Posted on 08/29/2020 10:30:55 AM PDT by Oshkalaboomboom
Around 2000 B.C., a baker in the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes captured yeast from the air and kneaded it into a triangle of dough. Once baked, the bread was buried in a dedication ceremony beneath the temple of Pharaoh Mentuhotep II on the west bank of the Nile.
There the yeast slept like a microbial mummy for four millennia, until 2019. Thats when Seamus Blackleya physicist and game designer best known for creating the Xboxsuctioned it up with a syringe and revived it in a sourdough starter.
Blackley, an amateur Egyptologist, often thinks about this ancient baker as he attempts to re-create the bread of 2000 B.C. Im trying to learn from you, my friend, he tweeted, as if speaking across time to the baker. Your voice will never be silent
May you have life, forever.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
... And God speaks of it as sin
2700 year old beer recipe brewed today:
https://www.dogfish.com/brewery/beer/midas-touch
One girl who worked in the bakery at SuperOne made such lovely sourdough/herbed rye and pumpernickel I asked her if she was married ;)
I bake bread a few times a week. It has me curious.
I use Elkhorn flour, from ancient grains. Im not sure why but its good.
Marbeled rye
Dunk that stale bread in egg and milk and make french toast
“One girl who worked in the bakery at SuperOne made such lovely sourdough/herbed rye and pumpernickel I asked her if she was married ;)”
Maybe she’s looking for a man with lots of dough.
I crack me up.
Do you mean Einkorn?
The title suggest research into “what ancient bread tasted like.” Other than tangential theories about using a spice (roasted coriander) and various animal fats to prevent sticking to the clay pot, I’m really no closer to knowing what ancient bread ‘tasted like’. I’m sure that the ancient yeast didn’t really do much for the bread’s flavor as it’s only a leavening agent.
After people started gorging themselves on bread and other carbohydrates, diabetes raised its ugly head and other diseases were introduced.
“They have also managed to revive yeast from King Tuts tomb. That stuff is indestructible.”
So they have the secret for the production of Twinkies?
nyuk nyuk nyuk :)
Here you go Oshk!
They probably used this kind of wheat.
“KAMUT® brand khorasan wheat is an ancient grain, guaranteed under the KAMUT® brand, to never be hybridized or genetically modified, always organically grown, and is prized for its nutrition, ease of digestibility, sweet nutty-buttery taste and firm texture. It is an excellent source of protein, fiber, and many vitamins and is high in minerals including selenium....”Snip
...”The story of KAMUT® brand khorasan wheat began in 1949, when Earl Dedman, a US Airman stationed in Portugal, received some unusual looking grain from a man who claimed to have taken it from a tomb in Egypt. More likely, the man purchased it from a street vendor in Cairo, Egypt with the story that it had come from an ancient Egyptian tomb. Earl sent 36 kernels of the wheat to his father, Rube Dedman, a farmer near Fort Benton, Montana, USA. Within six years, the elder Dedman had grown the small number of seeds into 1,500 bushels, calling it King Tut wheat....” snip
More at link.
It does have a very different taste..
https://www.kamut.com/en/recipe/salads
I think he was speaking (tweeting?) metaphorically, waxing poetic, as it were. My clue was the phrase ‘as if’.
Yup. That too. :-D
I read an article about Twinkies a long time ago. That cream filling was actually food grade plaster. Very appetizing.
It’s kind of true, though.
Like hunting, baking kind of connects you to the ancient past.
I have sourdough proofing right now. Tomorrow I am making bagels.
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