by Tom Stobart
Many people today, brought up on the sliced, wrapped product, have never tasted an old-fashioned baker’s loaf. Those who have may consider that modern technology has not made better bread, but worse. The craft sector of the bakery trade in Britain now represents only about a quarter of the total, since many small bakers have been forced out of business. For this reason, those who like decent bread may have to make it themselves.
Part of the attraction of commercial, wrapped bread is its long shelf life. lt can hang about in the shop for days, so there is less waste, and it is now baked in such a way as to have a soft crust, which allows it to be sliced easily at the factory. Such bread is even gaining ground in France, Italy and Spain. Bread is sometimes sold part-baked. The dough has been baked to set it and to make a very pale, soft crust. The baking is then finished in the home. Such bread is very popular in the US and is becoming so elsewhere.
Toast is sliced bread held in radiant heat until brown caramel and dextrins are formed on the surface. Toasting destroys some of the B vitamin, thiamine, and toast is no more slimming than the same quantity of untoasted bread. Packaged toast is usually made from bread containing a slightly higher proportion of sugar, and may be browned right through.
Baked bread keeps well when frozen, especially if it has a soft crust. Hard crusts are likely to separate from loaves which have been kept frozen for more than a few weeks. To minimize staling, which occurs fastest at temperatures just above freezing point, freeze and thaw bread as quickly as possible.
With home-baked bread, faults may occur, but these are usually easily corrected. Bread which has not been baked long enough will have a doughy, sticky consistency. If it has not proved (i.e. risen) thoroughly, it will have very small holes, and if it has proved too long, it may have developed a gas pocket between the crust and the loaf. If it is not kneaded properly, it may have lumps of dry flour in it, a streaky crumb and over-sized air holes.
There are a bewildering number of breads, many of which show national and local variations. In addition, there are baked products which are difficult to categorize as breads, pastries or cakes. What, for instance, are those specialities made with currants, from the Welsh bara brith to the Italian panettone? Do we consider croissants as bread rolls? And what about the Spanish ensaimadas? Brioches and Gugelhupfen are other doubtful cases. Almond breads, fig breads and spiced breads are not bread in the usual sense. And unleavened mixtures, such as chapatties, are also not considered to be bread. Scandinavian rye breads, such as knakkebrød, verge on biscuits. The following are some basic categories of bread.
Wholewheat bread, wholemeal bread, Graham bread, pain integral, and pan negro should be made from the whole, ground wheat kernel, including the germ and the bran, with nothing else except yeast, salt, and a little fat and sugar added. This is the ideal bread of the health-food enthusiast and for those who like the flavour of the whole grain. It contains fibrous bran as well as more vitamins and mineral elements than white bread. It also contains more of the organic phosphorus compound, phytic acid, which may reduce the absorption of calcium, iron and zinc (although it is partly broken down by the action of enzymes during the fermentation of the dough). Tests carried out with children did not show that wholewheat bread was superior to white in terms of the growth of the children studied.
Brown bread is intermediate between whole-wheat and white breads, since it contains some wheat bran, with the germ extracted. It is made with brown flour containing some bran and may also contain caramel. There are also brown breads with added wheat germ which has had its enzymes inactivated by heat so that it will keep. There is probably little or no dietary advantage in eating brown bread instead of white.
Granary bread is made with a proprietary meal containing malted flour and pieces of whole cereal or coarsely-ground flour. It may have a fake, rough, country-baked appearance but is not the same as wholewheat bread.
White bread is made from white flour which contains little bran and germ. lt is significant that throughout history, when people could afford it, they have always preferred bread made from low extraction (white) flour. Unless it is fortified, this is much less rich in B vitamins and minerals, such as iron, than wholewheat flour. In some countries (including Britain), Vitamin B, and nicotinic acid are added as supplements, together with iron and calcium compounds.
Rye bread. Rye flour by itself makes very heavy bread (it does not have the coherence as dough to aerate properly – the dough tends to crack) and is usually mixed with wheat flour. The original rye bread, popular in Scandinavia, Germany and through into Russia, was made by a sour-dough process, which helped to give it a special flavour. Unfortunately, the magnificent rye bread which was available before World War II has largely disappeared, and some modern rye breads contain only a small quantity of rye and are soured by added acid.
Soda bread is leavened with bicarbonate of soda or baking powder. The alkali destroys some of the vitamin value, but the bread can be made quickly, and some like the taste.
Diet bread and starch-reduced bread. The latter are made by various means to have a much higher percentage of protein than normal bread. They may be made by adding high-protein soya flour or extra gluten to the flour or by removing some of the starch from the flour. Ordinary bread contains 12–13% protein, gluten bread 16%, high-protein bread 22%, and extra-high-protein or starch-reduced bread around 50% (all of these figures being expressed on a dry basis).As the percentage of protein is increased, the percentage of starch becomes less. Other diet breads depend on extra aeration of the loaf. Each slice therefore weighs less than a slice of ordinary bread, although weight for weight the energy value would be the same.
Bread in cooking is a very versatile ingredient. It was used as a thickener for sauces in medieval recipes. According to Jane Grigson in her English Food (Penguin), it was needed because the sauces had to be solid enough to stay on the bread trenchers that served as plates. Achieving the same thickness with flour would have turned the sauces to glue. Today, it gives flavour as well as texture to bread sauce and thickens soups such as gazpacho. Slices of bread or croûtons give the eater something to get a purchase on in the very thin broths of garlic soups and French onion soup.
*Crumbs or croûtons on top of casseroles or gratins absorb the juices, butter and oil from the ingredients below and form a crust. If the recipe includes herbs, these can be mixed with the breadcrumbs to make the crust even better, while the herbs still give their flavour to the rest of the dish.
Bread is often the main ingredient in stuffings and is added to oily ingredients, such as the roe in taramasalata, to lighten the texture. lt is also called for in many meat loaf recipes and in some for items described (presumably on grounds of shape) as hamburgers – in such recipes, the bread is often meant to stretch the meat and make it go further, if the bread is used to excess and underseasoned, the intention will be only too obvious.
Bread can also become a container, as when a large brioche is hollowed out and filled with pâté, or when rectangles of bread dipped in melted butter line a tin which is then filled with thickened, spiced apple purée – baked, the result is Apple Charlotte. Bread is a main ingredient in summer pudding and, in winter, in steamed puddings (including Christmas pudding) and in baked bread and butter pudding. Breadcrumbs appear in cake recipes, notably from North Africa, often in combination with ground nuts. The cakes are moist, pudding-like and delicious.
[Bread – French: pain German: Brot Italian: pane Spanish: pan.
Brown bread – French: pain noir German: Weizenbrot Italian: pane scuro Spanish: pan moreno.
Rye bread – French: pain de seigle German: Roggenbrot Italian: pane de segala Spanish: pan de centeno.
White bread – French: pain blanc German: Weissbrot Italian: pane bianco Spanish: pan bianco]
BREADCRUMBS. See crumbs.
BREADFRUIT. Related to the *jack fruit, this belongs to the same family as mulberries and figs. The fruits are borne on a large tropical tree (Artocarpus communi
s) and are yellow-brown when ripe. The average size is about that of a small soccer ball, but there are over a hundred varieties, which vary a great deal. The original home of the breadfruit is South East Asia and the Pacific, where it is the staple starchy food. It was introduced to other countries (among others by Captain Bligh of the Bounty), but has not achieved equal importance elsewhere.
Breadfruit are easy to cultivate. Once established (after 8 years), they yield 700-800 fruits annually over most of the year. These can be baked, roasted, boiled, sliced and fried, ground to a paste, dried into a sort of flour, stored and baked into bread. Some varieties have seeds, which are also edible. Canned breadfruit can be bought in Britain. The breadfruit seems to make possible that fortunate state of complete idleness for which many have longed.
[Breadfruit – French: fruit de l’arbre à pain German: Frucht des Brotbaumes Italian: frutto del albero del pane Spanish: fruta del árbol del pan]
BREAM is a name given to several quite distinct types of fish. The freshwater bream (Abramis brama), a handsome fish of little gastronomic value, is related to the carp, while the marine Ray’s bream (Brama brama) belongs to quite a different family. Fishmongers used sometimes to sell the very ordinary redfish (Sebastes marinus) and Norway haddock (Sebastes viviparus) – both scorpion fish related to the rascasse which is an important item in bouillabaisse – as Red bream, which it is not.
The bream of real gastronomic importance belong to yet another family, the Sparidae, which are mostly warm water fish, plentiful in the Mediterranean but with a single member that is common around northern Europe, the genuine Red bream (PagelIus centrodontus). Over a dozen species of sea bream live off the coast of the US, where they are known as porgy. Sea bream is one of the most popular fish in Japan, raw in sashimi or cooked by grilling or poaching. The species there is Chrysophrys major, which is closely related to the Gilthead bream, the French daurade (Chrysophrys aurata), probably the best of the breams found in European waters. The Black bream or Old wife (Spondiliosoma cantharus), which is caught in the Mediterranean and around British coasts as far north as the Tyne, also makes good eating. Among my own favourites in this group is the dentex (Dentex dentex), not a British fish but one which will be known to package-holiday customers under its Spanish name, dentón.
Most of the fish labelled as bream are stocky-looking fish with Roman noses and one long fin right down the back. As they usually live on shellfish, they have grinding teeth rather than the sharp teeth of hunting fish. Bream are not generally large fish, but the biggest, such as the dentex, can reach 1 m (39 in) long and weigh 30 kg (66 lb). Recipes will be found in Jane Grigson’s Fish Book (Penguin), and the species are clearly differentiated and illustrated in Alan Davidson’s North Atlantic Seafood (Penguin) and Mediterranean Seafood (Penguin), essential books for everyone interested in cooking fish. In general, though, Sea bream can be baked or grilled for excellent results.
[Gilthead bream – French: daurade Italian: orata Spanish: dorada
Red bream – French: daurade commune German: nordische Meerbrassen Italian: occhialone Spanish: besugo.
Black bream – French: griset, brème (des rochers) German: Seekarpfen Italian: tanuta Spanish: chopa.
Ray’s bream – French: brème de mer. German: Brachsenmakrele Italian: pesce castagna Spanish: palometa, japuta]
BRESAOLA. Dried beef fillet or other tender lean cuts, matured for about 2 months to a dark red colour, it is somewhat similar to *Bundnerfleisch and a speciality of the Valtellina in the Italian Alps. Bresaola is usually served finely sliced and seasoned with olive oil (as it is costly, it deserves the best), a little lemon juice and freshly-milled black pepper. It is better if left to marinate for half an hour before serving as an appetizer with drinks.
BREWING. The brewing of ale has prehistoric origins. It would not have been a difficult discovery; if pounded grain is mixed with water and allowed to stand for a time in warm weather, it ferments and produces alcohol. Even animals sometimes get drunk from eating fruit which has fermented naturally, so we may conclude that alcoholic beverages of some sort were inevitable. Primitive ales do not taste nice to sophisticated palates, but still have their effect. Chang (rice beer) from Nepal, Kaffir beer or Zulu beer (made with maize and millet) from Africa, and no doubt other brews which I have not personally suffered, taste like sour, watery porridge, but can be much improved if flavoured with herbs and clarified. Even the ancient Egyptians knew a bit about brewing. They used herbs and even, some claim, hops, which would bring their brew close to *beer.
Modern beer is brewed by fermenting a hopflavoured *wort with a suitable strain of *yeast. In home-brewing, beer may be made from malt extract (powder or syrup) or directly from *malt by mashing, a process that is rather difficult to manage at home. Canned, concentrated, ready-to-use worts can also be bought, and they are simply diluted with a specified amount of warm water, and put – with yeast – to ferment.
The type of ale or beer brewed depends on the type of malt, the quantity of sugar (maltose, sucrose, glucose), the quantity and quality of *hops, the strain of yeast and whether top or bottom fermentation is used, as well as on physical conditions such as temperature. There are now many excellent books on home-brewing. Recommended is W.H.T. Tayleur’s Penguin Book of Home-Brewing and Winemaking.
Beer spends, on average, 5 days fermenting, though lager takes much longer, and for British beers, modern conical fermenters which are used commercially enable the job to be done in 2-3 days, a fact liked by the brewers, but possibly less so by consumers. As fermentation declines, the yeast tends to fall to the bottom of the vessel, a process speeded up by cooling until only a small amount is left in suspension. The newly-brewed beer is generally called green beer. This can be, and once was, put straight into casks, matured for a few days, then sent to the pub. Today, the beer is put into conditioning tanks. The rising bubbles of carbon dioxide from the fermentation, which is still continuing slowly, carry away some of the strongly flavoured substances which are responsible for harshness in green beer. Most of the yeast can be removed by *fining. Once, finings (isinglass) were added to casks in pub cellars. Sometimes sugar syrup is added to promote a natural sparkle by secondary fermentation.
The best draught beer comes from casks kept in the bar, but this may be impossible, because of space limitations or an unsuitable temperature, in which case the beer has to be drawn up from the cellars, most often by pumping through pipes. The ideal storage temperature for British beer is 14°C (57°F)
Bottled beers are almost always filtered, pasteurized and gassed, although a few aristocrats are bottled in their natural condition with yeast still living in the bottles. They contain some sediment, so need careful pouring – like wine. The dregs should be left in the bottle.
Canned beers, essentially similar to bottled ones, have become increasingly popular for their convenience, although they are often over-gassed and of poor flavour.
Keg beers have been filtered and usually pasteurized. They are flat, clear and free of yeasts capable of initiating a secondary fermentation. It is gassed in stainless steel containers at the brewery, and is effectively bottled in a large metal bottle. Keg beer is served from taps in the bar (forced out by the pressure) and is often very fizzy. Pubs with a large sale may have the same sterile beer delivered by tanker into cellar tanks. The beer is gassed with cylinders of carbon dioxide. Again, top pressure forces the beer up to the bar, but it is not quite as gassy as beer gassed at the brewery.
[Brewing – French: brasser German: brauen Italian: fare Ia birra Spanish: bracear de cerveza]
BRILL. See flatfish.
BRINE. Brines of salt dissolved in water are used for curing meat (ham, bacon, tongue, beef and even sausages) and fish (the brine is formed from water extracted from the fish after dry-salting), and for holding vegetables and fruits from times of glut until it is possible to turn them into pickles or otherwise process them.
For all practical purposes, bacteria cease to function in 2
5% salt solutions, and most spoilage organisms give up even in a 10% solution. Some, however, are exceedingly sensitive to salt and a few are salt lovers. Practical methods of using brines for preservation have been developed over the centuries by simple trial and error.
Cleanliness. Sterility is not essential, and may be actually detrimental to the working of a cure, but all crocks, tubs, and utensils should be very clean and well rinsed before they are used for brining.
Boiling. Brines are boiled to help dissolve the salt, to extract the flavour from the spice-bag and to reduce the number of micro-organisms. Some vegetables are put into brine when it is boiling, but usually (always for meat) brine should be cooled till it is stone cold before it is used.
Storage temperature can be critical, because a brine strong enough to preserve in cool conditions may not work in warm ones. Recipes for preserving vegetables through a north German winter will probably be wrong if they are tried without adaptation in a Mediterranean summer.
Scum. Various air-loving organisms form a scum on top of the brine tub. Though not harmful themselves, they should be skimmed off regularly as they create musty flavours when they die and decompose.
Immersion. Whatever is to be preserved in brine must be kept well below the surface. Otherwise, spoilage of the whole tub is certain. A slate, a board weighted by a stone, or even a plastic bag or box filled with salt and sealed will serve the purpose.
Injection brines. In modern curing, the brine for hams and other large pieces of meat is usually injected, like embalming fluid, with a syringe plugged into the arteries (not veins, which have valves to prevent reverse flow). Brines for this purpose can be weaker. The results are quick and certain but there is not the same development of flavour.
Basting with brine is a technique halfway between immersion and dry salting; it is useful for home curing where space is limited. Such brines are strongly acidified with vinegar and do not give delicate cures.