QUARANTINE BAKE-IN BEGINS! Here are two of the starters I will use tomorrow, both collected in the wild in England last year. One has been trained on Rye, the other on Emmer (Farro). In a minute I’ll show how I use sterile procedures to feed the ANCIENT EGYPTIAN cultures!

The recipe I will be riffing on tomorrow will be this, from a tutorial I put up last year: https://twitter.com/seamusblackley/status/1135281239634485249?s=21 https://twitter.com/SeamusBlackley/status/1135281239634485249

These two starters are made from the cultures I collected last summer in the thread below! As you can see it doesn’t take any fancy recipes or modern things- just patience and a certain kind of mental disorder. https://twitter.com/seamusblackley/status/1140945355992965121?s=21 https://twitter.com/SeamusBlackley/status/1140945355992965121

My usual baking centers around my quest to accurately recreate the bread that fed the builders of the great pyramids in the Egyptian Old Kingdom. https://www.eater.com/2019/8/8/20792134/interview-seamus-blackley-serena-love-richard-bowman-baked-bread-ancient-egyptian-yeast

I’m case you’re so bored that literally anything is interesting, here’s a thread about the collection process. There’s a point to this that I’ll get to next. I promise. https://twitter.com/seamusblackley/status/1155602321918705664?s=21 https://twitter.com/SeamusBlackley/status/1155602321918705664

In order to avoid contaminating the incredibly rare and cool Egyptian research yeast, we feed it STERILE flour. This means we heat the flour until until all the microorganisms in it bake to death. Yes it’s a dick move. To accomplish this we use an autoclave. Kitchen autoclave.

(Also,having an excuse to autoclave things in your kitchen is super excellent)

We a/c some stainless steel utensils, and, under a UV lamp that kills airborne microbes, with sterile gloves, we feed the precious (hopefully) 4500 year old cultures. [we have the pure samples in a real bio lab so while this is important, there’s no danger I’ll lose them here]

Was that anal-retentive enough for you?

Ahem.

So we are ready for tomorrow! Yeast cultures set and 10lbs of Emmer ready to be milled into flour. SEE YOU AT 7am!

Show me your starters!

FYI sourdough crowd- I’ll be making some levains tomorrow first thing - not going to do them overnight as I have three cultures and they all have different timings. So it’s going to be a loooong day!

GOOOD MORNING BAKING BUDDIES! It’s 7:11am here in California and there’s heart-stopping action here as we make THREE levains- Buckinghamshire Emmer, Buckinghamshire Rye, and Egyptian!

#QuarantineBakeIn I’m making three levains for three types of breads- a normal everyday sourdough (100% Emmer) a 100% Rye and an Old Kingdom “BDJ3.” You can see the colors are different, so are the aromas. The Egyptian yeast has a very distinct “nose.” (It’s smelly)

I try not to use plastic stuff- so I cover with plates. (When I go full ancient Egyptian I use only terra cotta or worse.) Now the pulse-pounding action continues as I.... leave these somewhere warm. #QuarantineBakeIn

Let’s see your progress! #QuarantineBakeIn

The action here is intense. Some gas bubbles forming in the Emmer and Egyptian levains. The rye is always slower. #QuarantineBakeIn

Important step- toast up some of the last bake while doing the current bake. Next up I need to mill some flour so get your earplugs out- it’s loud. #QuarantineBakeIn

It’s time to mill some flour! Look it’s future bread! Put in some earplugs ‘cause it’s LOUD... #QuarantineBakeIn

ISN’T THIS GREAT? I MILL A LOT AND EVERYONE HATES ME! HELLO CAN YOU HEAR ME OVER THIS THING? #QuarantineBakeIn

OK milling is mercifully finished. Now we mix to distribute the germ and bran which get separated by momentum in the mill. This is also VERY relaxing.

Flour then goes into a container to await being made into dough in a few minutes. The aroma of the fresh flour, the non-rancid fats and the warmth from the milling is intoxicating. [the container says “emmer” in Heiroglyphs, which is like “bedet.”] #QuarantineBakeIn

We are ready to make dough. I find it incredible that two of these are simply ground grass seeds and air, and the third comes from nearly 5000 year old baking equipment. #QuarantineBakeIn

We know from mass spectrography that Old Kingdom Egyptians our coriander in their bread, and it’s DELICIOUS. I’m roasting some because we will make the Old Kingdom dough first. #QuarantineBakeIn

Here we go! Watch in WONDER and AWE as I UNLEASH BILLIONS OF ANCIENT PHARONIC MICROORGANISMS onto the, uh, water and olive oil.

Adding the coriander, then a wet autolyze for 30 minutes (it’s a technique that helps the ancient, low-gluten grains make fluffy loaves) and then dough! How are you staying awake! Oh yeah captive audience. #QuarantineBakeIn

Now the “normal” 100% Emmer and the Rye. Let’s hope no ergot on the Rye. COVID is enough disease for today. The COLOR and AROMA of the Rye is amazing. @QuarantineBakeIn

One thing I have learned is that much of the difference between a really good loaf and a hockey puck (especially with the primitive grains I seem to irrationally love) is having what I refer to—and this is quite technical—as “bangin’ starter.” Here is what I mean:

FACT: Bread is disgusting without salt. Try not to get overexcited; here are some plates of salt. We will add it next. The thing is, it kills the microorganisms. So you need to let them get a good head start in population before you introduce, basically before you... poison them.

OK adding salt. This is sea salt, which was common in antiquity. The Egyptians may have also used mined salts but I digress. Flour a bowl (whole meal grains are far better nonstick coatings than white flour BTW) and fold your salt in.

Many people seem to be terrified of kneading dough- and rightly so. So for all of you who wisely stick to “no knead” recipes let me open a window into the satanic dystopia of kneaded wholemeal. #QuarantineBakeIn

Whew! Now that we are past that hellish and debilitatingly painful chore, we return to the nonstop excitement of fermentation. #QuarantineBakeIn

Progress update:

Action shot:

Every half hour or so we will now perform a little stretching exercise as so: [this helps with structure and also aerates the yeast; we need aerobic fermentation in this phase] #QuarantineBakeIn

Here’s the latest: #QuarantineBakeIn

Stretching and first fermentation are complete- they’re in bannetons. One huge advantage of these antique whole meal grains is that they are the ultimate non-stick coating. Also note that @The_Macallan can play a pivotal role in quality wholemeal baking. #QuarantineBakeIn

The Egyptian-culture dough will be baked in this conical, unglazed clay. If I’m feeling adventurous it will be outside on coals (accurate) otherwise it will just put in the oven (lazy-ass). To keep the dough from sticking we season the pot with water and fat. #QuarantineBakeIn

Here is how I make my “S” scoring on loaves...

YAY! Big fluffy loaves using cranky antique home milled whole grains and wild yeast! The rye in particular smells tremendous. The Egyptian is still baking! #QuarantineBakeIn

...and a loaf of (oven- sorry) Old Kingdom Egyptian-style bread. That’s a BDJ3 “bedjah” pot soaking for seasoning and a lid with the Hieroglyph on it. THANKS FOR BAKING EVERYONE! LOVE TO YOU ALL! #QuarantineBakeIn