The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Sour Oats?

timbit1985's picture
timbit1985

Sour Oats?

Does anyone know if you can use a sourdough culture to sour oats instead of using  active yoghurt?

 

Cheers! 

Tim 

 

balmagowry's picture
balmagowry

This (i.e. the whole soured-oats phenomenon) was a new one on me, but the question made me curious and I poked around a bit. Sure enough, it seems that rye sourdough culture is exactly the right thing! I also saw anecdotal evidence of souring with lemon juice or vinegar. Dang, I think I need to try this.

clazar123's picture
clazar123

Yeast is pretty ubiquitous-it is everywhere. I have heard of yeast being cultured from hot pepper stems! So why not from oats? Try it and let us know how it goes!

timbit1985's picture
timbit1985

I tried it last night. I used about 10gr of rye sourdough starter, a splash of whey to quickly lower the acidty, 2 cups oats, 2 cups water. Kept it in my temperature controlled fermenter overnight at 93F to really kick off the LAB. Oats nearly overflowed from the container in (they more than doubled in volume). 

 

The resulting oats, cooked with water, salt, and butter were tangy and delicious. My toddler ate 2 plates of oats with grapes, banana, craisins, pumpkin seeds and almonds.

 I fed the oat jar more raw oats and water. I'm going to leave it at room temp until tomorrow's breakfast to see how it goes. I'm glad I tried this. As a warning though, we eat a lot of fermented foods, so we like the sour flavours. This might not be to everyones tastes. It's worth giving it a try though!

 

I mentioned this to my grandpa this morning, and he said he grew up in ireland eating sour oats all his child-hood. Apparently they are easier to digest, and have more minerals and nutrients that are bio-available.  

 

clazar123's picture
clazar123

Fermented foods is not a new phenomena. There is a whole fermented food movement out there now. There are people that culture every bit of food they eat-including ketchup!

Some great sites and interesting reading I've recently done:

http://www.culturesforhealth.com/

http://www.wildfermentation.com/

http://fermentationfest.com/

http://nourishedkitchen.com/fermented-foods-that-kids-love/

http://www.homemademommy.net/2013/12/20-kid-friendly-fermented-foods.html

Have delicious and fermented fun!

 

timbit1985's picture
timbit1985

I've been eating fermented food for years and years! I have a sensitive stomach, and the fermented foods really keep my innards in check.  My favorites being carrots and ultra garlicy dilly pickles, saurkraut, kim chi, and of course saurdough. I also make my own yoghurt, which is much better than what  I can purchase from commercial offerings.  

If you like cultured foods, try the oats. I think I'm going to try keeping a souroat pot for a while. 

bikeprof's picture
bikeprof

I use oat porridge in many breads and I've taken to cooking oats/etc in water and letting them cool, then stirring in a bit of mature starter to ferment overnight along side my levain.

The effect has been wonderful - the oats are fragrant and flavorful going in and also aerated a bit and much easier to incorporate into a dough vs. the more firm gelatinous mass that I otherwise have w/o the fermentation.

 

timbit1985's picture
timbit1985

interesting! Would you mind sharing a formula for fermented oat bread? I'd be down for trying such a thing. Do you ferment them separate from your levain?

bikeprof's picture
bikeprof

I was making Chad's oat porridge bread - or a version of it, as his proportions don't work all that well for me...I use more water (and thus a bit less oats).

And I do ferment the levain separately - combining them is something else to try perhaps

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Recipe!  (clapping hands frantically, pretty please!)  I love oats!  ...and ferment food as well.   I got a lovely bag here, 5 grains all rolled and mixed together.  Hardy looking.  

My first official sourdough starter was made from oats.

timbit1985's picture
timbit1985

2 cups oats, 2 cups water, wad of sourdough starter. Fer!ment overnight, cook in the morning with some more water And butter and salt. Sorry I don't have more specifics. 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

make better use of my rice cooker.   Easy enough.  Thank you and Merry Christmas!  :)

...And top with Maple syrup flakes I imported from Canada.  ...a sprinkle of cinnamon...

timbit1985's picture
timbit1985

2 cups oats, 2 cups water, wad of sourdough starter. Fer!ment overnight, cook in the morning with some more water And butter and salt. Sorry I don't have more specifics. 

timbit1985's picture
timbit1985

2 cups oats, 2 cups water, wad of sourdough starter. Fer!ment overnight, cook in the morning with some more water And butter and salt. Sorry I don't have more specifics. 

timbit1985's picture
timbit1985

2 cups oats, 2 cups water, wad of sourdough starter. Fer!ment overnight, cook in the morning with some more water And butter and salt. Sorry I don't have more specifics. 

timbit1985's picture
timbit1985

I tried rinsing them this morning before cooking. The taste and texture were greatly improved. Give em' a rinse before you cook em'.