SC - re: meat

[LrdRas@aol.com]

Greetings from Elizabeth,

In the spirit of Maedb's "sharing" posting, I'd like to offer a recipe
for Porridge Rye bread. I made this a couple of weekends ago (and froze
it) and it was the star of my "different kinds of bread" display at
this past weekend's Baroness's Birthday Tourney A&S display. People came
back for second and third helpings of the samples, and as I was packing
up, the remaining heel was begged off of me.

Elizabeth Braidwood, An Tir
donna at kwantlen.bc.ca

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From: The Village Baker - Classic Regional Breads from Europe and America
by Joe Ortiz. (Italics are indicated by dashes around the words.)

- -Pain Bouillie-
Porridge Bread

Whenever you see a French recipe that begins with the instructions "Fair
une Bouillie..." you know you have come across a very old recipe because it
starts off with a mush made by pouring boing water over flour. The mush,
with will ferment slightly overnight, is used the next day mixed into a
bread. The most fascinating recipe I have heard of for -pain bouillie- is one
from the Alpine region of France around the town of Villar-d'Arène. The
- -boullie- is made with dark rye flour and set aside for rest for seven
hours. The porridge is then mixed into a dough, without any yeast, and
allowed to rest for another seven hours. When the dough is finally made
into loaves, they are placed in an an oven that has already been used for
making bread and so the temperature is only about 200F. The loaves bake for
seven hours and the process produces a moist, dense, completely sourdough
bread that lasts well over six months -- or so the story goes. The bread is
traditionally made in November and it keeps best when stored in wine
cellars and hay lofts.

In the following recipe yeast and some white flour are included to make the
procedure a little easier for the contemporary home baker.
[EB: I suspect that in the original recipes, the porridge captured
sufficient wild yeast to take care of the leavening.)

Makes two 14-ounce loaves.

THE -BOUILLIE- (PORRIDGE)
2 teaspoons honey
1 3/4 cups boiling water
1 cup organic rye flour
1 cup organic cracked rye grain   [EB: I substituted rolled oats. Who has
                                  cracked rye on hand?]

THE DOUGH
1 teaspoon active dry yeast       [EB: I used 3/4 - 2/3 cup of my sourdough 
                                  yeast culture and adjusted the amount of
                                  white flour to compensate for the added
                                  liquid.]
3 tablespoons warm water          [EB: omitted.]
All of the -bouillie- from the previous step
2 teaspoons fine sea salt         [EB: I used table salt.]
2 teaspoons caraway seeds         [EB: omitted. I dislike caraway.]
1 tablespoon raisins              [EB: omitted. Without the caraway, the
                                  raisins don't make sense.]
2 cups organic, unbleached white (or all-purpose) flour
                                  [EB: I used Robin Hood unbleached white
                                  -- Canadian all-purpose flour.]

TO MAKE THE -BOUILLIE- (PORRIDGE), dissolve the honey in the boiling water
and pour it over the rye flour and grain in a ceramic bowl. Let the mixture
soak for a few minutes, then stir it with a wooden spoon until the flour is
completely wet. Cover the bowl with a towel and set it aside overnight in a
warm place. [EB: I used my usual proofing place -- the cupboard over the
fridge. Always a toasty 76-80F.]

TO MAKE THE DOUGH, [proof the yeast in 2 tablespoons of warm water.] Place
the -bouillie- in a medium-sized bowl, sprinkle the salt over the porridge
and stir it in. [Crush the caraway seeds in a mortar, add the raisins, and
grind the mixture to a paste. Stir in the remaining tablespoon of water.
Add 2 teaspoons of this caraway flavouring to the -bouillie-.] Gradually add
1 1/2 cups flour, a handful at a time, while mixing with a plastic dough
scraper. Mix in the yeast. Continue adding the rest of the flour by
handfuls until it is all incorporated and you have a medium-firm piece of
dough. Knead the dough on the worktable for between 5 and 8 minutes using a
small additional quantity of white flour if necessary. The dough will be
firm but if you press your fingers into it it will feel sticky.

Return the dough to the bowl, cover it with a moist towel, and place it in
an unlit oven for between 1 1/2 and 2 hours to rise. [EB: my notes say that
my yeast culture took a little longer -- about 2 1/2 hours to doubling
in size.]

When it has doubled in bulk, cut the dough into 2 pieces. Shape the pieces
into flat loaves that are 5 inches square and 2 inches high by flattening
and then folding the edges toward the middle and sealing the joins with the
heel of the hand. Oil one side of each loaf and place them, oiled sides
abutting, side by side in a greased bread pan that measures 9 inches by 5
1/2 inches by 3 inches. [EB: He's making two half-loaves and putting them
in the same pan. I made one loaf.]

Let the dough rise, again covered with a moist towell, in an unlit oven for
30 minutes, until the dough has risen about 1/2 an inch above the top of
the pan. [EB: My rise at this point took a whole hour.]

Give each loaf a straight, 2-inch slash on the top with a razor blade and
brush the tops with a little salad oil. [EB: I slashed, but did not oil.]

Set the oven at 450F and immediately place the loaves inside. Bake the
bread in what is known as a rising oven for 25 minutes. Then reduce the
heat to 400F and bake the loaves for 45 minutes longer. They will be quite
dark.

Remove the loaves from the pan and place them on a cooling rack. When
cooled the bread is best sliced very, very thin.
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Man, talk about a wordy recipe. An experienced baker could pass this to 
another experienced baker in about 1/3 the space.

E.B.
donna at kwantlen.bc.ca


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