Flavor of bread: is it the down to the farmer?
As a bread baker, it is always important to me to get the best flavor that I can in my loaves. I came across this interesting article discussing how the harvest of the grain can have a large impact on the flavor of flours and subsequently baked goods in general. Although it focuses on a very narrow subset of grains, i.e., spelt used for Passover matzo, the general insights are applicable to everyone who bakes. What this chef suggests is that some common modern farming methods, such as harvesting the grain before it is naturally ripe and mechanically drying it to desired moisture levels, can have a profound effect on its flavor.
How does the farmer who supplies your miller treat their harvest? I don't know, but I would certainly like to.
-Brad
almost all, the great and vast majority, grains grown in the world do not follow organic and rabbinic rules. The idea that other farmers are somehow growing an inferior grain is mainly a pure marketing myth based on emotion and religion. Modern grain production and storage is a well known and defined science. Grain farmers use technology and machines that control their crop outcomes to exact specifications by just a few acres in one field. They monitor and know exactly when and how much to water, fertilize and apply weed and pest inhibitors. They know the health and moisture content of their grain at all times and know exactly when to harvest depending on what moisture content they are looking for and what on and off site drying, air and or heat, is in place to properly store the grain at exactly the moisture content they are needing depending on what part of the world they are in and the local storge climate and time of year. Grain storage itself is a science and very sophisticated with air and heat drying aerators, augers to move grain up and down in the storage, continuous temperature, humidity and moisture sensors, pest and fungal inhibitors etc.
The idea the farmers are somehow producing an inferior product that the OP infers is total nonsense, but a case could just as easily be made on the science alone that the opposite is true which would also not quite be true as well. Farmers and grain storage operators know exactly what to do and how to do it all the time. The grain is tested all the time, at every level from farm to table. We know exactly what the quality of the grain is at every stage and why it may have been damaged. No one buys damaged grain or grain with pests and molds. There is no need or reason to do so with an abundance of grains that are perfectly fine in every way..
Still, there is a market for organic and rabbinic grains for those who think they are better for all kinds of reasons they might have like fungicides and pesticides and man made fertilizers not being used or religious rules. But the idea that they taste better or have a higher nutritional value is a myth that some writers emotionally dream and write about.
http://www.usask.ca/agriculture/plantsci/winter_cereals/winter-wheat-production-manual/chapter-23.php
http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/id/id125/10.pdf
Hi DBM,
The article is written by a chef, and it is not unreasonable to infer that his palate is highly trained, certainly more than mine. The big picture that I take away is that he *tastes* a difference and considers it an improvement (it is an opinion piece, you will have noticed). I am not suggesting anything about science or religion, and I didn't read that in the article. I simply would like to compare grains harvested in this - uneconomical, to be sure - manner to what is available to me now and be able to come to my own conclusion about the flavor.
-Brad
I wonder if the strawberries that taste like a wet kleenex are produced by similarly superior modern scientific agricultural methods? Personally I do believe there is something to letting crops grow the way they where traditionally, today more importance seems to be payed to yield rather than quality of the crop.
Just my opinion
Gerhard
prefer color and keeping qualities more than they do flavor. The most famous mistake was the the decision made by red delicious apple farmers in the Yakima Valley. Their apples were great tasting but they bruised and spoiled easily so they planted a variety of RD apples that looked and kept great but tasted like crap, Next thing you know no one wants to buy and eat these great looking apples - they couldn't even give then away Now they are tearing out all the trees again and planting the good tasting ones they had in the first place.
I'm guessing that no strawberries you buy in the store that were picked near green will ever taste as good as vine ripened ones you pick and eat immediately in the field or you grow at home. Just not the same thing regardless of variety. I will never forget the first time I went fishing at Hatchet Lake in Northern Saskatchewan 7 miles south of the arctic circle.
The bears were everywhere but what was weird was that their scat was purple. I asked the Cree Indian guide why the scat was purple and he said, because of the blue blueberries. I said I don't see any and he said I had been walking all over them since I got there. Sure enough, the plants were about 2-4 inches high and the berries were small but they were the best blueberries I have ever had and there were trillions of them. There were thousands and thousands of square miles of the best blueberries ever, covering the entire ground up there like a carpet - never ever seen anything like it. I told him because of the blueberries, the spectacular hunting and fishing that he lived in paradise and he said you got that right white man - except for the price of liquor was very high and it was very, very cold for 7 months of the year!
Modern agriculture is focused on producing a large amount of passable food for the lowest price. This is fine if the goal is to supply a lot of calories to the maximum number of people. Those of us that have the luxury of exploring food for enjoyment rather than sustenance are quite lucky indeed.
-Brad
I liked the article. Thanks for posting it.
I've experienced up and downs with various suppliers of flour. The finished bread finished beautifully - the taste was completely off. The price was right but the final product failed the taste test - I ended up giving the flour away.
I think it was Daniel Leader in one of his books related a story of his visits to grain farming suppliers where it was pointed out to him the difference between two different fields. The field grown under organic controls was full of birds, bees and other assorted bugs - in other words it was alive. The field grown under modern chemically assisted controls was devoid of life. This stuck with me.
I've remained with one supplier of organic flour now for about ten years - I've noticed slight differences over time but the taste has always come through. One thought on this that came out of the matzo story is the attention to detail in the growing of the grain and the harvest. I've noticed those that are "all in" the business of producing the very best flour can be depended upon as a reliable source for our most important raw product - flour. These ancient bonds between grower, miller and baker have survived through the centuries and remain so to this day. That unto itself is interesting...,
Wild-Yeast
the bread that i make on a weekly bases is made from two flours, one is milled by a heritage wheat expert who grows it himself, the second flour is from a local bakery who mill their own flour and have specific wheat varieties grown for them. so, although i have no control over what happens to the wheat before i get it i know that i can trust those before me in the supply chain.
and i have noticed that the bread i make with those flours knocks the socks of any of the bigger stoneground organic milling companies, because by scaling up they loose control of who they can buy grain from.
as a side note, I too am a professional chef so these are things that i take seriously, and Dan Barbour is a real insperation