November 19, 2011 - 10:25am
Bad Wheat
I’ve been buying hard red spring wheat kernels
from a bulk bin at my local Safeway grocery for several years. The bin is tagged Bob’s Red Mill. After getting my latest purchase home, I
noticed that the kernels were smaller than usual. They also had a faint, unusual odor like a
feed store. Another person thought they
smelled faintly like coffee. I milled
the kernels and made dough. The dough
had plenty of gluten and rose normally during fermentation. However, the resulting bread had no oven
spring. What little flavor it had seemed
off.
If this wheat had been the first I’d
ever bought, I would have stopped bread-making.
Has anyone had a similar experience?