Author Topic: Spelt & other ancient grains  (Read 4287 times)

Offline Sir Charles deMouton-Black

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Spelt & other ancient grains
« on: September 09, 2008, 11:24:06 AM »
My son & I are interested in Byzantine history.  In reading some of his references I came accross mention of hardtack, or "twice baked bread".  It was called "paximata" in Greek in those days.  It seems that hardtack has been a soldiers basic ration for a millenia, at least. Probably much longer than that.  An interesting variation added dried fruit and meat. 

A marginal note to an ancient book on seige warfare described another compound ration made with sesame, honey, oil, and ground almonds. The oil & honey was brought to a boil, then the ground almonds and sesame added and simmered & stirred until it thickened.  It was divided into balls & dried.

There was mention that grains in those days had enough food value to provide a satisfactory diet for several months, if other resourses were not available, like meat on the hoof or locally available produce.  Elsewhere it noted the obvious, that yields were less than nowadays.  Also, stone grinding of flour left the state of dental health in very poor shape!

It seems that crop improvement stressed high yields to the detriment of quality. 

My son mentioned "spelt", as an ancient grain that had much better food value.  Mister Google provided this link;

http://www.spelt.com/

Has anyone any other information on the use of these old varieties?  It seems that recreating the past might be a lot of fun, and tasty as well!  In the near future, I will try some hardtack recipes.
NCOWS #1154, SCORRS, STORM, BROW, 1860 Henry, Dirty Rat 502, CHINOOK COUNTRY
THE SUBLYME & HOLY ORDER OF THE SOOT (SHOTS)
Those who are no longer ignorant of History may relive it,
without the Blood, Sweat, and Tears.
With apologies to George Santayana & W. S. Churchill

"As Mark Twain once put it, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”

Offline Delmonico

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Re: Spelt & other ancient grains
« Reply #1 on: September 09, 2008, 05:15:51 PM »
My son & I are interested in Byzantine history.  In reading some of his references I came accross mention of hardtack, or "twice baked bread".  It was called "paximata" in Greek in those days.  It seems that hardtack has been a soldiers basic ration for a millenia, at least. Probably much longer than that.  An interesting variation added dried fruit and meat. 

A marginal note to an ancient book on seige warfare described another compound ration made with sesame, honey, oil, and ground almonds. The oil & honey was brought to a boil, then the ground almonds and sesame added and simmered & stirred until it thickened.  It was divided into balls & dried.

There was mention that grains in those days had enough food value to provide a satisfactory diet for several months, if other resourses were not available, like meat on the hoof or locally available produce.  Elsewhere it noted the obvious, that yields were less than nowadays.  Also, stone grinding of flour left the state of dental health in very poor shape!

It seems that crop improvement stressed high yields to the detriment of quality. 

My son mentioned "spelt", as an ancient grain that had much better food value.  Mister Google provided this link;

http://www.spelt.com/

Has anyone any other information on the use of these old varieties?  It seems that recreating the past might be a lot of fun, and tasty as well!  In the near future, I will try some hardtack recipes.

I know a bit about some of those ancient grains but never reseached to far, only the ones used in the 19th century around NA.
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Offline Athena Jake

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Re: Spelt & other ancient grains
« Reply #2 on: September 10, 2008, 12:26:03 AM »
Ancient grains! Yeah!

I have a whole wheat recipe for bread that is starter, whole wheat, spelt, water and salt.
It is fairly lengthy, so I did not post it here.  Essentially a pretty old French farm recipe.
Whole wheat I get from my local "Great Harvest" Store since they grind about daily.  It is the freshest I can get a hold of.

Other than the more common, Rye, Oats and barley as well as buckwheat and millet.

Different wheat:
Einkorn, emmer, club wheat (basically what we use today), spelt and durum
And blends of wheat and rye called Maslin

In the new world, of course there is Maize and Quinoa, which is also very full of nutrition.

Biscuits date back to ancient Roman and Greek days.
The word comes from "bis coctus," twice baked.  The Romans called it "panis nauticus."   

A little scatter brained, but it is a start.
In my other life I dabble in medieval baking.
Athena Jake Elder
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Re: Spelt & other ancient grains
« Reply #3 on: Today at 05:18:43 AM »

Offline Sir Charles deMouton-Black

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Re: Spelt & other ancient grains
« Reply #3 on: July 29, 2010, 08:21:53 PM »
Here is a link to an "Artisan bakery" near where I live.  They mention RED FIFE wheat as the foundation of the Canadian wheat growing industry. Spelt of course.  I bought 2 kg of organic spelt and have made baking powder biscuits with it.  My first attempt, and I got them a bit crumbly, likely due to too little butter.  I added some bacon fat, but still too little.

They also use KAMUT, the ancient Egyptian ancestor of Durham wheat, or so they say.

http://www.truegrain.ca/
NCOWS #1154, SCORRS, STORM, BROW, 1860 Henry, Dirty Rat 502, CHINOOK COUNTRY
THE SUBLYME & HOLY ORDER OF THE SOOT (SHOTS)
Those who are no longer ignorant of History may relive it,
without the Blood, Sweat, and Tears.
With apologies to George Santayana & W. S. Churchill

"As Mark Twain once put it, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”

Offline Sir Charles deMouton-Black

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Re: Spelt & other ancient grains
« Reply #4 on: September 12, 2010, 09:39:24 PM »
I made some of these spelt biscuits for my neighbour, and she enjoyed them so much she bought some spelt for herself.  The product she found was marketed by BOB'S RED MILL NATURAL FOODS of Milwaukie OR 97222

www.bobsredmill.com

On the package was a muffin recipe;

Ingredients

    * 2-1/4 cups Spelt Flour
    * 1/4 cup Brown Sugar
    * 1 Tbsp. Baking Powder
    * 1/4 tsp. Salt
    * 1-1/4 cups Milk
    * 3 Eggs, beaten
    * 1 Tbsp. Oil

Directions
Preheat oven to 425�F. Grease and flour 12 muffin cups. Combine all dry ingredients, including brown sugar. Beat together the milk, eggs and oil. Mix with dry ingredients just enough to moisten. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake for 17 minutes, or until light brown in color.

*Honey can replace brown sugar. Add to wet ingredients while mixing.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION:
One muffin contains Calories 130, Calories from Fat 30, Total Fat 3.5g, Saturated Fat 0.5g, Cholesterol 55mg, Sodium 250mg, Total Carbohydrate 24g, Dietary Fiber 4g, Sugars 5g, Protein 5g.

A variation printed on the package was to add a 1/2 cup of chopped nuts or dried fruit (or half of each)

Ruth used dried cranberries soaked overnight. She baked them on a cookie sheet and the result was a very moist thick & soft cookie.

 Delicious!
NCOWS #1154, SCORRS, STORM, BROW, 1860 Henry, Dirty Rat 502, CHINOOK COUNTRY
THE SUBLYME & HOLY ORDER OF THE SOOT (SHOTS)
Those who are no longer ignorant of History may relive it,
without the Blood, Sweat, and Tears.
With apologies to George Santayana & W. S. Churchill

"As Mark Twain once put it, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”

 

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