Cereal - a bushcrafters staple?

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Robson Valley

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Nov 24, 2014
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OK, then which rice am I thinking of? Little short, flat, oval grains. Dreadful flavor.
Even sticky rice is better than that.

> I found it = Arborio rice for risotto.
> I don't care for the starch glugginess created in the cooking.
> Italian friends say the same!

I use a lot of rice vermicelli in Vietnamese salad rolls.
Those would be a real hoot to make up in the middle of nowhere = nothing to cook at all!

If you want artisan breads and have 2 days to fool with the dough then I suggect Bertinet: Dough.
Otherwise, it's still a good buy for all the useful make-up techniques.
 
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Janne

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Feb 10, 2016
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I started on a multi grain bread yesterday, baked today, just had a couple of slices.

I did this:
1/2 barley flour
1/4 wheat flour
1/4 oat flour
Dry yeast, activated in lukewarm water with a bit of honey
Water
Olive oil
Salt
Crushed and whole Caraway
A drizzle of honey

Mix everything to a loose dough. Rest / raise overnight and through morning next day in a cold room.
Knead again adding more barley flour.
Make two loaves, let raise for a couple of hours in a warm place.
405 Fahrenheit oven, a pan of water underneath ( for humidity) in oven, intil crust brown and inside not sticks to the wooden testing stick.

Bread is dense, small holes, very nice flavour.
Grey-brown.

Next time I will use a Italian high gluten wheat flour, and less of it, maybe 1/5, and maybe omit the oats. Or omit the barley!
 

Billy-o

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Apr 19, 2018
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The only fishing I spent big money on to catch was Salmon. ( Salmo Salar) A day card in the best Scandi rivers is not cheap, never was.

Never got one.

Here - no kidding - you ask them if they'd mind getting out of the water, and they oblige.

Porridge does stick, but if you go half and half milk and water and then after bringing the oats to the boil for a minte or two - no more - just take them off the heat and set them aside. They'll cook in the remaining heat and the pan is easy to clean.

Like cooking rice. 1 cup of water to 1 cup of rice. Bring to the boil for two minutes with the lid on, then remove from the heat and set aside. The rice steams.
 

Robson Valley

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Nov 24, 2014
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Janne: the olive oil in your bread formula was a mistake. If you wanted any shortening(of the gluten) in the dough,
you should have used some saturated fat like butter. EVO is fine in pizza crust and focaccia, you don't want a stringy crumb like a bread.
The salt does some gluten damage but nothing like olive oil (Gisslen = Professional Baking.)
I'd repeart the bread but a different fat.
The recommended proportions are 80% all purpose flour or bread flour and no more than 20% alternate grain flour.
Seems to have worked OK every week for the past 20 years in my kitchen but I'm always using Canadian flour.

The only thing that you didn't mention was how much softened butter you ate it with.
I'm an inexcusable PIG for oven-fresh bready things.
 

Janne

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I can try again with a different oil. We always use olive oil in bsking, but it is never to late to change!
I am trying to make bread with as little wheat as possible, to try to replicate what they ate in the past in areas where wheat did not grow.

How much butter? A sickening amount. Plus a good sprinkling of salt on top too.
 

Robson Valley

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Not an oil. The chemistry is quite different from other fats such as butter.
With total flour of 800g, I add maybe 50g - 60g melted butter.
I mix the salt with the flour because in liquid, it screws over some yeast activity.

You won't ever see much of any kind of a leavened yeast bread without the gluten and the other 100+ different wheat proteins.
Therein lay the original merit of the wheats, besides tillering, when compared with grain flat breads.
This year, I will try to establish a wild yeast culture from my own grapes. Use that for bread, to get paleo.
 

Janne

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That is why I will try a high gluten wheat flour, to get some rise.
I could use baking powder too, of course, but want to try with yeast first.

I too mix the fine grained salt with the flour, I just do what mum used to do.

I had two slices for breakfast, with butter and cheese and butter and prosciutto. Taste is amazing, but could be 'fluffier', it has the consistency between German made 100% rye bread and whole wheat standard bread.
 

Robson Valley

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What's the protein content of the wheat flour that you are using now?
It needs to be 80% by weight of the total flour.

I never want a "tough" bread so I'm content to use Canadian Robin Hood All Purpose flour.
Somewhere in the middle between a weak, cake flour and a very strong, pasta flour (durum semolina).
I use Fleischmann's yeast.
Not only for very good leavening properties in fermentations but also the bakes flavor and aroma.
I had oat Cheerios yesterday, I need my regular dose of glyphosate.
 

Janne

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No clue. We use Waitrose Organic plain flour. Sometimes an Italian brand that is made for pasta. 00 grade, high gluten.
That one for crepes.

Fleischmanns too. I wake them up well, sweetened water.

Baking is fun. But I anm useless on cakes. Next weekend me and son will bake a Chocolate and pistachio cake, we saw Martha on Netflix doing it and it looked easy. Like it does when a pro works.
 

Robson Valley

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I'd like to be able to make decent crumpets. Butter and honey.
Ever formula that I have ever found looks so complicated.
I don't think I could stay awake long enough to do it.

Durum/semolina pasta wheat flour (Group II) is really different from any bread wheat (Group III) flours.
I'd rather make pasta from it and roll the herbs right into it (sage, Italian mix) to have with roast chickens, for example.
Your Waitrose flour ought to be fine for bread, you need to increase the % by quite a lot.

I wake up the yeasty-beasties in warm water with 2 tbsp brown sugar.
No big deal as it all gets fermented out anyway.

I cut my AP flour 20% with buckwheat (Fagopyrum sp) flour for pancakes, leavening is baking powder.
There's still plenty of gluten to make the pancakes hang together.
Beats the Hello out of cereal.
 

Janne

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Feb 10, 2016
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I like the thin Crepes. We call them pannkakor in Scandinavia.
Unleavened.

I am a pig. I love mine with Nutella. Or Demerara sugar and lots of Cinnamon.
Sour Cherry jam is OK too.
Set honey if I want to be extra healthy.

Sweet tooth? Me? Noooooooo.........
:)
 

gonzo_the_great

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Nov 17, 2014
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Poole, Dorset. UK
Back to the porridge from the start of this thread (I've only just read it....)

One of the things that did work well when trying freezer bag cooking, was porridge. Made from oart, non of this instant freeze dried muck.
Oats, powdered milk, some raisins and sugar. Measured to take one full cup which I use for boiling water in.
It does take a bit of experimenting as the milk powder and rasins take some of the water content. So you need slightly less than the usual ratio of oats that you would usually use.
A good rolling boil, damn good shake up and 20mins in the cosy and a fleece.
Proper porridge too hot to eat. And zero mess if you eat from the bag wrapped over the cosy.


I'm now going to make up some porridge and put it in the fridge to try slicing.....
 

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