SC - RE:oop/non dairy milk

[Christi Redeker]

Seton1355 at aol.com wrote:
> 
> Let me comment on parts of this letter:
> 
> << On the other hand, the chemical makeup of a modern attempt at period
> cameline made with matzoh should be practically identical to one made with
> crumbs from leavened
> bread. >>
> 
> Not so.  Mundanely, I have cooked extensivly using motzoh meal (pulverized
> matzoh) in place of regular bread crumbs.  In every case, the motzoh meal dish
> came out heavier tasting than the bread crumb version.  I believe it has to do
> with the levening used in regular bread crumbs, vs matzoh/matzoh meal, which
> would be made without levening. Levening puts air/volume into a food item &
> helps make it lighter, not so dense.

Except, of course, that grinding both matzoh and leavened bread into
fine meal effectively negates differences in aeration. Yes, matzoh and
leavened bread have great structural differences, but the chemical
differences would consist of more CO2 and trace alcohol in the leavened
bread, and the B vitamins in different proportions. Chemically, the
difference is minimal, as I said. There may be some structural
differences, aeration being one of them, but that only means that
different ingredients need to be used differently. Stale bread ground to
a powder doesn't have significantly more air in it than matzoh ground
similarly; in both cases the majority of the air in a sample of either
will be between and around the grains, not inside them.

Another consideration is that the structural differences between
leavened bread and matzoh suggest they need to be used and cooked
differently. I have successfully substituted matzoh as a thickener
without any heaviness, but have found that presoaking the matzoh is
helpful, and it usually takes about 25% longer to cook out of its
bready, raw taste and graininess, and the difference probably has more
to do with the type of flour used than with whether it's leavened. 

Adamantius
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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