SC - malt

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Stefan li Rous wrote:
> 
> Was malt known in period? Perhaps under a different name
> such as sprouted, browned wheat? :-) I think I've seen mention of malt
> in nursery rhymes but those aren't necessarily period. The only place
> I can remember malt is in malted milk. Adamantius' comment makes me
> wonder if it might have been used in late-period brewing but I have
> no idea if it was.

There _are_ some medieval culinary recipes that call for wort
(essentially the malt-infused solution fermented to make ale), as a
cooking medium, the way you might simmer in wine, but I'm not aware of
any use of malt extract by brewers until the early 20th century or so.
Malt, BTW, can be almost any grain, and is generally the predominant
[cheap] grain in a given area, but in our Anglo-centric SCA this
generally refers to barley unless specified otherwise. Also, for the
record, not all malt in period is toasted. It is dried in a sort of
kiln, but in Markham's instructions for malting there's no toasting at
all beyond a brief heating (with lots of attention, turning, etc.) to
stop the plant embryos from continuing to grow and to dry the malt.
Excessive toasting, of course, will limit the diastolic enzyme activity
(well, all right, as long as I'm being jargonistic I'll say zymurgy.
Neener Neener.) Anyway, Markham's early seventeenth-century English malt
is what is today known as "white malt", to distinguish it from pale
malt, which is actually a light brown and tends to produce an amber ale.
Even white malt, still occasionally used in England today, can produce a
pale-ish amber ale. 
 
> What is the differance between "Spray-dried malt extract and powdered
> malt? Is the extract more concentrated? They sure sound similar.

Depends on what you mean by powdered malt. Malt (as in malted barley or
other grain) can certainly be ground to a fine powder, but it's
generally regarded as a Bad Thing for brewing with because it tends to
produce cloudy brews. Spray-dried malt extract is made the same way
powdered milk is, by spraying malt syrup or wort into a freeze-drying
vacuum chamber. Powdered malt extract, made this way, would be the same
thing, but powdered _malt_ could refer to what is essentially used by
bakers to make malted waffles and bread and such: malt flour. Malt
extract is, in theory, pretty much pure maltose, while ground malt
contains proteins, starches, insoluble fiber, etc., in addition to some maltose.

Now, malt extract has been known since the nineteenth century (with the
first of the real experiments into "enriched" foods) as a fairly
healthful food/supplement, and it found its way into a number of foods
as a vaguely medicinal additive. There's a reason why the first places
to serve these milk drinks, including malted milk and the early tonic
diluted with two-cents-plain and known today as Coca-Cola, were
drugstores. I think the modern formula for making Carnation malted milk
mix, with its dried milk and wheat flour, has more to do with making it
rich and thick than with the fact that malt contains a grain element.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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