[Sca-cooks] malt

[Terry Decker]

The leavening agents primarily used were ale barm (liqour from the active 
ferment on the top of the ale pot) and starter.  Malt was definitely not 
used as a leaven.  It can be used to feed a leaven or as a sweetner 
depending on the quantity used.  The earliest recipe I've encountered to add 
malt to dough is in Markham's The English Housewife which is just out of 
period and would place the practice in Elizabethean times.

I've used both malt extract syrup and powdered diamalt in bread.  I prefer 
the syrup for sweetening and the powder for boosting the fermentation.

Bear


> Actually I was asking whether the b-malt was used as a leavening agent
> instead of sugar.
>
> Lyse
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Bear, I think Lyse meant using the barley malt as a sweetener. You are
> talking about ale barm as a leavening agent, right? Not as a sweetener.
>
> I do have this tiny file on malt, but I don't remember it saying
> anything about using malt as a sweetener.
> malt-msg (12K) 12/29/99 Period use of malted grain. Modern
> sources.
> http://www.florilegium.org/files/PLANTS/malt-msg.html
>
> Stefan