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Technological alchemy of bread

17 April 2015 / 10:04:40  GRReporter
9982 reads

Ivan Petkov

Bread - we are so used to it that we hardly notice it. Civilization has abolished the spell of bread that induced our ancestors to respect and worship it, to put it at the centre of their most important spiritual rituals as the crown of their work, as an artefact that brings the daily routine and eternity together. The value of bread as a wholesome and healthy food has gone, along with the attitude to it. Industrial bread production leads to reconsidering the role of bread and to perceiving it as a product that can be excluded from our daily diet. The gluten-free food industry has inflicted a serious blow on cereals, putting modern man in a position to be afraid of bread, often without even knowing why.

Can bread be a revolution and technological innovation, almost commensurate with its historical role in human evolution, a revolution in the healthy diet that can restore its forgotten importance as well as its value as a basic and healthy food? Young baker Presian Petrov, who was apprenticed to famous world breadmasters, will answer this question. He will explain the merits of bread, whether gluten is so dangerous and tell us how to make true, natural, wholesome and healthy bread. To this, we will add the viewpoint of modern science that will tell us why naturally prepared bread has such a great merit. Through the eyes of the curator of the National Ethnological Museum, PhD. Iglika Mishkova, we will see how traditions and Orthodox Christianity have preserved the main characteristics of bread through faith, traditional morality and beliefs. PhD. Mishkova gave us an authentic recipe for sourdough, a secret that was strictly kept in the past. We will look at bread through the eyes of our ancestors and find out how it was discovered and why it has become the most popular food of all time, an achievement of human civilization. This journey will show how the advanced technology of nature involves innovative technologies to create one of the oldest human creations, and how to make healthy bread.

Gluten, gluten, gluten ...



There has recently been more and more talk about gluten as a harmful ingredient, and gluten-free products and diets are widely recommended. Gluten (glue in Latin) is a protein mixture contained in cereals. As its name indicates, it gives the sticky structure of dough while it is being kneaded to make bread. The gluten protein contained in wheat is between 21% and 30%. The varieties, in which its content is lower than 18%, do not make good dough under natural conditions and they are defined as fodder. Rye, barley and oats and their derivatives as well as flour, starch, semolina, pasta, cereals, vegetable proteins and others contain gluten as well.

The gluten-free food industry takes advantage of the fact that a small percentage of people have intolerance to this ingredient, beginning a marketing war against cereals. Gluten intolerance is among the most common allergies and its frequency is different in various regions of the world. In Germany, for example, 0.3% of the population suffers from gluten intolerance, while in Finland this group of people reaches 2.4%. The reasons for these differences are not yet clear.

Between 0.6% and 1.0% of the population develop an autoimmune disease that is called celiac disease. In the majority of cases, there is genetic predisposition to the disease. The disease can occur in adulthood when it is called gluten enteropathy. The disease occurs 1.5-2 times more often in women than in men. Because of the reduced activity of the enzymes in the gut, their ability to intake nutrients is impaired. The symptoms are varied and they may include general weakness, fatigue and inability to concentrate as well as haematological, dental and muscular diseases, disorders of protein metabolism, weakened immune system and more.

The problem with gluten is exacerbated by its use as a food additive in various foods, including in meat substitutes for vegetarians.

Although it is the cause for a relatively rare disease, gluten has gained immense popularity and often food products are advertised as gluten-free. Due to the relatively wide range of symptoms, many people tend to blame the weakened immune system or eating disorders on gluten. Allegedly, the number of people who have developed gluten intolerance has increased in recent years but there are no official medical statistics.

A number of studies have focused on the relationship between the improvement of gluten intolerance and the use of long fermented sourdough bread. A study of the American Society for Microbiology shows that a bread technology that uses "lactobacilli (from yeast), natural flours and a long fermentation time is a novel tool for decreasing the level of gluten intolerance in humans." The title of another study conducted in Ireland by an international team of scientists is indicative of its results: Sourdough in gluten-free bread making: An ancient technology to solve a novel issue?

Baker Presian

We sought the informed opinion of Presian Petrov, whose vocation, as he himself claims, is bread making. Presian was apprenticed to some of the most famous breadmasters who have developed his love for this "modern alchemy" as he perceives bread making. He talks about Bread with capital B, with esteem, respect and admiration. He had early symptoms of ulcer but was able to heal his stomach and reduce his body weight. He had a serious bleeding problem that has become past history too. His teeth are the only thing that are not yet influenced by fermentation products. Presian says that many of his customers also provide feedback for improvement in their overall condition because they eat long fermented bread.

Alchemy of bread

Each grain has three layers, as follows, central part, shell and germ. The germ contains many of the nutrients. Nature has created the grain so that it can protect itself alone. It contains phytic acid that prevents the minerals and vitamins in the germ from decomposing so that the grain uses them while germinating. Man has no ability to decompose phytic acid. If we eat raw grain, we do not absorb it at all. Even the sugar in the grain has long chains and it is difficult to digest it. The nutritional value of raw grain for humans is almost zero. This is where sourdough plays its role. Why is the discovery of sourdough so ingenious? Sourdough does many things simultaneously. Firstly, it decomposes all sugar chains and makes them shorter. They thus become easily absorbable by the body. Secondly, the acidity of sourdough protects against pathogenic bacteria that do not like an acidic environment, which account for a large part of the bacteria. Thirdly, at the time of fermentation, all flavours are released and we can taste them. They may be inside, but without fermentation, we cannot enjoy them. Short-fermented bread is not so tasty, as is the case with industrially baked bread.

Many people say that bread "dies" while baked. However, studies show that sourdough microorganisms remain in bread after it is baked.

"The US conducted experiments with wheat with the highest gluten content. After 30 hours of fermentation, the levels drop to normal. The fermentation of sourdough bread was studied for 118 hours. The obtained porridge contained almost no gluten. During the same fermentation process, but with yeast, gluten remained almost unchanged. Natural fermentation and microorganisms decompose gluten," adds Presian.

Innovations in bread making



Chad Robertson is a baker and revolutionary in bread making. It is not easy to be a revolutionary and go against tradition and universal concepts, against what is accepted and established. That is why Chad Robertson has been the subject of ridicule all his life but Presian admires him. All say that water is the enemy of bread. Chad says the opposite and introduces a great innovation. He starts to make wet and soft dough, and calls it "water dough". Those types of dough spread out on the table. Everyone says those types of dough are of no use, that they should be thrown in the dustbin. Two days later, the loaf of bread is gigantic, huge, fluffy, soft, with a caramelized crust, it decomposes very easily in the body and there are no problems with gluten, whatever the wheat.

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Chad Robertson’s video card and the bread he makes:

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Historically, the first loaves of bread that were made 30,000 years ago were in the form of porridge. Chad Robertson makes bread-porridge. He adds porridge to dough to ferment for 48 hours, and to make dough even softer and stickier and to bake it after being frozen.

Innovation in bread making is something that has been denied by modern bread production but it directly corresponds to the making of the first loaves of bread 30,000 years ago. Presian calls this returning to the roots, but with a new look. "People do things for generations and call it a tradition. Returning to the roots, to things that are forgotten, even denied, just because of tradition and routine, is the revolution in our conception of bread and its making. This is genius!"

Presian speaks with fervour and respect for Chad Robertson.

Under the microscope of science

Until 70 years ago, sourdough bread was the main guest at the table of our grandparents. There are many superstitions and beliefs associated with sourdough and long fermented bread. Prepare yourself, as this may be a case in which the mix of tradition and faith has preserved for the next generations a technology that can be very valuable!

Probiotics, which are widely advertised and available today in the form of a dietary supplement, look like a creation of modern science. In fact, they are the flora in our digestive system that naturally exists in humans. Intestinal flora consists of harmless microorganisms such as bacteria, yeasts and fungi that live and develop in the intestine. These microorganisms are essential for the normal functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, and some of them have a beneficial effect on the entire human body. Good bacteria, as they are popularly called, are in symbiosis with our body as both benefit from each other. The bacteria grow and survive due to the permanent import of nutrients in the gastrointestinal tract. They in turn contribute to improved digestion and absorption of substances, enhance the immunity system and reduce the risk of many diseases. In other words, it is useful for a person to be the "host" of these bacteria. Here is a curious video from TED, in which Bonnie Bassler talks about the bacteria in the human body, the role they play for us and about how bacteria in the human body..."talk" to each other:

Sourdough is a natural process of bread rising or fermentation. It is actually flour kneaded with water to a thick paste. Many enzyme and bacterial processes take place in this thick mixture, the most important of them being the symbiosis of Lactobacillus bacteria (Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis) and fungal yeast (Candida milleri). Nowadays, the pressed "store-bought" yeast contains only the fungal bacteria and therefore bread often goes mouldy. Sourdough can be obtained from almost every type of flour, including wheat, rye, chickpeas, but preferably whole wheat.

Long fermentation of bread, over 8 hours, contributes to the development of good bacteria in it. On the one hand, the acidic environment contributes to long storage of bread and on the other, to the preservation of probiotic bacteria while baking it. Furthermore, it reduces gluten in bread to levels that are suitable even for people with mild gluten intolerance.

Water in the mill of history

One of the discoveries that help human evolution is the creation of bread. No one knows exactly who discovered the prototype of modern bread, and when, but we know it is one of the greatest discoveries that greatly improved the lives of our ancestors. Hunger, this companion and opponent in the struggle for survival, has accompanied man almost throughout his entire existence. The discovery of bread made the life of the reasoning who struggled to survive a little more secure and predictable. This road led to the birth of the first civilizations. What impelled one to discover bread and all its forms and turn it into the most widely consumed food in the world? The reasons are understandable, if you look at the question from a practical point of view. Bread is not only an important source of carbohydrates, it is also easily portable and compact, which explains why it has been an integral part of our diet for thousands of years. Recent studies suggest that people started to prepare bread at least 30,000 years ago.

Prehistoric man already made porridge of roots, seeds, nuts and water, so it was just a matter of time to start preparing that mixture and to bake it on hot stones. Recent discoveries have established traces of starch, probably from the roots of reeds and ferns that filled the prehistoric grinding mortar. Prehistoric man peeled and dried the roots before grinding them into flour and mixing them with water, and then baked the mixture on the hot rocks. A variation of this forerunner of modern bread was the combination of acorns and water. Some areas of Africa and Asia consume such porridge bread even today.


                                                                Grinding stone

The East is the place where people first began using cereals. Nowadays descendants of these flat breads known as "pitas" can be found worldwide. They are similar to the Armenian lavash, Iranian sangak, Jewish matza, Mexican tortilla, Indian chapatti, Ethiopian injera and many others.

The storage of grain and flour in large quantities let to the creation of strategic grain reserves, granaries. One theory for the emergence of the first urban settlements relates particularly to the emergence of granaries.

                                       Ceramic granary, Kodzhadermen, Shumen. Copper Age.

The first mills were created in ancient Egypt 3000 years ago and people began to make bread at home. Fluffy bread was found in the large bakeries of the pharaohs. Most likely, this discovery was made by accident: as spontaneous fermentation of dough and then subsequently, as induced alcoholic yeast fermentation of grape juice and hops. Souring led to the appearance of different types of dough and accordingly to various kinds of bread products.

In ancient times, Greek bread was made from barley. Athenian statesman and legislator Solon said that whole wheat bread was baked only for holidays. Ritual bread in Ancient Greece was served to the gods and was called "psadista". It was made from flour, olive oil and wine. Ancient Greek writer Athenaeus described the different types of bread that were widespread among ancient Greeks. After the 5th century BC, bread could be purchased from bakeries in Athens. This was the beginning of bakeries. Bread making became a public occupation only at the height of the Roman Empire when the first public bakeries, which fed the population, appeared as well.

In medieval Europe bread was not only a staple food, but also part of the table arrangement. According to the standard table arrangement, a piece of stale bread, about 15 x 10 inches, was served as an absorbent plate. Upon completion of eating, this kind of dish could be eaten or given to the poor.

In pursuit of the mysterious sourdough


PhD. Iglika Mishkova will surely expand your notion of ​​a curator of the Museum of Ethnography. As an ethnologist, she spends quite a lot of time outside the museum, conducting field research. She goes where things happen and where she can obtain information from the source. In her work, she faces puzzles and secrets carefully kept by the local population, whose confidence she must gain in order for them to share these secrets with the inquisitive researcher. Her path crossed that of bread making while she was exploring the Communion Bread seals - wooden seals put to ritual bread. It is known that since the time of ancient Egypt and perhaps earlier, people have associated bread with, and woven it in, their religious beliefs and rites. Firstly, cultivation of cereals directly relates to the vagaries of the weather, which cannot but lead to requests and prayers for suitable weather conditions to secure a sufficient and good harvest so that the population does not starve. Secondly, the dough is soft and can be shaped in a variety of figures, ornaments and symbols. Last but not least, the very making of bread is a mystery: the miracle of converting seeds that are useless to man, but full of nutrients, into delicious, healthy and nutritious bread that retains vitamins, minerals and good microorganisms. It takes her several visits to Greece to uncover the secret of sourdough kept by Pontic Greeks.

The first part of her research took her to Albania and Greece. She believed that she could find more information about different customs, the ways in which the Communion Bread seals were used. When starting to ask about these seals, the conversation inevitably came to bread and to ways to make different types of bread. Her research took her to Greece, to the region around Lake Prespa, including to the island of St. Achilles. Each one of her sources, the people she met, told her about a mysterious sourdough that they bought only from Pontic Greeks. With the sourdough they traditionally used before, "the bread made at the beginning of the week would becomeas hard as a bone towards the end of the week," local people said. But after the arrival of Pontic Greeks who brought with them this miraculous sourdough the secret of which they carefully kept, "the longer you keep bread, the tastier it becomes." Of course, Pontic Greeks were not talkative. They mentioned the name of a yellow plant that grew somewhere near the river, but she could not associate it with anything familiar. They never agreed to show her that plant.

Subsequently, she continued with another field research in Kali Vrisi, near Drama. She again asked about bread and obtained the same information, "Yes, when the Pontic Greeks arrived, they have brought a great sourdough that makes excellent bread." Pontic Greeks there were quite silent again, "One of our secrets, one of our secrets... ", they responded. She was asking, suggesting various options and her own guesses but again nobody was inclined to share more information. Only at their next meeting, they went to her with the words, "We have asked who you are, why you are collecting these things and we have written down the recipe for you." To her surprise, this was a recipe for hops sourdough. You remember the same hops that the Egyptians used to make the first fluffy bread.

PhD. Mishkova collected information about different types of sourdough. She tried gram sourdough that she knew from her grandmother. She tried one version with wood ashes, but did not achieve good results. According to her, maybe she did not follow the recipe or put more ash than necessary, as the mixture was too purified and could not rise. Ash sourdough is made from a special tree, she has it but cannot make wood ash sourdough. She obtains the tree in the same way - people bring it to her without telling her its type but according to her, it is deciduous.

At home, she likes to make hops sourdough bread and dares to claim that the result is really perfect fluffy bread and no one can tell that it is made without yeast. This bread has a wonderful "airy" texture, it is baked very well, it is really gorgeous. She admits that there is still much to learn about the drying of sourdough balls and their technology to be able to prepare the recipe as she has written it down:

"Take well dried hop pods (about 40 g in weight), cook them for 2-3 minutes in a little more than a tea cup of water or 300 ml. Remove from the heat and add about 1 teaspoon of sugar. Strain and mix around one third of hops infusion, 100 ml, with 2 heaped tablespoons of flour. Mix well. Cover the container with a cotton cloth and leave in a warm place (about 20 degrees centigrade). The next day, add a spoonful of flour and 100 ml of water - do not use hops infusion because the sourdough will be bitter in taste and so will the bread. The next day, add 1.5 heaped tablespoons of flour, and about half a cup of water, about 120 ml, and stir the sourdough occasionally every day. If there are no bubbles the next day, add the same amount of flour and water. On the fourth day add 4 heaped tablespoons of flour and 100 ml of water, and stir again at least 3-4 times a day. If there are no bubbles in the thick dough, repeat the procedure the next day.

Do not put the sourdough in the draught, do not use bleached flour for the sourdough and make sure that the room temperature is constant. Dry it on a thin cloth, store in a jar, or add more flour to make it thick and keep it in the refrigerator. Wake up the sourdough with a little flour and water."

She has noticed that people react in different ways when advised how to make bread. For some, this is a long-kept family secret that they do not want to reveal. Others believe that if they reveal old recipes people will think they are superstitious and will laugh at them. But one thing is certain, namely that if their confidence is gained, they all give some information that should be known and preserved.

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Traditional society believed that sourdough had magical powers, that it stimulated and protected human health, fertility and their property. A home without sourdough was doomed to poverty and impoverishment.

People once made new sourdough with healing herbs on Maundy Thursday. The people in northeastern Bulgaria made new sourdough on the night of St. Ignatius' Day and the next 12 nights to St. Basil's Day.

Sourdough was used in many magical practices.

Sourdough was also used for treatment. Once people would make a small flat sourdough loaf, spread honey on it and stuck it on the chest of a patient suffering from pneumonia. They put sourdough on skin burned with boiled water or on frostbites, as well as on wounds.

The reason for the prevalance of fluffy sourdough in our country is Orthodox Christianity. In Orthodoxy, bread must be leavened, not fresh as is the case with Catholics. As is known, theological disputes associated with leavened bread for communion lasted for centuries and this was one of the problems that contributed to the schism between the two main Christian denominations.

Sourdough gives bread a soul. Flour kneaded with sourdough symbolizes the human soul, the water symbolizes the christening and the salt the mind and teaching of the Word of God.

"Roots and hanks"

Presian’s point of reference of his love for bread is his family.


                                                     Baker brothers Teodor and Presian

"My family has written down recipes that are almost 300 years old. We have books describing recipes for sourdoughs, for ash sourdoughs - from what types of tree one can make ash and put it in bread. These were the Bulgarian traditions in many parts of the country, but they have been lost. The first written notes date back to 1780 as everything was by word of mouth before that."

One of his great-grandmothers described how she prepared ash that she used to make ash sourdough to knead bread. The method is similar to the ash sourdough of Greece that PhD. Iglika Mishkova previously described. The mineral content of the ash is used to speed the activation of the microorganisms involved in the preparation of sourdough. "I make sourdough for seven days, she was able to prepare it for about 29 hours," Presian exclaims. "I do not know why, but I still cannot make it. I cannot find the tree that she used because on the hill from which she obtained it the trees have been cut down. My grandfather and I are trying to understand what types of trees grew there to find out what kind of tree she burned to prepare the ash. She did not write down the type of tree but told where it grew. She could not even imagine that one day those trees would not be there." This is an ancient method and it was used in many places. Will it ever resume?

It would be a pleasure for us if any of our readers have information on the preparation of ash sourdough and share it with us!

The right bread in the right place

Each baker strives to make bread for the region or country where he or she lives. Only in this way, can the baker be the most useful and meet the needs of the geographical habitat.

Presian continues, "So far I have learned from a Frenchman, Englishman, Swede, another naturalized Swede, who was born on the island of Mauritius, an Indian, Dane, Austrian, Hungarian, two Koreans and one American. The idea is that each baker develops his approach to Bread in accordance with the place he live in. He does not make it according to what he has been taught, or by whom, or to where he studied; the idea is to make bread that is typical of the people with whom he lives. I have a friend from Mexico who makes bread from corn. He makes bread for Mexicans. He looks for a way to make traditional, tasty, true bread using the techniques he has learned from other masters outside Mexico. So do the American and the Swede, and the Korean. The aim is to make delicious, healthy and wholesome bread. The baker will make such bread if he complies with the culture in which he lives. I make Bread for the Bulgarians."


For Presian, traditional Bulgarian bread is 2-3 kilograms in weight, it does not become stale for about 1-2 weeks or more, without even being covered, large loaves with very crispy crust and soft inner part. He is trying to recompile the ingredients, accounting for the fact that once people grew different varieties of cereals together, stored them together and used them together when they made bread. He experimented by putting barley in bread, its content reaching up to 45%, which is really a lot. Barley is not a typical gluten culture and does not form sticky dough. Therefore, great skills are required to make bread with a high barley content.

Industrial bread

Before showing us how to make wholesome and natural bread, in which the amount of gluten is naturally reduced, Presian told us the reasons for the poor quality of industrially produced bread. The production technology of bread makes it fluffy and seemingly big thus leading to a larger amount of bread made. The goal is noble, namely, no more hungry people. As usually happens with good intentions, they take a different direction. The next step is how to make more bread with less flour. It starts with various additives, one, two, three, no matter how many, it is important to achieve the effect. What if the bread is tasteless? Here come the bread flavours. However, they change its texture and other substances have to be added to offset this. Finally, a loaf of bread is made, composed of flour that is the first word on the list of ingredients, followed by industrial yeast and ingredients that most people cannot even understand the meaning of. Bread has huge and long labels.

Living bread

Presian gave us the recipe for bread and his brother Teodor demonstrated how to make natural, living and healthy bread.


Natural and delicious bread made with flour, water, salt and sourdough (or natural yeast) can improve health, help people with a gluten intolerance. If bread is durable, its acidity protects against pathogenic bacteria while bringing to the body good probiotic microorganisms. The way our ancestors made bread 30,000 years ago may become a modern innovation. Everything new is actually well-forgotten old.

Often, superstition and science, faith and progress in technology are on opposite sides. In the case of bread, we see that this is not so. Beliefs and respect for bread were not ungrounded. And the Orthodox religion is the reason to keep sourdough bread that is used in worship and liturgy. ''No one is bigger than bread'', as the Bulgarians say, and we know why this is so!

 

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