How bread was baked in the old days - recipes. How they baked bread in Rus'

For thousands of years, grain grinding was carried out between stone graters - millstones. With this grinding method, there was no loss of high-quality substances - all valuable vitamins, aromatic substances and enzymes were preserved.

In the middle of the 19th century (1862), grinding between metal rollers (rotating at different speeds) was invented, and the entire complex process of grinding wheat grain in a modern varietal mill is aimed at separating the endosperm as best as possible (from which flour is now obtained ) from the germ, scutellum, aleurone (enzyme) layer, shells (bran). That is, the most valuable components of grain that play an extremely important role in human nutrition are removed and sent to waste for animal feed.

PREPARATIONPreparing land for sowing is hard work. In ancient times, in most parts of Rus', powerful, impassable forests grew. The peasants had to uproot trees and free the soil from roots. Even flat areas near rivers were not easy to cultivate for sowing. In order for the land to “come to life,” it was necessary to plow it more than once: first in the fall, then in the spring before sowing. In those ancient times they plowed plows or roe deer. These are simple tools that every peasant could make himself.

Later the plow appeared, although it did not completely replace the plow. The peasant decided what to plow. It depended on the soil. The plow was more often used on heavy fertile soils. Unlike the plow, the plow not only cut the layer of earth, but also turned it over. After the field is plowed, it needs to be “combed.” They did this using a harrow. Sometimes a spruce log with a large number of long knots was used as a harrow.

SEVThe year began in the spring. The life of the peasant largely depended on sowing. A harvest year means a comfortable, well-fed life. In lean years they had to go hungry. Peasants carefully stored seeds for future sowing in a cool, dry place so that they would not germinate ahead of time. They checked more than once whether the seeds were good. The grains were placed in water - if they did not float up, but sank to the bottom, then they were good. The grains should also not be stale, that is, stored no more than one winter, so that they have enough strength to cope with weeds.

In those days there were no weather forecasts, so the peasants relied on themselves and folk signs. We observed natural phenomena in order to start sowing on time. Sowing day is one of the most important, but also the most solemn days in the agricultural year. That’s why the first sower went barefoot (his feet should have already been warm) into the field in a white or red (festive) shirt, with a basket of seeds hanging on his chest. He scattered the seeds evenly, with a “secret, silent prayer.” After sowing, the grain had to be harrowed. Peasants planted grain crops not only in spring, but also in autumn. Before the onset of severe cold, winter grains were sown. These plants had time to sprout and appear on the surface before winter.

BREAD IS GROWINGFrom the moment a grain hits the ground, it strives to get out. The sun shines, warms the earth and gives warmth to the grain. In the warmth, the grain begins to germinate. But not only does the grain need warmth, it also needs to “drink and eat.” Mother earth can feed the grain. It contains all the necessary nutrients for the growth of grains. In order for the grains to grow faster, the harvest to be larger, the land was fertilized. Fertilizers in those days were natural. The land was fertilized with manure, which accumulated over the year from raising livestock. In the old days, June was also called grain harvest. The peasants even counted how many warm, bright days were needed for the grains to ripen: “Then, in 137 warm days, winter rye ripens and at the same number of degrees of heat, winter wheat ripens, but ripens more slowly, not earlier than 149 days.”

HARVESTHarvest is a responsible time. The peasants had to determine exactly the time when to start it, so that it would be on time and in good weather. And here the farmers watched everything and everyone: the sky, stars, plants, animals and insects. The ripeness of the bread was checked by tooth: they tore the ears, dried them, and put them in the mouth: if the grains crunch, it means they are ripe.

The day the harvest began was called Zazhinki. Everyone took on the harvest together, the whole family went out into the field. And if they realized that they couldn’t handle the harvest themselves, they called for help. The work was very difficult. I had to get up before dawn and go to the field. The most important thing was to harvest on time. Everyone forgot about their illnesses and sorrows. What you collect is what you live with all year. Harvesting is work, although hard, but bringing joy. If the rye grew tall and thick, they preferred to use a sickle, and low and sparse fields were mowed with a scythe. Mown plants were tied into sheaves.

GRAIN THRESHINGThe peasants carefully calculated the timing of the harvest, and if the weather did not allow waiting for the grain to ripen, then it was harvested unripe. Green ears were also cut off in the northern regions, where they simply did not have time to ripen.

Usually the harvest was completed by the day of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary - August 28 (August 15, old style). The popular name of this holiday is Spozhinki.

The sheaves were first transported to a barn or barn. Barn is an outbuilding in which sheaves were dried before threshing. The barn usually consisted of a pit where the stove was located without a chimney, as well as an upper tier where sheaves were stored. Riga – a building with a furnace for drying sheaves of bread and flax. Riga was larger than a barn. Up to 5 thousand sheaves were dried in it, while in the barn - no more than 500.

Ripe grain was taken directly to the threshing floor - a fenced area of ​​land intended for storing, threshing and other processing of grain - and threshed there. This was one of the most difficult stages of labor. Richer people tried to invite someone to help do this work. And the work consisted of this: they took a beater (threshed) or a flail and hit the sheaves to “release” the grain. To obtain the best seeds and unbeaten straw, they used a sheaf against a barrel. Later, these methods began to be replaced by threshing using threshing machines, which were powered by horse or steam traction. A special trade was created for threshers who worked on their machines for hire. The threshing of bread did not always happen immediately; sometimes this process was delayed; threshing was done in the fall and at the beginning of winter. After threshing, the grain was winnowed - usually standing in the wind with a shovel.

AT THE MILLBread, as you know, is baked from flour. To obtain flour, the grain must be crushed - ground. The first tools for grinding grain were a stone mortar and pestle. Then they began to grind the grain rather than crush it. The process of grinding grain was constantly improved.

A significant step forward was the invention of the manual grinding mill. Its basis is millstones - two heavy plates between which grain was ground. The lower millstone was installed motionless. The grain was poured through a special hole in the upper millstone, which was driven by the muscular power of humans or animals. Large heavy millstones were rotated by horses or bulls.

Grinding grain became easier, but the work was still hard. The situation changed only after the water mill was constructed. In flat areas, the speed of river flow is low to rotate the wheel with the force of a water jet. To create the required pressure, the rivers were dammed, the water level was artificially raised and the stream was directed through a chute onto the wheel blades. Over time, the design of the mill was improved, windmills appeared, their blades were rotated by the wind. Windmills were built in areas where there were no bodies of water nearby. In some areas, millstones were set in motion by animals - horses, bulls, donkeys.

BAKE BREADIn ancient times, housewives baked bread almost every day. Usually the dough began to be kneaded at dawn. They put on clean clothes, prayed and got to work.

The dough recipes were different, but the main components remained flour and water. If there was not enough flour, they bought it at the market. To check the quality, the flour was tasted by tooth. They took a pinch of flour and chewed it, if the resulting “dough” stretched well and did not stick too much to your hands, then the flour was good.

Before kneading the dough, the flour was sifted through a sieve. The flour had to “breathe” during the sifting process.

In Rus' they baked black “sour” bread. It was called black because rye flour was used for its preparation, and it has a darker color than wheat. “Sour” – because sour starter was used. Having kneaded the dough in a kneading bowl - a wooden tub - and formed rounded loaves, the hostess collected the remaining dough from the walls into a lump, sprinkled it with flour and left it for leavening until the next time.

The finished dough was sent to the oven. Stoves in Rus' were special. They heated the room, baked bread on them, cooked food, slept, sometimes even washed and treated themselves.

They put the bread in the oven with prayer. Under no circumstances should you swear or quarrel with anyone while the bread is in the oven. Then the bread won't work.

The shells (bran), which is fiber, remove organic dirt - excess gastric juice enzymes, bile acids, bilirubin, cholesterol. Bran helps normalize the intestinal flora - they adsorb pathogenic microorganisms, leaving E. coli alone, and normalize intestinal motility. In addition, bran is polysaccharides, the best food for our bifidobacteria: in 1 cm3 of gastric juice there are about 10 million bifidobacteria. Therefore, it is quite natural that when we unknowingly deprive bifidobacteria, which produce, for example, vitamin B12, of food, the mechanism of diabetes mellitus is triggered.

When grinding between stone millstones, high-quality substances are not carried away - all valuable vitamins, aromatic substances and enzymes are preserved. A manual mill makes it possible to grind soft and hard varieties of wheat, rye, barley, oats, soybeans, amaranth, etc. Barley is generally an amazing crop and, probably not coincidentally, barley is called the “arrow of light.” In ancient times, barley was fed to gladiators and slaves, that is, those who required, first of all, strength and endurance. Rye is a natural medicine. In the old days in Rus' it was believed that eating rye increased vitality and lifted the mood. Rye has a general strengthening effect and normalizes metabolism. And the best of bread kvass is rye kvass. This is the most nutritious and biologically valuable drink of all existing today. It is no coincidence that this tasty and healthy drink was admired by foreigners traveling around Russia.

Wheat flour (cereal), obtained using this grinding method, has baking properties that cannot be obtained otherwise.

In other words, a hand mill, having a service life of tens of years, will serve you, protecting the health of your family, for several generations.

What is the value of grinding between stone millstones?

Firstly, and this is very important, after grinding the flour remains “alive” only for several days.

Secondly, the entire complex process of grinding wheat grain in a modern varietal mill is aimed at separating the endosperm (from which flour is now obtained) as best as possible from the germ, scutellum, aleurone (enzyme) layer, and shells (bran).

That is, the most valuable components of grain that play an extremely important role in human nutrition were removed and sent to waste for animal feed, including vitamins.

The role and importance of vitamins in nutrition is well known. Their absence or lack of food causes serious illnesses. When, for example, they began to remove supposedly indigestible components from bread grain and rice and pride themselves on snow-white flour and rice, this did not cause problems for a long time. Then specific disorders appeared, such as paralysis and other neurological disorders, which were called “beriberi.” Later it became clear that people were missing something. And what was missing was contained precisely in the rice husks, which were thrown away or fed to animals. Then they began to look for the missing link and found it. Chemically, it turned out to be an amine, which, obviously, was the carrier of life (vita (lat.) - life). This is how the name “vitamin” arose.

Hand mill

This vitamin B, like other vitamins, is almost completely separated and disposed of as waste using the most modern equipment.

The distribution of vitamin B as a percentage of individual parts of wheat grain is as follows (According to D. Heathcock, D. Heathcock and B. Shaw):

32% - in the aleurone (enzyme) layer;

62% is in the scutellum, the remaining amount of vitamin B (6%) is approximately evenly distributed between the entosperm, embryo, and pericarp.

A similar picture is observed for other vitamins. It turns out that in 150 years man has not gotten any wiser!

They knew about this back in biblical times, considering whole-milled flour to be a pantry of health, one of the main conditions for longevity.

Bread according to the recipe from the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel “Take yourself wheat and barley and beans and lentils and millet, pour them into one vessel and make bread from them for yourself...”.

Strange as it may seem, modern flour, which contains nothing, is more expensive than fresh (and therefore living) whole-ground flour.

However, the madness doesn't end there. Flour, whose natural color is creamy due to the presence of carotenoids (provitamins A), is bleached using a chemical that is standard in the flour milling industry - chlorine gas. The US Environmental Protection Agency classifies this gas as a pesticide and defines it as a flour bleaching, aging and oxidizing (remember this) agent that is a potent, lethal irritant that is hazardous to inhale. Several years ago, on one of the central channels of the central heating system, data were announced that the refusal to chlorinate water and the transition to other, safer methods of disinfection leads to an increase in average life expectancy throughout Russia, according to official data - by 8 years, according to unofficial data - by 15! Chlorine, when in contact with wheat (duplicate contact of chlorine with flour occurs at the time of kneading dough with chlorinated tap water in all bakeries) forms another substance called alloxan, which is known to disrupt the activity of the pancreas.

Alloxan destroys the pancreas so well that scientists even use it in clinical studies to induce diabetes in experimental laboratory animals!

So where did the whole grain flour that our ancestors used to make bread go? Only whole grain flour, as we already know, contains B vitamins, macro- and microelements and germ, which has fantastic healing properties. Refined flour is devoid of both the germ and the shell - instead of these healing parts of the grain created by nature, all kinds of food additives are added to the flour, chemically created substitutes that can never make up for what is created by nature itself. Refined flour becomes a mucus-forming product, which forms a lump at the bottom of the stomach and pollutes our body. Refining is an expensive, costly process and at the same time kills the vitality of the grain. And it is needed only to preserve the flour from spoilage for as long as possible. Whole flour cannot be stored for a long time (in summer), but this is not required. Let the grain be stored, and flour can be made from it, as needed. It has always been this way. The grain is alive. When it is ground, the aging process immediately begins. You could say that white flour keeps better because it is dead. Experiments with feeding rats have shown that already 14 days after grinding, the amount of life in flour is reduced so much that when fed flour and bread made from such flour, animals in the fourth generation, as a rule, lose their viability. And isn’t it time, in the name of convenience of trade, to stop the vicious practice of turning a God-given healing food product into a dead mucus-forming mass that has an attractive taste due to sugar, salt, fat, heat-treated at high temperatures and becoming carcinogenic.

Back in the 19th century, in the “Handbook for the Sick and Healthy by Dr. Platen,” published in 1895, it is said: “If a person eats refined white bread (and then yeast was not yet used; the replacement of sourdough with yeast occurred about 50 years ago), he will definitely come to mental and physical destruction.”

Remember our Russian culture regarding food, in particular bread. When did our wise grandmothers bake white bread (even sourdough)? Only on major holidays, sometimes on Sundays and never during the week.

On fasting days, they ate kulaga, which had high biological value, which was prepared from malt, and he from sprouted grain. Kulaga is an excellent medicine. What is sprouted grain? This amount of vitamin B1 increases by 1.5 times, B2 by 13.5 times, B6 by 5 times, E by 10 times!

On fasting days they baked bread made from a mixture of rye and wheat flour (Karelian pies - wickets), from a mixture of wheat and buckwheat - real Russian pancakes (Guryevsky), from barley-wheat (Latvian bread), from oatmeal they prepared raschinny pancakes and tsezhi for Belarusian and Polish soups, and mixed with wheat - cookies.

Unfortunately, something has happened to us over the past 100 years, and this is a very alarming fact for all of us!

People have forgotten the taste and aroma of real bread.

Moreover, they don’t remember that in the old days bread was always baked using sourdough. All components of the starter are exclusively of plant origin and cause the fermentation process. The famous peasant sourdoughs (sourdough is a liquid dough fermented with hops, raisins, with the addition of natural sugar or honey, white and red malt) were prepared from rye flour, barley, and wheat. It was these starters that enriched the body with vitamins, enzymes, biostimulants and, above all, saturated it with oxygen. Thanks to this, the human body became energetic, efficient, resistant to colds and other diseases.

Since the mid-40s, after the war, hop starters were replaced with yeast. Scientists have found that the main property of yeast is fermentation. Yeast transmits this property through bread (1 cc of mature dough contains 120 million yeast cells) into the blood, and the blood also begins to ferment. The resulting fusel gas, which is akin to cadaveric poison, enters primarily the brain, disrupting its functions. Memory, abilities for logical thinking, and creative work sharply deteriorate. Acting at the cellular level, yeast causes the formation of benign and cancerous tumors in the body. An effect occurs on the cell, depriving it of its ability to divide, i.e. produce healthy cells.

One of the miracles of our body is the regeneration process. For example, if 70% of the liver is removed, then after 3-4 weeks it can fully recover. The pancreas also has the maximum ability to regenerate.

The main condition for regeneration to occur is the absence of fermentation processes in the body. And fermentation in the body is caused mainly by yeast. Common yeast does not survive in the human body due to high body temperature. But thanks to the “efforts” of geneticists, a special type of heat-resistant yeast was developed that reproduces well at a temperature of 43-44 degrees and is able to withstand 500-degree temperatures in an oven.

This yeast is able not only to resist the onslaught of phagocytes, responsible for immunity, but also to kill them. Yeast cells destroy the least protected cells of our body and release toxic substances of small molecular weight. Saccharomycetes, unlike tissue cells, are very stable and are not destroyed either during cooking or under the influence of enzymes and acids in the gastrointestinal tract. This yeast from the digestive tract enters the bloodstream, multiplying exponentially. This disrupts the normal functioning of all digestive organs: stomach, pancreas, gall bladder, liver. The processes of putrefaction increase in the intestines.

Scientists around the world have long sounded the alarm. The mechanisms of the negative effects of yeast on the human body are revealed. French professor Etienne Wolf, academician F.G. Uglov, P.P. write about this. Dubinin (Proceedings of the Plekhanov Institute of Natural Sciences), Rosini Gianfranco (“The presence of a killing feature of yeast”, Canadian Journal of Microbiology, 1983, volume 29, number 10, p. 1462), S.A. Konovalov (“Biochemistry of yeast”, 1962, M., Pishchepromizdat, pp. 13-14), special correspondent of “Izvestia” L. Volodin, (Paris, February 27 by phone, published on February 28, p. 4), B.A. Rubin (Fermentation. - BME, t . 3, 1976, pp. 383-384), V.M. Dilman (“Four models of medicine”, Leningrad, Medicine, 1987. pp. 40-42, 214-215), Marilyn Diamond, Donald Shell, (USA “Acid-base balance”), V. Mikhailov, L. Trushkina (“Food is a serious matter.” M., “Young Guard”, 1988, pp. 5-7). The bibliography on this topic can be continued, but we’d better look at what thermophilic yeast is and food products prepared with its use.

So, let us repeat: Saccharomyces yeast (thermophilic yeast), used in the alcohol industry, brewing and bakery, is not found in the wild in nature, that is, it is the creation of human hands, and not the creation of God. According to morphological characteristics, they belong to the simplest marsupial fungi and microorganisms. These Saccharomycetes, unfortunately, are more advanced than tissue cells and are independent of temperature, pH, and air content. Even with the cell membrane destroyed by saliva lysozyme, they continue to live. The experience of the French scientist Etienne Wolff, who cultivated a malignant tumor for 37 months in a test tube with a solution containing fermenting yeast extract, is worthy of attention. At the same time, an intestinal tumor was cultured for 16 months under the same conditions, without connection with living tissue. As a result of the experiment, it turned out that in such a solution the size of the tumor tripled within one week. But as soon as the extract was removed from the solution, the tumor died. From this it was concluded that the yeast extract contains a substance that stimulates the growth of cancerous tumors (Izvestia newspaper).

Scientists in Canada and England have established the killing ability of yeast. Killer cells, yeast killer cells, kill sensitive, less protected cells of the body by releasing toxic proteins of small molecular weight into them. The toxic protein acts on plasma membranes, increasing their permeability to pathogenic microorganisms and viruses. Yeast first enters the cells of the digestive tract, and then into the bloodstream. Thus, they become a “Trojan horse”, with the help of which the enemy enters our body and helps undermine its health.

Thermophilic yeast is so tenacious that when used three or four times, its activity only increases. It is known that when baking bread, yeast is not destroyed, but is stored in gluten capsules. Once in the body, they begin their destructive activities. Experts are now well aware that when yeast multiplies, ascospores are formed, which, when they end up in our digestive tract and then enter the bloodstream, destroy cell membranes, contributing to cancer.

It is no coincidence that at the Second World Congress of Herbal Medicine in Prague in 1990, Professor Larbert spoke with alarm about the detrimental effects of refined white bread prepared with yeast on health. Long-term consumption of such bread (and we eat it for years) led to a number of disorders described by Larbert called hemogliasis. This disease is manifested by headaches, drowsiness, irritability, digestive problems, thinking slows down, sexual activity decreases, and blood viscosity increases. Larbert believes that hemogliasis is more common and more dangerous than tuberculosis.

Baking bread in folk cuisine has always been a kind of ritual. The secret of its preparation has been passed down from generation to generation. Almost every family had its own secret. We made bread about once a week using various sourdough starters. The use of unrefined rye flour resulted in the fact that, although the bread was coarse, it contained all the beneficial substances found in cereals. And when baked in a Russian oven, the bread acquired an unforgettable taste and aroma. We can safely say that there has never been such bread as in Rus' in the world. It was consumed in large quantities. The average peasant, for example, in the 19th century ate more than three pounds of bread daily (a pound is equal to 430 grams). It was this bread that made it possible to regulate the functioning of the intestines.

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This greatest discovery took place in ancient times, over 15 thousand years ago. According to scientists, it was in those distant prehistoric times that man first began to collect and cultivate cereals, which were the ancestors of our present-day wheat, rye, oats, and barley. In the Stone Age, people could barely eat grains raw, and then learned to grind them between stones and mix them with water. This is how the first millstones, the first flour and the first bread appeared. The first bread was in the form of liquid porridge. Archaeologists have established for sure that the great-great-grandmother of our bread was liquid grain porridge, which is still consumed today in the form of bread soup in some countries of Asia and Africa. When man learned to make fire and began to use it for cooking, another discovery was made. This discovery was most likely made by accident: a man began to fry crushed grains before mixing them with water, and became convinced that the porridge made from such fire-treated grains was much tastier than the one he had eaten before - from ordinary raw grains. Primitive people ate such grain foods until they learned to bake unleavened bread in the form of flat cakes from thick grain porridge dough. These dense, unloose, burnt pieces of grain mass bore little resemblance to our bread, but it was with their appearance that the era of bread baking began on earth. Several more thousand years passed, and people learned to make bread from fermented dough. This kind of bread, about which the wonderful scientist K. A. Timiryazev once said that it constitutes one of the greatest inventions of the human mind, one of those empirical discoveries that later scientific research only has to confirm and explain.

How they baked and revered bread in ancient times

5-6 thousand years ago, the ancient Egyptians mastered the art of loosening dough by fermenting it, using (however, they did not even suspect this) the smallest organisms - baker's yeast and lactic acid bacteria. Each such microorganism represents a very complex biochemical production, which has not yet been fully comprehended by man. In dough, yeast cells cause fermentation, which produces carbon dioxide and alcohol. Carbon dioxide loosens the dough, making the bread fluffy and light. During the fermentation process, as a result of the activity of lactic acid bacteria, complex organic compounds accumulate in the dough, which then, at the time of baking, under the influence of high temperatures, form an incomparable, magnificent taste and aroma of bread. Using the miraculous power of tiny microorganisms, ancient Egyptian bakers baked a large number of different types of bread. A detailed picture of the production of bread products in a bakery in Ancient Egypt was depicted on the wall of the pharaoh’s tomb by an unknown artist who lived 5 thousand years ago. We see how the Egyptians harvest grain, grind grain, knead dough and make bread of various shapes from it: round, oblong, pyramidal, shaped like braids, fish, sphinxes, etc. A sculptural image of one of the most ancient representatives of the noble profession of bakers: a small figurine of a dough mixer, kept in the Giza Museum (Egypt), gives an idea of ​​how dough was kneaded several thousand years ago. The art of baking leavened bread passed from the ancient Egyptians to the Greeks and Romans. In Ancient Greece, the first mention of “sour” bread, that is, bread made from fermented dough, dates back to the 5th century. BC. However, such bread was considered a delicacy, was much more expensive than unleavened bread, and was consumed only by wealthy people. Homer, who described the meals of his heroes, left us evidence that the aristocrats of Ancient Greece considered bread to be a completely independent dish. In those distant times, lunch was usually served with two dishes: a piece of meat roasted on a spit and white wheat bread. Each of these two dishes was eaten separately, and bread was given the most significant and honorable role. Homer compares wheat to the human brain, referring to its importance in people's lives. He says that the richer the owner of the house, the more abundant the white bread in his house. The following curious fact speaks about the superstitious reverence with which bread was treated in Ancient Greece. The Hellenes were firmly convinced that if a person eats his food without bread, he commits a great sin and will certainly be punished by the gods. By the way, this belief echoes one ancient law that existed in India. In the first centuries of our era, criminals in this country were punished by prohibiting them from eating bread for a certain time, depending on what crime they had committed. At the same time, the Hindus were sure that those who do not eat bread will have poor health and an unhappy fate. And today, when praying the morning prayer, Hindu believers begin it with the words: “Everything is food, but bread is its great mother.” But let's return again to the bakers of Ancient Greece. They, like the masters of Ancient Egypt, knew how to bake many types of bread, using mainly wheat flour. The Greeks baked some bread products from barley flour. Inexpensive varieties of bread were made from wholemeal flour with a large amount of bran. Such bread served as the main food for the common people. Bakers of Ancient Greece also sold rich bread products, which included honey, fat, and milk. But such “sweet breads” were more expensive than regular bread and were classified as delicacies. It is interesting to note that among the stern Spartans, bread was considered the greatest luxury, and it was placed on the table only on the most solemn occasions. In Ancient Greece, as in Ancient Egypt, stale bread played a special role. It was believed to help with stomach diseases. It was prescribed as a medicine to patients suffering from indigestion and other diseases. Some ancients believed that just licking the crust of stale bread would help stop stomach pain. By the way, a very common remedy among English soldiers during the colonial wars was the belief that a runny nose could be cured by sniffing a loaf of freshly baked bread.

Why is bread called bread?

We owe, as many scientists believe, the very origin of the word “bread” to the bakers of Ancient Greece. Greek craftsmen used specially shaped pots called “klibanos” to produce this product. From this word, according to experts, the ancient Goths formed the word “hlifes”, which then passed into the language of the ancient Germans, Slavs and many other peoples. In the Old German language there is a word “khlaib”, which is similar to our “bread”, Ukrainian “khlib” and Estonian “leib”.

Bread of kings and king of bread

At the beginning of the Middle Ages, each castle and monastery had its own mills and bakeries, and its own flour millers and bakers appeared. Later, these craftsmen formed craft workshops in those urban settlements that began to develop around the castles. The bakery workshops of the Middle Ages were famous for their excellent craftsmen. An old engraving gives an idea of ​​a bakery in medieval Europe. It is very interesting to note that at that time in many European countries there was a direct relationship between the degree of freshness of bread and the social status of those who consumed it. The royal family ate only freshly baked bread, bread baked yesterday was intended for high society, representatives of the minor nobility were supplied with bread baked two days ago, bread baked three days ago served as food for monks and schoolchildren, and bread baked four days ago fed peasants and small artisans . The French king Henry IV, recognizing the special, exclusive role of bread in the life of the people, added one more to all his titles - “king of bread”, saying that the one who rules the bread of the nation is a greater ruler than the one who rules only the souls of their subjects.

Monument to the Baker

In ancient Rome there were also bakeries with a wide range of bread products. A 13-meter monument to Marcus Virgil Eurysaces, a hereditary baker who created several large bakeries in the capital of the Roman Empire that supplied almost all of Rome with bread, has survived to this day. The bas-reliefs decorating this monument represent scenes of the preparation of flour from grain and the production of bread at all, as they now say, stages of the technological process, executed with great vengeance. We see ancient Roman mills, the millstones of which were driven by the power of slaves or horses; We see how slaves in the bakery knead the dough, shape it into pieces, and bake bread in two large ovens. Other slaves count the finished bread, weigh it, and put it in baskets.

What was bread like in Rus'?

Since ancient times, baking bread in Rus' was considered a responsible and honorable task. According to one of the oldest written monuments, Domostroi, many settlements had special huts adapted for baking bread. In these bakeries, bread was prepared by craftsmen called bread makers. In addition to bakers engaged in, as we would now say, “industrial bakery,” bread was baked in every home, and this work was usually done by women. In the 11th century in Rus' they baked sour, that is, fermented bread from rye flour. The production of rye bread was a great art; it was based on the use of special starters, or kvass, the secret of which was kept in the strictest confidence and passed on from generation to generation. In addition to rye bread, monastery bakeries in Rus' baked prosphora and bread made from wheat flour, saiki, rolls and other bread products. In the chronicle of the X-XIII centuries. mention is made of “bread with honey, poppy seeds, cottage cheese,” kovrigi, and various pies with all kinds of fillings.

How in the old days they monitored the quality of bread

In the 16th century, bakers in Rus' were already divided into bread makers, kalachniks, pirozhniki, gingerbread makers, pancake makers and sitniks, making up a significant part of urban artisans. They baked different types of rye and wheat bread, bakery products, pies, and gingerbread cookies. In the cities of the Moscow principality in the XVI-XVII centuries. government control was established over prices in the retail grain trade and over the quality of products sold. The Tsar's decree of 1626 “On grain and kalak weight” approved the procedure for setting prices for 26 types of bread made from rye flour and 30 types of wheat flour. To monitor the exact implementation of this decree and compliance with the established prices for bread, grain bailiffs, or tselovniks, were appointed to markets and markets, who were obliged to “...walk in the Kremlin, in Kitay-Gorod, along the streets, alleys and small markets and weigh the grain sieve, sieve and grated rolls and soft gingerbread rolls." If bread bailiffs discovered that bread and rolls did not correspond to the established weight or were sold above the approved price, the perpetrators were fined. Those who were guilty had to pay a lot of money. In case of malicious violations, the culprit was subjected to corporal punishment. And under Peter I, even stricter laws were established regulating bread prices and defining penalties for violating them. By Peter's decree of January 14, 1725, for the sale of raw or low-weight bread, severe punishment was imposed on bread merchants and bakers: "... and for that... beat with batogs or cats and take that raw and low-weight bread to the hospital." And the supervision was carried out by officers from the police chief's office.

Bread huts and palaces

In the 17th century In Moscow there were large bakeries for those times. They were called grain huts. We have reached a description of such a hut, located on one of the Moscow streets, in the area of ​​​​current Kalinin Avenue. Here, wheat loaves, rolls, and rye loaves were baked in four ovens. Pies and cheesecakes were baked in a special oven. The largest was the grain hut in Izmailovo, which belonged to the royal court and was called the “bread door”. The “palace” was divided into chambers, in each of which different types of rye bread and wheat flour products were produced. In one of the chambers they baked bread on eight ovens. The Khlebny Dvori was also built in the Kremlin. More than 70 bakers worked in the chambers of the sovereign bakery, providing bread to the royal family and numerous servants. Large bakeries also operated in Russian monasteries. One of them was located in the famous Trinity-Sergius Monastery; its bread fed 900 people daily.

Bread-father

Since ancient times, people have treated this product of human labor - our daily bread - in a special way. He was compared to gold, the sun, life itself. It is not for nothing that in ancient times bread, like the sun and gold, was designated by one symbol among many peoples - a circle with a dot in the middle. They took care of bread, composed hymns in honor of bread, and greeted their dearest guests with bread. At all times, disrespect for bread has been equated to the most terrible insult that can be inflicted on a person. From childhood, a person was taught to value and cherish a piece of bread as the greatest wealth on earth. This is what the poet Vladimir Soloukhin says in one of his poems:

I remember that minute
From a mischievous childhood.
Suddenly my mouth felt boring
From Arzhanova bread.
And I threw the piece on the ground
From grandfather on the sly.
And I stepped on a piece
Barefoot with a plague heel.
And trampled. And everything was as it was
I buried my nose in the dust...
And my grandfather didn’t beat me before,
And they didn’t beat me at all.

People spoke of bread as a living being: bread-breadwinner, bread-father. From time immemorial, people have treated the labor of those who created it in the same way as bread. In Rus', bakers enjoyed special respect; they were never called by disparaging diminutive names, like other people of ordinary rank, for example, Ivashka, Fedka, Petrushka. Khlebnikov was called with respect, by full names - Ivan, Fedor, Peter, and often a surname or nickname was added.

“It’s bad, brother, to live in Paris: there’s nothing to eat; you can’t ask for black bread!” A. S. Pushkin

In Rus', bread has always been the basis of the kitchen, the Russian table. The use of bread dates back to times older than the separation of the Slavs from the common Indo-European root. The fact that the Slavic culture has always been agricultural is confirmed by numerous archaeological finds. The main evidence is cereal grains (and their traces) found during excavations, as well as numerous objects related to arable farming and bread preparation.

Indeed, in no other country in the world did bread have such importance as in Rus': for a long time, travelers who came to our country noticed how much bread Russians eat. There are various reasons for this, including the ancient agricultural tradition, the great need for high-calorie food suitable for long-term storage due to the cold climate, as well as the need (to feed in harsh conditions) to work a lot, which means spending more energy.

So, in the south and central part of Rus', wheat was grown, and in the north - rye and barley. Barley was also held in high esteem by the Finno-Ugric peoples: it is notable for its unpretentiousness and adaptability to the northern climate; in these qualities, barley is superior to both rye and wheat.

One day A.S. Pushkin, during his trip to the Caucasus, wrote:“I still had 75 miles left to Kars. By evening I hoped to see our camp. I didn't stop anywhere. Halfway along the road, in an Armenian village built in the mountains on the banks of a river, instead of lunch I ate the damned churek, Armenian bread baked in the form of a flat cake half and half with ash, which the Turkish captives in the Dariali Gorge were so grieving about. I would give a lot for a piece of Russian black bread, which was so disgusting to them.”

Bread a la churek, popular in Armenia

The main role in the life of the Russian people was played by rye, or, as it was called, black bread. It was much cheaper and more filling than wheat, white bread.

However, there were varieties of rye bread that even very wealthy people could not always buy. These included, for example, “Boyarsky” bread, for baking which they used specially ground flour, fresh butter, moderately fermented (not peroxidized) milk, and spices were added to the dough. Such bread was baked only by special order for special occasions.

Sieve bread was baked from flour sifted through a sieve. It was much more tender than sieve bread, which was baked from flour sifted through a sieve. “Fur” types of bread were considered low quality. They were baked from wholemeal flour and called chaff. The best bread that was served in rich houses was “crumbly” white bread made from well-processed wheat flour.

By the way, remember Zheglov’s famous appeal to his friends in the film “the meeting place cannot be changed”? Sometimes he used to say with irony, and sometimes seriously - “you are my sieve friend.” The history of this popular expression is very interesting:

- This is not a front here, dear friend! We don’t need “languages”...

It is believed that a friend is called this by analogy with sieve bread, usually wheat. Wheat bread uses flour that is much more finely ground than rye (coarse grinding of wheat grain will result in semolina, which is unsuitable for baking bread). To remove impurities from it, and most importantly, to saturate it with oxygen and thus improve its culinary qualities, not a sieve is used, as is the case with rye flour, but a device with a smaller mesh - a sieve. Therefore, such bread was called sieve. It was expensive, was considered a symbol of prosperity among the peasants and was put on the table to treat the most dear guests. Here's the story...

During periods of poor harvests, when there were not enough supplies of rye and wheat, all kinds of additives were mixed into the flour - carrots, beets, and later potatoes, as well as wild plants - acorns, oak bark, nettles, quinoa.

For a long time, bakers have enjoyed honor and respect. If in the 16th-17th centuries ordinary people in Rus' were called in everyday life and in official documents by the derogatory names Fedka, Grishka, Mitroshka, then bakers with such names were called Fedor, Grigory, Dmitry, respectively. The following fact testifies to how highly the baker’s work was valued.

In ancient Rome, for example, a slave who knew how to bake bread was sold for 100 thousand sesterces, while only 10-12 thousand were paid for a gladiator.

The charters of the Byzantine guilds of the 10th century stipulated: “Bread farmers are not subject to any state duties, so that they can bake bread without any interference.” At the same time, in Byzantium, for baking bad bread, a baker could have his head shaved, flogged, pilloried, or expelled from the city.

In Rus', the baker was also required not only skill, but also honesty. After all, famine often occurred in the country. During these difficult years, bakeries were under special surveillance, and those who allowed “mixing” or spoilage of bread, and especially speculated on it, were severely punished.

According to the census in 1638, there were 2,367 artisans in Moscow, of which 52 were bread bakers, 43 baked gingerbread, 12 baked sieve bread and 7 baked pancakes.

At the end of the 19th century, rural residents baked their own bread in Russian ovens, and the urban population usually bought bread from bakers, who baked it in large quantities and in various types. In bakeries, hearth bread (tall thick flat cakes) and molded bread (cylindrical or brick-shaped) were sold from trays.

There were also a variety of baked goods: pretzels, bagels, bagels. Villagers rarely feasted on them. They usually bought them in the city as gifts for children and did not count them as food. The townspeople used all these baked goods quite widely in everyday life.

Rolls have always been especially loved in Rus'. Kalach was both on the everyday table of an ordinary citizen and at magnificent royal feasts. The king sent rolls as a sign of special favor to the patriarch and other persons who had a high spiritual rank. When releasing a servant, the master, as a rule, gave him a small coin “for the roll.”

Moscow bakers were famous for their excellent bread. Filippov was widely known among them. Filippovsky bakeries were always full of customers. The audience came here of all kinds - from young students to old officials in expensive overcoats and from well-dressed ladies to poorly dressed working women. Filippovsky bakery products were in great demand not only in Moscow. His rolls and saikas were sent daily to St. Petersburg to the royal court. Convoys with Filippov's buns and bread even went to Siberia.

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Filippov bakery (1874 - 1899). This means the photograph was taken in 1899. The workers of this bakery were photographed on the street in front of a bakery.

When Filippov was asked why the “black bread” was only good for him, he answered: “Because the little bread loves care,” adding his favorite expression: “And it’s very simple!”

Indeed, there is nothing complicated, the man simply treated his work with love and knew its value.

Every bakery owner was convinced that people would never get enough of bread, so there would always be a shortage of it. It is also known that bread cannot be replaced with anything. Therefore, opening bakeries became a very profitable business.

BREAD AND FOLK WISDOM

Bread is so closely connected with our lives that the word itself has come to be used as a general name for food as such. Numerous proverbs vividly and figuratively convey folk wisdom and attitude towards bread.

• Without salt, without bread - half a meal.
• Without a piece of bread there is sadness everywhere.
• Bread is the head of everything.
• They can't have lunch without bread.
• Don’t open your mouth to someone else’s loaf.
• An earned loaf is better than a stolen loaf.

... It will also not be superfluous to remember what place bread occupies in Russian literature. For many works, bread and everything connected with it is a kind of cultural background for the story.

The brothers sowed wheat
Yes, they took us to the capital city:
You know, that was the capital
Not far from the village.
They sold wheat there
Money was accepted by account
And with a full bag
We were returning home.
(The Little Humpbacked Horse P.P. Ershov)

There is one extremely ancient Slavic tradition associated with bread, which is strictly observed to this day and passed on from generation to generation. This is bread and salt. The ritual consists of presenting bread and salt to a dear, noble guest. Round bread with salt in the middle is presented on a platter and an embroidered towel-towel. The guest breaks off a piece of bread, dips it in salt and eats it. According to Russian church tradition, the bishop is greeted with bread and salt.

Liberated peasants offer bread and salt to Alexander II. 1861.

During the war years, blockade bread consisted of 15% paper, 9% cake, 3% leftovers from bags, 1.5% dust from wallpaper, 1.5% pine needles, etc. Baking pans were greased with solar oil. Such bread was sent to the front and to besieged cities.

After the end of the war, first of all, all efforts were aimed at increasing productivity, on which the life of the victorious people depended. Thus, the price of bread was human life.

In Rus', bread has always been considered a real national treasure, in which the labor of an entire people is embedded. That is why in Russia there has always been great respect and reverence for bread.

A homemade piece of bread always tastes better. Our grandmothers used to always bake baked goods at home, rather than buy them in stores, as we used to do.

Unfortunately, not all ancient recipes have reached us. I love experimenting in the kitchen, learning the intricacies of culinary art, and I advise you to do the same.

I know of no ancient bread recipe that can actually be prepared at home. I suggest you explore new recipes that will allow you to bake homemade bread with rye sourdough.

The baked goods will turn out very tasty, and it is not difficult to prepare, plus it takes little time to prepare. First of all, you can prepare various treats with sourdough; it will decorate the mass of dough, even though it is not intended to add sugar to the composition.

Rye-wheat bread with potatoes

Components: 280 gr. flour (rye); 225 gr. psh. flour (any other); 420-500 ml of water (warm); 15 gr. salt; 60 kg. sour dough; 80 gr. ready potatoes. The potatoes need to be boiled and grated.

Cooking algorithm:

1. Rzh. flour must be mixed with the sour dough composition and liquid in an amount of 2/3 of the specified volume. I take a little bit of dough and put it in a jar. This sour dough should be kept refrigerated.
2. I add flour, potatoes, salt, and the remaining water. I make sure to oil the mold and lay out the future loaf. Cover with a towel and leave for 8-9 hours. It is important for the dough to grow. It is likely that it may stick to the dough, and therefore you need liquid in order to then carefully separate it from the mass.
3. I will bake the bread in the oven at 180 degrees. This will take about an hour. When the time comes to an end, you need to sprinkle the bread with water, in this case I take a sprayer.

A loaf of homemade bread with homemade sourdough will be even more appetizing. My tip: to understand that a loaf of bread is ready, you need to hit it a couple of times, there should be an empty sound.

That's all, the old Russian recipe for bread baked with rye sourdough has come to an end. But below we will present no less interesting and useful ways of making bread.

Method for preparing sour dough

To make sour dough at home, as they did in Rus', you need to act in strict accordance with my algorithm:

1. I take 100 ml of water, 100 g. rye flour; 1 tbsp. kefir I mix and place in a porcelain mold (ceramics may be suitable). It is important that the container has high sides. I cover it and leave it aside for a day.
2. I stir and leave for a day. After this time I add Art. water and 300 gr. rye flour. I knead the mixture again and leave it aside for about 24 hours.

The mass is stored in a jar with a lid in the refrigerator. The shelf life of sour dough is 30 days.

Sourdough bread based on sprouted grains

There are several ways to prepare this starter. I suggest you find out the best of them.

First way:

1. I germinate wheat grains at home for 2 days. White tails of approximately 2 cm should appear.
2. I grind or crush the grains, add flour, water, sugar to the mixture, and stir. I put all the ingredients by eye; the recipe does not give exact instructions. The mass should have the consistency of sour cream.
3. I put the starter in a warm place and wait until it starts to sour. The mass will double due to the fermentation process.

Now you can start preparing the dough, as they did in Rus':

1. I mix the starter with 250 ml of water, 2 tbsp. flour (be sure to sift the white mass), 1.5 tsp. salt and 3 tbsp. sugar (honey). I knead.
2. I take 1 tbsp. mass and put it in a bowl, leave it in the cold, but do not cover it tightly with a cork. I revive the starter from time to time. In this case I add sugar, liquid and flour.
3. I cover the mixture with a napkin and leave it aside for 12 hours. During this time, the dough will become 2 times larger. Then you will need to add Art. flour. The mass will become thicker. Again I send the dough to the side, but for about 4 hours at most. That's all. You can bake it.
4. Rye butter bread is baked in the oven for 1 hour.

Second way:

1. I wash and soak the wheat in water. I leave it on the windowsill so that the sun's rays fall on it. But the temperature should not be more than 25 degrees. This is an important condition; this is the only way beneficial bacteria can arise. After a day, sprouts will begin to appear. About 1 mm will be enough.
2. Plum. Liquid, I wash the shoots. I grind wheat using a meat grinder. I make dough from the resulting mass, but do not add salt.
3. The mass will roll out well. I make a layer and cut circles with a glass. I put the molds in the sun in the morning and turn them over by lunchtime. Also, if the weather is bad outside, you can dry the molds in the oven. The result will be crispbread, not bread, but it tastes amazing.

Bread based on rye sourdough

The bread is based on an old recipe without yeast, but with rye sourdough it needs to be cooked for several days. This is due to the fact that the first bread base takes 2 days to prepare.

Next time, taking a piece from the dough mass, you will be able to bake bread using your own sourdough starter more quickly.

Preparation of sponge mass

In the case when there is already some leaven left from the previous baking, you need to take a piece of it and pour warm liquid over it. I only add rzh to the softened mass. flour. The mixture must be brought to the consistency of sour cream.

Plus, I add crushed rye grain. I advise you to do this in the evening. In fact, it's actually more convenient. I put it on in the evening and knead it in the morning.

True, those whose home is too hot need to be more careful, there is a high possibility that the dough will peroxidize, for this reason I advise you to reduce the time for preparing it.

I place the prepared sponge mixture in a warm place and cover it with a paper towel. I advise you not to add sugar at all, because rye will amazingly brighten the dough on its own.

When the mass increases, you need to start kneading the bread. This takes about 4-8 hours. The speed of the rise will again depend on how warm it is in your house.

Kneading a loaf

1. I recommend adding your favorite spices to the sponge mixture; even seeds will do. You also need to add salt. You will make rye bread, then only rye is added. flour. If you want to bake a gray loaf, add a little psh. flour, ground grain as desired. The kneading needs to be made steep so that the baked goods are dense. This will prevent the remaining bread from drying out. If you want to bake light bread, then you should make the knead thick. But remember that too liquid a mass will not allow the bread to bake well.
2. Pinch off some of the leaven for the loaf. Place the dough in a pan coated with oil. It should occupy 1/3 of the part. Leave aside, covered. The size of the baked goods will increase. After which you should put the loaf in the oven, where it should become even larger in volume.

Bakery

I put the loaf in the oven for about 1 hour. The temperature should be gradual: 250 gr. – bake for 20 minutes; 200 gr. – 25 min.; 150 gr. - 15 minutes. If you are preparing light bread, then baking it costs less.

As I said a little above, to identify bread, you need to knock on it. Plus, the loaf will become golden brown. I take the finished bread out of the mold, wrap it in a towel and leave it aside to cool.

If you did huh. bread, then when hot it contains gluten, when it cools, the moisture leaves, and the loaf acquires an unusual, pleasant taste. A piece of homemade bread, as they baked in Rus' with homemade sourdough, will please all members of your family.

Terms and conditions of storage

It is important not to block the air flow, but you should not hold the mass either. It is better to put it on the bottom shelves of the refrigerator or lower it into the home basement. You can use the starter only until the first mold appears.

If there is just a little mold, then it is worth cutting it off. Then a piece of it can be used for dough. But this option is only suitable for those housewives who know exactly when to leave. once they bake homemade bread.

Otherwise, it is better to make a cake or powder. Add more rhymes. flour. Place it as much as the dough absorbs. The cakes need to be made thin.

It is important to crumble the dough, dry it in a dry, warm place, the oven will also be useful. There should be no moisture in it. When you achieve this goal, the dry starter will be ready.

You can safely send it for storage, but know that it will take longer to revive it.

The liquid composition cannot be stored for long. In this case, you need to either add h. flour, or use a maximum of 10 days in advance. Liquid starter can be fed with water, huh. flour.

You need to wait until the sourdough bubbles, and then leave the mixture in a cold place. This must be done throughout the entire time until the starter is used.

The first sourdough with rye flour

I advise you to make the process of making bread easier by taking a piece of dough from your friends. But if none of your friends makes homemade rye bread with their own sourdough, then this recipe will come in handy for you.

Cooking algorithm:

1. In 250 ml of water I add part of the rye flour, 1 tsp. honey I put it in a warm place. This needs to be done in the evening.
2. In the morning I pour in 250 ml of water, 250 g. flour and again send it aside.
3. In the evening I do a retreat. Add 250 ml of water and flour. The dough looks like thick sour cream. I'm sending it to the warmth. But be aware that a place that is too hot can cause your starter to turn out sour.
4. In the morning I make the batch and bake the bread.

By the way, huh. the starter will be useful if you want to bake pies or rolls based on psh. flour. Only in this case you need to add psh from the first point. flour.

The shutter will be prepared faster. You can safely put sugar, butter and chickens into the dough. eggs.

I advise you to try the recipe for making homemade baked goods using natural sourdough. If everything works out, then you will be able to make any other type of shutter. I offer the recipes a little below.

Kefir sourdough bread

Ingredients: 6 tbsp. flour (rye, with bran); 1 tbsp. white type of flour; 750 ml plain water; 3 tsp salt; 1 tbsp. leaven; 1-3 tbsp. sugar.

Dough preparation algorithm:

1. I mix all the ingredients. I send it to a warm place for half a day.
2. Bake in the oven for about 1 hour.

Kefir starter is prepared as follows:

I add sugar to the sour milk. flour. I leave the thick mixture for a day or two. It is important to ensure that mold does not appear, otherwise you will have to do everything all over again. The first bubbles are a signal to remove the mass from the heat and send it into the cold.

Bread with hop sourdough

Algorithm of actions for dough:

4 tbsp. I mix the starter with 250 ml of water (warm), add flour. The mass turns out thick. I put it in a warm place for 6 hours. It is better to do this in the evening so that you can knead the dough in the morning.

For sourdough, use the information in the section of my article “Yeast”, which will be presented below.

Dough preparation algorithm:

1. Mix 800 ml of water (warm) with the dough. I add flour. I send the thick dough into a warm place for at least 4 hours. During this time the mass will become 2 times larger. After this you will need to add the plant. butter (2 tbsp), flour. I knead the dough and put it in a warm place for 1 hour.
2. I make a loaf shape and bake it in the oven at 200 degrees. about 1 hour. I serve the bread to the table when it has cooled.

Yeast

The cooking recipes are not complicated; all housewives can handle them.

Yeast with raisins:

100-200 gr. I wash any kind of raisins, put them in a container, fill them with liquid, and add sugar. I close the neck with gauze, you need to wrap 4 layers. I send it to a warm place for 5 days. When the mass begins to ferment, it is worth making a batch.

Hop composition of yeast from dry mixture:

1. I pour boiling water over the hops (ratio 1 to 2). I boil the mass. If the hops float, you need to drown them with a simple spoon.
2. When the broth becomes 2 times less, you need to strain it. Pour sugar into the mixture (1 tbsp per 250 ml of liquid), add half a tbsp. flour per 250 ml of broth.
3. I put it in a warm place for about 48 hours. When the yeast is ready, it needs to be poured into jars and closed with a tight lid.
4. The mixture should be stored in a cool place. To bake 2-3 kg of bread, you need half a tbsp. ready yeast.

Fresh hop yeast:

1. I pour boiling water over the hops. I cook the mixture in a saucepan for about 1 hour.
2. Pour sugar into the cooled mass, psh. flour, salt. I knead the mixture until smooth and leave it in a warm place for 36 hours.
3. I add 2 pieces to the mixture. potatoes (peeled and boiled). Let it sit in a warm place until fermentation.
4. When the yeast is ready, it needs to be poured into jars and sealed tightly. To bake bread with 1 kg of flour, you need ¼ tbsp. ready yeast.

Yeast from wild berries:

I dry the berries and peel the plums. I mix flour, water, wild berries. The taste of the bread will be different, but it is natural and has benefits.

If you have seen a smoky coating on the berries, you should know that this is the wild composition of the yeast. You can only find it on wild berries, but if they are homemade, and even fertilized with chemicals, then it is better to cook according to a different recipe.

And the last way to prepare your own yeast.

Yeast from malt: 1 1 tbsp. mix flour with 5 tbsp. water, 3 tbsp. malt and half a tbsp. Sahara. I boil the mixture for 2 hours. I pour the cooled mixture into bottles, cap them and leave them warm for a day. Only then do I send it out into the cold. For 2-3 kg of baking you need half a tbsp. ready yeast.

If you don’t know what malt is, then I’ll tell you - it’s sprouted grain grain in a warm and humid place. First it is dried, and therefore coarsely ground. Only then can the malt be used to prepare yeast.

I sincerely hope that my recipes from Russian times will be useful to many housewives.

My video recipe

The birth of sourdough
The starter is prepared once, and then only used and replenished. It is a living dough that can lie dormant in the refrigerator, or can actively rise if you feed it. Sourdough biomass consists of natural microorganisms (fungi, bacteria, etc.) that live on rye grains.

The point is to revive, multiply and grow these microorganisms so that they self-organize into a stable symbiotic colony. Life itself in nature is built on the principle of symbiotic colonies of micro- or macroorganisms (for example, soil, ocean, intestinal microflora). Organisms in symbiosis support and complement each other.

Sourdough is prepared simply from flour and water. Ratio: 2 parts flour and 3 parts water (exactly one and a half times more water). You will need a room thermometer, digital kitchen scales, a glass saucepan or jar with a capacity of 1.5 liters, and a wooden spatula. This will take four days, and by the fifth you can start baking bread.

Sourdough should be prepared exclusively and only on the basis of rye flour, because rye sourdough, in comparison with wheat and other sourdough, is the most stable, healthy and strong. Those microorganisms that live on rye grains are quite sufficient to organize a well-coordinated symbiotic colony.

Washing the grain does not have a significant effect on microorganisms, so you don’t have to worry about it. But high-temperature drying kills most of the necessary microorganisms, so sprouted grains for sourdough should be dried at a temperature no higher than 41 °C. Obviously, industrially produced flour is not suitable for creating high-quality sourdough.

As already mentioned, the starter is prepared once, then it can be used continuously, saving part of the batch for the next baking.

Cooking technology:

1. Load the measured weight of grain into the mill, grind the flour directly into the pan, rice. 13. The grinding degree should be set to the finest fraction.
2. Measure out the required amount of warm water on a scale, at a temperature no higher than 36–37 °C. The water must be clean, filtered, not chlorinated. You can take spring water, boiled or distilled, infused with shungite and flint.
3. Pour water into the pan with flour and stir with a wooden spatula so that the flour is evenly combined with water. You will get a dough with the consistency of thick sour cream, rice. 14.
4. Cover the pan (or jar) with a lid, not airtight, cover it with a cotton napkin from light, and place it in a secluded place, away from drafts and electrical appliances. The optimal temperature for feeding sourdough is about 24–26 °C, not higher. Find such a place in the kitchen using a thermometer. Closer to the ceiling - warmer.

This procedure will need to be repeated four days in the morning and evening:

Day 1. Morning 40 g flour, 60 g water. Evening 40 g flour, 60 g water.
Day 2. Morning 40 g flour, 60 g water. Evening 40 g flour, 60 g water.
Day 3. Morning 40 g flour, 60 g water. Evening 40 g flour, 60 g water.
Day 4. Morning 40 g flour, 60 g water. Evening 40 g flour, 60 g water.
Day 5. In the morning we already have 800 g of starter. 500 g will be used for the first bread. We put the rest in the refrigerator until the next baking, rice. 15.

The starter should have a pleasant smell of natural kvass. If the leaven has a bad smell, it means that you violated the technology in some way or used dirty dishes. If everything is done correctly, but the smell is still nauseating or chemical, then perhaps the environment in the room where the starter is made is not environmentally friendly. Or the initial raw material - grain - was found to be of poor quality or containing some foreign impurities. In this case, you should find grain from another producer and trader.

Some recipe writers write that the smell of burp or something else in the sourdough starter is “normal.” But this is not normal. The starter should not have any “disgusting smell”. If on the fifth day the starter smells of alcohol, acetone, vinegar, or even moldy, you can throw it away and start over. Try not to violate the technology, and you will succeed.

At the same time, excessive perfectionism is not required here. The behavior of the starter is quite stable, so all parameters can be slightly varied. For example, it is desirable to maintain the temperature, but not necessarily too pedantic. Now some practical advice.

It is better to choose electronic scales that have a reset function. The principle is as follows: a container (container) is placed on the scales, a button is pressed, the scale readings are reset to zero, then the product is loaded into the container, and the net weight is thus displayed on the display. It's comfortable.

To store that part of the starter that goes into the next baking, you need to choose a container - made of glass, ceramics or food-grade plastic. The lid should not be airtight, but not too open, so that the starter does not absorb odors from the refrigerator. If the lid is plastic and closes tightly, you can make several holes in it with a needle. Dishes for fermentation should not be washed with household chemicals. Everything is easily washed off with warm water.

The starter can be stored in the refrigerator, on the top shelf, where the temperature is not the lowest. Long breaks in baking bread are undesirable. The starter must be renewed regularly. Personally, I tried leaving it for half a month, and it came back to life safely. Perhaps the starter can survive for three weeks, but it is better not to leave it longer than this, otherwise you will have to start it again. After all, sourdough is a living colony of microorganisms, and you need to treat it like a living entity. If you are going away for a long time, assign someone to look after and feed you at least once a week.
Flour should always be ground just before use. There is no need to store it - it is a perishable product. Vitamins and nutrients oxidize quickly when exposed to air. That is why industrially produced flour cannot be considered a natural product - manufacturers will do any tricks just to increase the sales period.

The grinding degree is set to the finest fraction. This is done because in a home electric mill it is still impossible to achieve the same degree as is achieved in an industrial environment. But this is not required. The quality of bread, what REAL bread should be, is determined by completely different parameters:

1. Sprouted grain.
2. Freshly ground flour.
3. Natural, natural leaven.
4. The presence of shell and germ in flour.
5. Lack of chemical and synthetic additives.

Flour should not be white like starch, even if it is wheat. It is impossible to describe what it should be like. When you first make your own flour, smell it, taste it, feel it, you will understand what REAL flour should be like.

Bread should also not be white and fluffy. It must be REAL, not synthetic. Real bread is also impossible to describe in words. When you try it, everything will become clear to you. It has both a special and noble smell.

One question remains open: if there is no mill or dehydrator yet, but you want to bake your own bread now, what should you do? You can try your luck by looking in local stores or on the Internet for whole grain rye flour or at least first grade flour. If you are lucky and come across a product from a conscientious and honest, and, importantly, sane manufacturer, then both the sourdough and the real bread (well, or almost) can be obtained.

In any case, it is better to get everything you need to get rid of system manufacturers and traders who care only about profit, but not your health, as well as from a system that is directly interested in your UNHEALTH.
100% Rye bread

To achieve the best result with the least amount of time and effort, it is advisable to use a bread maker. Of course, you can get by with a regular oven, but it’s easier with a bread maker. This is the case when the system's products are used to bypass the system itself.

The bread machine works simply: all the ingredients are loaded into it, a baking program (recipe) is selected, a button is pressed, and then it does everything itself - kneads the dough, heats it so that it rises, and then bakes.

All programs are hardwired and designed exclusively for yeast. Don’t be fooled if you see a bread machine with such “natural” programs as “yeast-free”, “gluten-free”, “whole grain”. At best, this means that the recipe does not use yeast, but a chemical leavening agent. The system is hypocritical.

For our purposes, we will need only two programs: “Yeast Dough” and “Baking”. In fact, we will deceive the system, we will not use yeast, and we will ignore the firmware programs. The main thing is that in the “Yeast dough” mode, the bread machine must be able to knead the dough and warm it up a little so that it fits. You also need a timer to set the time in the “Baking” mode.

It is not necessary to choose a multifunctional and expensive bread maker. The two named programs are all that is needed for our real bread. The presence of additional options and programs, such as a dispenser, delay start, pie, jam, cupcake - at your discretion, if you need it.

A bread machine should be chosen with a power of at least 800 W, otherwise it will not cope with heavy rye dough. The working container (bucket) should have two mixers and be shaped to form a “brick”. The weight of the baked bread is at least 1 kg. For convenience, it wouldn’t hurt to have a window so you can observe the process.
Another important point: the design of the bread machine should allow you to open the lid during operation. If the display and buttons are located on the body and not on the lid, then most likely this is possible.

Recipe for 100% rye bread:
500 g rye sourdough
400 g rye flour
200 g water
3 tbsp. flax seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
14 g salt

The process begins with awakening the starter left in the refrigerator. During the very first baking, our starter is already ready, so we skip the first 7 points.

Cooking technology:

1. Remove the starter from the refrigerator and place it in a warm place for an hour until it wakes up. The optimal temperature for sourdough is 24–26 °C.
2. After an hour, measure out 220 g of rye, load it into the mill and grind the flour into the same container in which the starter was born, for example, a saucepan. Obviously, whatever the weight of the grain, the same weight will be the flour.
3. Measure out 330 g of warm water, temperature 36–37 °C, and pour into a saucepan with flour. For example, put a glass on a digital scale, reset the readings, pour in cold water, and then add a little hot water from the kettle, so that it turns out to be exactly 330.
4. Stir with a wooden spatula until the flour is evenly combined with the water. The ratio of water and flour for sourdough is 3/2. For the test the ratio is different. Why are these numbers 330/220? Because we need to get 500 g of starter, and at the same time take into account that the dough partially remains on the dishes, so we need to take it with a reserve so that the amount of starter does not decrease each time, but rather increases. It might come in handy for pancakes.
5. Load the awakened starter into the pan and stir again with a spatula, now not so diligently so as not to particularly disturb the living entity - the colony of microorganisms.
6. Cover the pan with a lid, not airtight, cover it with a cotton napkin from light and place it in a secluded place, away from drafts and electrical appliances, as was done before. If you are going to bake bread in the morning, this procedure should be done in the evening. Conversely, if the bread is baked in the evening, the leaven is introduced in the morning.
7. The point of this whole procedure is that we take part of the leaven left over from last time, awaken it, feed it, as a result of which the colony of microorganisms grows, develops vigorous activity (good party!), the leaven rises, then falls, bubbles slightly, and after It takes 10–12 hours to reach the desired condition, when she is moderately hungry and active, fig. 16.
8 . An hour before preparing the bread, soak three tablespoons of flax seeds in water at room temperature or warm, rice. 17. Flax seeds quickly swell and become softer. Soaking is also required because at this time the seeds wake up and neutralize their “preservatives” - inhibitors.
9 . After an hour (or maybe half an hour), put the flax in a sieve to let the water drain, rice. 18.
10 . Measure out 400 g of rye, load it into the mill and grind it into a large food-grade plastic container with a tight lid. Measure out 14 g of salt (fine, preferably sea salt) and a teaspoon of cumin seeds, add them to the flour and rice. 19, close the container with a lid and swirl slightly to mix everything.
11 . Measure out 200 g of warm water, preferably around 40 °C. Remove the mold (bucket) from the bread machine, pour water into it, lay out 500 g of sourdough and flax, rice. 20. The principle is this: first, liquid ingredients are loaded into the mold, then thick, then dry. To conveniently measure exactly 500, you can place the mold on the scale, reset the readings and unload the starter there directly from the pan, to the desired weight.
12 . Unload the rest of the starter from the pan into a specially designated container and put it in the refrigerator. This will be the basis for the next baking. It is better to maintain the amount of this reserve at about 200–300 g. When the excess accumulates, you can use it for other purposes, for example, for kvass or pancakes.
13. Pour flour from container into pan, rice. 21. The preparatory stage is over. Now it's up to the bread maker.
14 . Insert the pan into the bread machine. Launch the “Yeast Dough” program. First there is a batch, about 25 minutes, with possible stops. During this period, the lid can be opened. You will see that rye dough, unlike wheat dough, is not mixed, but pounded in place, since rye dough does not have the binding gluten fibers that are found in wheat and rice. 22. Therefore, you need to help from time to time with a wooden spatula, directing the dough from the walls to the middle. It is not necessary to do this all the time - mainly at the beginning and end of the batch.
15 . When the kneading is completed, the stove switches to low heating mode. The lid should be closed and the stove should be covered with something on top for insulation, for example a folded terry towel. The temperature inside should be around 37°C. You can check this by placing a thermometer on the dough to also make sure that your oven is actually heating. (If there is no heating, you will have to remove the mold and place it in a warm place, for example, above the back wall of the refrigerator or above the radiator.) This will continue for about an hour.
16. When the program is finished, the bread maker beeps. You will need this signal to count down the next period. Yeast dough rises within an hour. Sourdough dough takes twice as long. This is why standard sourdough programs are not suitable. So we don’t remove the towel from the stove, we don’t do anything, we wait another hour or an hour and a half.
17 . So, it took 2–2.5 hours to rise after kneading. The dough should almost double in size, fig. 23. Now we launch the “Baking” program, having previously set the “Medium crust” option (if available), as well as the time on the timer. Baking time depends on the weight of the loaf and should be indicated in the instructions. The weight according to our recipe is a little more than a kilogram. The average baking time for this weight can be about 1 hour 10 minutes.
18. Finally, the oven beeps, the bread is ready. You can pull out the mold, but not with your bare hands, but with oven mitts. Let it cool for about 10 minutes (no more, otherwise the bread will sweat), lay a linen or cotton towel on the table and shake the bread out of the pan, rice. 24.
19 . Wrap the bread in a towel and place it upside down on a wire rack or wicker rack to allow the bottom to breathe and not become sweaty. So you need to let the bread cool.

It may seem that all this is very difficult and long, but this is only the beginning. When you master the technology in practice, you will be convinced that your eyes are afraid, but your hands are doing, and that everything is actually elementary, and your actual participation only takes a few minutes.

The whole process comes down to weighing, pouring and transferring raw materials from one container to another. Moreover, by performing all these manipulations, especially with living substance, you tune in to the frequency of vibrations of living Nature. At this moment, your “usb ports” are freed up - you disconnect from the matrix, which means you begin to think freely and SEE the real state of things.

Other options
You will be convinced that even the very first bread made using this technology has an exquisite taste. And the older the starter, the tastier the bread will be. In some countries, in some bakeries, where they know how to value and preserve traditions, there are sourdough starters that are several hundred years old. But you won’t be able to buy bread like the one you get at home, because even bakeries that follow old recipes don’t use sprouted grains. This is the most ancient and long-forgotten technology.

Of course, this same technology can be implemented in industrial settings. There are no special difficulties here. But the general race for profit zombifies people - they cease to understand and see what they are doing and why. Do you think a technologist at a bakery is aware of what surrogate ingredients he is dealing with and what kind of surrogate product is obtained as a result? Nothing happened. His consciousness once and for all stuck at one point: “this is how it should be.” How exactly it is necessary is determined not by his consciousness, but by the system, the matrix.

The Matrix distributes programs to both bread makers and people – it is equivalent. Both producers of surrogates and their consumers cease to understand and see what they are eating and where they are going. More precisely, they do not go, but they are led. In the system - you become a cyborg - you eat synthetics, you eat synthetics - you become a cyborg. However, maybe some people are quite happy with this. Well, God bless you.

So, you have become acquainted with the unique technology of pure rye bread. Why should you bake rye bread? Because it is healthier, easier, more pleasant for the body in every way. However, wheat-rye bread is also very good if the wheat is sprouted. Here is his recipe.

Wheat-rye bread
500 g rye sourdough
400 g wheat flour
150 g water
3 tbsp. flax seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
14 g salt

As you can see, less water is taken here because wheat is less hygroscopic. Rye absorbs more water. Everything else is done in the same way. The only pleasant feature is that the bread machine handles wheat-rye dough itself; there is practically no need to help with a spatula (except a little).

This feature is also one of the reasons why 100% rye bread is not produced industrially. (Other reasons are that wheat bread is white, soft, airy, but these are dubious advantages.) Rye dough is more difficult to knead. Although, of course, this problem is not a problem, everything is being solved. But we don’t care about this issue, especially since we have hands and a few minutes of free time.
I don’t know which way you like best, but personally, I find it more convenient to knead the rye dough by hand, without the help of a bread machine. To some extent, doing this yourself is easier and more convenient than using a stirrer. Try the manual method. Here are the amendments to the technology (see pp. 288–292), starting with paragraph 9:
9. Remove the pan from the bread machine. Launch the “Yeast Dough” program. The stove will “knead the dough” as much as it should according to the program, but in vain. During this time, you can knead the dough by hand.
10. Place the flax in a sieve and then prepare all the other ingredients.
11. Pour flour mixed with cumin and salt from the container into an enamel bowl. Make a depression (crater) in the flour. Unload flax, leaven and water there. (Like a stove shape, only in reverse.)
12. Mix all ingredients until smooth, rice. 26. It is convenient to do this with a wooden spatula, making turning movements from the edge to the middle and at the same time turning the bowl with the other hand. Rye dough, unlike wheat dough, does not require complex manipulations (kneading, resting, kneading again, proofing, etc.). Rye protein is water soluble, so you just need to mix the dough well for 5-7 minutes.
13. Place the dough in the mold, first removing the mixer blades from it, fig. 27. It is not necessary to level the dough too much; it will spread and settle on its own.
14. As soon as the bread maker finishes stirring and starts heating, carefully insert the pan into it, using oven mitts to further protect against any stray voltage that may pass through the heating elements, especially if the network is not grounded. Next - everything is the same, starting from point 15.

Instead of flax, you can try soaking sunflower or pumpkin seeds or pistachios in the same way. Only the soaking time for them is several hours. Instead of cumin, you can put coriander seeds, perhaps you will like this taste better. Or don’t use seasoning at all, although it’s more interesting, of course.
Instead of wheat, you can just as well use spelt (spelt). The advantage of spelled is that it is usually grown without the use of chemicals, and is superior to wheat in protein content. Everything else is a matter of taste.
Finally, let's consider another option - baking in the oven. To do this, you will need one or two non-stick pans and a frying pan that can be placed in the oven (no plastic parts).

Oven technology:

1. Knead the dough by hand as described above.
2. Place in molds, fig. 28. It is better to bake rye dough in molds, because it spreads on the baking sheet.
3. Place the molds in the warmest place in the kitchen and cover with a linen or cotton towel. Proofing time is 2–3 hours. The dough should rise to almost double in size, fig. 29.
4. Once the dough has risen, preheat the oven to 240°C. At the same time, pour water into the frying pan, bring to a boil over heat, and place on the oven floor. This is required to prevent the bread from drying out.
5. When the oven has warmed up, place the pans with dough on the top shelf.
6. After 15 minutes, reduce the temperature to 200 °C. Bake for another 35 minutes. Or another 40–50 minutes if all the bread is in one pan. Time can be controlled using a timer.
7. Bread is ready, rice. thirty.

Some people may prefer an oven rather than a bread machine, it's a matter of taste. Both options have their own merits. The advantage of a bread machine is that it itself maintains the required temperature when proofing dough and baking.

Finally, some practical tips:
“You can eat hot bread, but it’s better to let it ripen.” The bread continues to ripen for several hours, adding quality and richness of flavor.
– Bread is better preserved in a food-grade plastic bag, such as polyethylene. Only cooled bread can be placed in the bag.
– If the top of the bread has sagged, then you should slightly reduce the amount of water in the recipe. The proportion of water can depend significantly on the moisture content of the grain and other ingredients, such as soaked seeds.
– Do not greatly underestimate the proportion of water in the dough. Rye bread should be “damp” in consistency; this does not spoil it at all. Dry bread is less tasty.
– If the dough does not have time to rise sufficiently, you should increase the proofing time by half an hour to an hour. Or it indicates that the proofing temperature is low. Or the starter is weak for some reason. Read the technology carefully.
– It makes no sense to allocate more than three hours for proofing. The dough may first rise and then fall. You should not wait until the critical point when it begins to subside. During baking, the bread will also sag a little, this is normal.
– A new bread machine may give off an unpleasant odor during the first 2-3 bakes. Then this smell will go away.
– Basic safety rules. It is advisable not to touch the metal parts of the bread machine with bare hands or metal objects. Use a wooden spatula and oven mitts or oven mitts. Your feet should be wearing slippers with rubber soles. There is nothing special to be afraid of, but low voltage can sometimes break through, especially if there is no grounding in the network.
– If the dough is kneaded in a bread machine, you will have to put up with such an inconvenience as the presence of blades from the mixer in the bread. You need to take them out immediately or cut the bread carefully.
– You shouldn’t cook bread in a bad mood. Unkind emotions have a negative impact on the quality of bread.
– Real bread is an independent and self-sufficient food. But in small quantities it is compatible with many dishes. Goes well with vegetables and herbs. A special delicacy is a crust of bread, spread with a dessert spoon of cedar or pumpkin oil, with garlic and cayenne pepper to taste.
* * *
Now you know everything you need to know. It remains to add that real bread in your home is not just an everyday dish - it is a philosophy, a lifestyle, and freedom. Freedom from the conditions and framework that the system imposes on you. And what is also obvious is your health and clear consciousness. A healthy body will make your life complete, and an unclouded mind will allow you to create your own world. Real homemade bread is your green oasis in a technogenic environment. Your new hope. Your new Arkaim. But not the only one and not the last. It happens that the past lies ahead.