTS:.

Separated Wheat Products As we've seen, wheat germ and bran are separated out by commercial mills when they manufacture white flour. Both bran and germ have received a lot of attention lately from nutritionists and the medical profession because of the impressive contribution they can make to health-and it's about time, too. But to us, wheat germ alone or bran alone just can't compare to what they have to offer when used as part of the whole grain. And so we do not often use them individually, but celebrate their virtues within the perfect balance of the whole.

WHEAT GERM.

Wheat germ is the seed's embryo, 2 to 3 percent of its weight, or a full two tablespoons in the three-cup pound. It is packed with nutrients-good-quality protein, unsaturated fats, vitamins, and minerals. Because the fats are unsaturated, they are quite unstable, and once milled, wheat germ gets rancid after several days at room temperature. Since heat treatment, either wet or dry, helps to inactivate the lipase enzymes that cause rancidity, we suggest if you buy wheat germ, unless you can get it within a few days of milling, buy the kind that is toasted at the mill. Buy small rather than large quant.i.ties at a time and store airtight in the refrigerator.

Cereal scientists who have studied wheat germ because they wanted to use it to fortify white bread have decided that 2 to 3 percent raw germ is all that the dough will tolerate, because wheat germ contains a reducing substance called glutathione that breaks down gluten. Fascinatingly, this is almost exactly the amount that occurs naturally in whole wheat flour. (As the saying goes, What do you know? G.o.d got it right.) BRAN.

Bran is the protective, fibrous covering around the wheat kernel, comprising 13 to 17 percent of its weight. That is a little less than two ounces of bran in a pound (3 cups) of flour-one loaf's worth-but if you could sift all of it out, it would fill a whole cup. Whole wheat bread, then, already has a generous amount of bran in it, but there may be circ.u.mstances where you would want to add more, either for the culinary effect or for its roughage. Yeast fermentation softens the bran, making it gentler on the digestive tract (though still effective). It also helps to make some of the plentiful minerals the bran contains easier to a.s.similate.

From the baker's point of view, added bran cuts into the gluten, reducing its rising strength. Soaking the bran in hot water or overnight to soften it seems to help somewhat: for example, see the recipe for Spicy Currant Bread.

GLUTEN FLOUR.

It is true that we included gluten flour in some of the bread recipes in Laurel's Kitchen Laurel's Kitchen, but we've learned a lot about breadmaking since then! We hope that once you've mastered the skills described in A Loaf for Learning, you will agree that gluten flour is not only unnecessary but downright unwelcome. We have parted ways with gluten flour for several reasons: with good flour you don't need it to make bread light, for one thing; it is a superrefined product, for another (even more so than white flour); and it makes cardboardy bread, for a third. Besides, the amino acids in its protein are far out of balance.

Well, so what is the stuff, anyway?

When the bran and germ are removed from wheat, what is left is white flour: mostly starch and gluten. The starch can be washed out, leaving the tough gluten. This is dried, broken up, ground again and combined with patent (fine white) flour. Fifty percent protein gluten flour is the result. Some bakers add gluten flour to their dough: if there is more gluten, you expect a higher loaf. But if there is more gluten, much more kneading is required to develop it, and more time to ferment it adequately, too. Gluten-enhanced breads have a characteristic taste and texture reminiscent of corrugated paper, and they tend to stale quickly.

If you have bought some flour that time after time refuses to make bread light enough to suit you, we would like to suggest that you use it along with some other, better bread flour in a recipe like the Scottish Sponge Bread. "Weak" flour often has outstanding flavor and can make splendid bread when used in such a recipe. However, it is is possible to strengthen a flour's rising power by adding gluten flour. One teaspoonful per cup of whole wheat flour will increase the protein content by about 1 percent; a tablespoonful per cup would, for example, make a strong composite bread flour of approximately 15 percent protein out of an all-purpose whole wheat flour of 12 percent protein. possible to strengthen a flour's rising power by adding gluten flour. One teaspoonful per cup of whole wheat flour will increase the protein content by about 1 percent; a tablespoonful per cup would, for example, make a strong composite bread flour of approximately 15 percent protein out of an all-purpose whole wheat flour of 12 percent protein. Be sure to allow extra kneading and extra fermentation time. Be sure to allow extra kneading and extra fermentation time. This is definitely cheating (but it does work). This is definitely cheating (but it does work).

Incidentally, another gluten product, vital wheat gluten, is also available in some places. It has a higher protein content and is specially processed to prevent the denaturation of the protein by heat.

Because of its high protein content, some people add gluten to foods as a supplement, but it is severely deficient in the essential amino acid lysine (which is supplied in the bran and germ), so in the rare case where a protein supplement is needed, gluten would be a particularly poor choice.

Milling Your Own If you have a convenient and dependable source of good-quality whole grain flours, you probably don't need to invest in a home mill. But if your local sources disappoint you, there are several advantages to preparing your own flours and cracked cereals at home.

For one thing, whole, unbroken grain keeps very well for a long time, even for several years, without exotic storage requirements. It is only after the grain is ground that the oils begin to oxidize and the flavor and nutritional quality deteriorate. When you grind your own flour you can use it at its freshest, getting the best for both taste and health. Wheat is quite a bit less expensive than flour, and often, especially if you buy in reasonable quant.i.ties, you can choose what varieties you want.

Wheat flour keeps most of its goodness for a month at cool room temperature, but it is best stored airtight in the refrigerator, especially if you don't know how old it was when you bought it, or if you don't bake daily. Whole-grain rye flour is even more perishable, which is why it is so hard to find on the shelf: dark rye flour is fractioned, with some of the more spoilable (and healthful) parts removed.

Home-ground rye flour is really special, flavorful and sweet, but the biggest flavor difference in the home-grinding department is corn. Before we got our mill, we were puzzled by what should have been so obvious: why is cornbread bitter sometimes? We investigated leavening combinations and varieties of corn, called experts, and wrote letters to the big natural foods companies. No one could tell us, though a few actually suggested that people like the bitter taste! When we first ground our own corn and made cornbread, no one could believe the difference in flavor: it was amazingly sweet and delicious, without a trace of bitterness.

Later a nutritionist said, oh yes, corn oil goes rancid very quickly. And shortly thereafter we came across the information that years of breeding corn for high yields have created a grain with elevated levels of polyunsaturated oils-so that all corn products, even commercial products like corn flakes, become rancid quickly. While the food scientists address the problem, if you are a cornbread fan, do contrive to mill your own, and enjoy the incomparable sweetness of it. Keep fresh cornmeal in the refrigerator, for a week or so at most.

Incidentally, brown rice flour also spoils in a short time, and home-ground is vastly superior to store-bought.

With any grain you take the trouble to grind yourself, be sure to check it over and make sure it is clean and free from mold. If you grind fairly small quant.i.ties, it is worth the trouble to pick out discolored or moldy grains, rocks, sticks, etc. But to make life easier, buy good quality grain.

A few enthusiastic people have suggested to us that the cheapest place to buy grains is at the feed store. No one is denying it is cheaper! But animal feed may have quite a few things you wouldn't want in your bread: rocks, sticks, mouse droppings, dust, weed seeds. Even when the flour ground from such grain is not actually harmful to eat, the bread may taste dirty and gray; professionals refer to it, in fact, as a "feedy" taste. One prominent brand of whole wheat flour that we tried has this flavor-it is unmistakable. In addition, feed wheat is likely to be so low in gluten that bread made from it won't rise.

HOME MILLS.

We do not have the expertise to discuss the merits of all the home mills on the market. A book on the subject or even a thoroughgoing study in the Consumer Reports Consumer Reports style is much needed. Meantime, in their book style is much needed. Meantime, in their book Home Food Systems Home Food Systems, the Rodale people have provided a helpful comparative guide.* Our own experience with a few representative mills we gladly share here. Our own experience with a few representative mills we gladly share here.

The first and perhaps least obvious thing to take into account when you consider buying a mill is your own comfort. If the mill is electric, is it going to be so outrageously noisy that no one can stand to be in the same room? If it is a hand mill, are you really strong enough to run it regularly, or will it end up gathering dust in the attic? The best hand mills have a flywheel built in to make turning them easier; these are exquisite tools, versatile and well-made, but they are expensive, too. A lot of our friends have been enthusiastic about converting their hand mills to pedal power, (bicycle pedals, right?) but so far not one of them has been efficient to run. Be practical.

Home grinders, hand or electric, vary in size and shape from the smallest, about like a milk carton, on up. They generally sit on or clamp to the top of a table, and grind by rotating two grooved plates-usually steel-against each other.

CLEANING.

As far as the grain is concerned, the most important factors are cleanliness and temperature. The mill has got to be cleanable, and this becomes most critical when it is the convertible kind that can grind seeds and nuts and beans as well as grains. These oily foods especially, if not cleaned out of the mill immediately after grinding, can turn rancid and even mold in the nooks and crannies, contaminating everything that comes after. The Corona-type mills, for example, are fabulous for the price, but they simply must be taken apart completely completely after use for cleaning. Until you see it you'll never believe what can grow on a little crushed sunflower seed. after use for cleaning. Until you see it you'll never believe what can grow on a little crushed sunflower seed.

TEMPERATURE.

Unless you have the strength of ten, (or your mill is dull) it is not too likely that you can overheat the flour, grinding by hand. The electric mills, particularly the high-speed ones, are much more likely to raise the temperature of the flour higher than you would like. Temperatures above 115F will destroy vitamins; above 140F, even the best wheat will suffer a loss of baking quality. Any such heat gives the flour's oil a push toward rancidity; it is possible to grind flour and not have it even warm to the touch. Your small chef's thermometer measures the flour's temperature easily, by the way.

VERSATILITY.

Last, consider what you want to be able to do: most mills have their limits. Stone-mills grind only only grain-you'll ruin them with beans or nuts or anything oily. But they will adjust to make fine or coa.r.s.e flour or cornmeal, or will crack grain for breakfast cereal. Some of the high-powered electric mills will grind any dry grain or bean, even soybeans, into dust in just seconds, but they can't make anything coa.r.s.er than fine flour. Cornmeal is out for them, and so is breakfast cereal. Very few mills will grind sprouts or nuts, though hand mills with interchangeable plates can grind whatever you are strong enough to put through. Usually that excludes beans, especially soy. The only mill we know that accommodates every challenge is the Dimant, that expensive hand mill we mentioned that has a flywheel. It converts to motor power readily, by the way, is easy to clean, and pretty. (See its portrait.) grain-you'll ruin them with beans or nuts or anything oily. But they will adjust to make fine or coa.r.s.e flour or cornmeal, or will crack grain for breakfast cereal. Some of the high-powered electric mills will grind any dry grain or bean, even soybeans, into dust in just seconds, but they can't make anything coa.r.s.er than fine flour. Cornmeal is out for them, and so is breakfast cereal. Very few mills will grind sprouts or nuts, though hand mills with interchangeable plates can grind whatever you are strong enough to put through. Usually that excludes beans, especially soy. The only mill we know that accommodates every challenge is the Dimant, that expensive hand mill we mentioned that has a flywheel. It converts to motor power readily, by the way, is easy to clean, and pretty. (See its portrait.) STONE MILLS.

The best millstones are at once hard and porous, so that they wear slowly and do not become smooth even with long use. The last known quarry that produced such stones was in France, and it has been exhausted; the best natural stones now are cut from hard pink granite, and these are the only natural stones available today, that we know of. Many of the big natural foods firms that sell stone-ground flour use mills with such stones, 30 inches across. Our own 8-inch version-scarcely home-size-is the smallest the Meadows Mill company sells: with it we grind wheat, corn, rice and rye for a dozen families.

Like the larger stones, ours has to be sharpened after about 100 hours of milling. It definitely requires the kind of care that you expect to give a fine tool: we have learned how to face (sharpen) the stones, adjust them, and grease the running parts. When the stone is sharp and properly adjusted it grinds very cool and as fine as needed for our purposes. The mill is not terrifically easy to clean or pretty to look at, unless you really appreciate the no-frills approach-but after more than three years of regular use, we like it very much indeed.

We do not know of any small home-sized stone mill that has nautral stones. Most have composite stones made of hard bits of abrasive, bonded together, and we feel there is some question about whether this is safe. No matter what the mill is that grinds your grain, you can count on traces of the grinding surface finding their way into the flour.

One home mill, the Samap, uses hard natural Greek Naxos stones instead of Carborundum. These mills are not inexpensive, but they do adjust to grind flour very fine and will grind coa.r.s.ely enough for cereal grain, too, though like other stone mills, they can't handle seeds or wet grains (sprouts), beans or such.

About the Ingredients: Yeast There are millions of species of yeast, but our familiar baking yeasts (and brewer's yeasts too) are all from the species Saccharomyces cerevisiae Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a highly refined sort. Before the turn of the century and the advent of dependable commercial baking yeast, breadmaking was an art surrounded by many mysteries. Getting bread to rise wasn't easy, and getting it to rise and taste good was even more challenging. Brewer's yeast, barms, homemade "potato yeast"-there were many methods, and some of them involved days or weeks of fussing. A good starter was a great treasure, and secrets were not easily shared. Our friend Sultana, who grew up in a tiny village in northern Greece, recently asked her mother where you would get a starter like the one they used to make the family's bread. Her mother was incredulous: Why, you would get it from your mother, of course. What if you didn't have a mother? Well, maybe your aunt would give it to you. What if you had no family? Then you wouldn't make bread!

The yeast we take so much for granted is produced commercially by a rather simple but highly controlled process. Different yeast strains are used for active dry yeast and compressed yeast, each one developed to withstand the storage conditions it will have to face while still maintaining its leavening power and other baking characteristics. Huge vats of a diluted solution of mola.s.ses, mineral salts, and ammonia are seeded with carefully selected strains of yeast. Sterile air bubbles through and the seed yeast grows until literally tons of it are ready for harvest. The yeast is separated from the solution, washed, then mixed with water and emulsifiers for compressed yeast or dried over a period of hours for active dry yeast. Sometimes preservatives are mixed in; if so, they have to be listed on the ingredient label.

Yeast is a simple one-celled plant, and like all living things it grows best in a certain climate, with adequate food and water. Dough meets all its requirements: calories, minerals, vitamins, and simple nitrogen for making protein. Yeast likes a neutral to slightly acid pH, and some oxygen too, though it can get on without it for a while.

When plenty of oxygen is available, yeast metabolizes its food completely, multiplying energetically and giving off carbon dioxide and water as waste products. This efficient metabolic process is called respiration, and its discovery by Louis Pasteur was what made the commercial manufacture of yeast possible: bubbling air through the nutrient solution keeps the yeast metabolism efficient and its waste products harmless. When there is not much oxygen-as in bread dough, where the oxygen is rather quickly used up-yeast adapts by changing its metabolism from aerobic respiration to anaerobic fermentation.

Fermentation burns the available carbohydrate food less efficiently, producing carbon dioxide and alcohol as byproducts. Beermaking capitalizes on this process, but with bread dough that is left too long, the acc.u.mulated alcohol will eventually kill the yeast. Deflating the dough, kneading, shaping, and so on, all remove alcohol through evaporation. They also move the yeast to new pastures, aerate the dough somewhat, and break up the acc.u.mulated carbon dioxide bubbles into smaller air sacs, making a finer-textured dough that can hold the gas better and produce a lighter bread.

Releasing carbon dioxide to leaven the dough is the flashiest thing yeast does, but it is not the only one. Many minute chemical by-products of fermentation give the bread flavor; and in some mysterious ways the action of the yeast both develops and mellows the gluten so that it can do its gasretaining work better. During the fermentation period, other changes take place: the starch and proteins of the dough continue to absorb water into themselves (one reason that longer-fermented bread keeps better), and there is a lot of enzyme activity.

One enzyme that does important work during the whole fermentation time is amylase, which we have discussed elsewhere. Another, probably even more important to us who eat the bread, is phytase. Like amylase, phytase is an enzyme that the new plant would use when it needed to gain access to nutrients stored in the seed. These essential nutrients are locked up by a substance called phytic acid, which safeguards them until they are needed by the growing sprout. With amylase the nutrients in question are sugars, which the enzyme releases from its storage form, starch. With phytase, the nutrients are minerals: phosphorus, zinc, calcium and others. As bread ferments, stored minerals are released, and this is one reason that leavened bread has nutritional advantages over unfermented wheat products, and one reason for choosing the longer fermentation times when that option is open to you.