Step 1 – Grow some cabbage. Or buy it at the store if you’re a loser. We grew Savoy cabbage, so that’s why it looks a bit different.
	Step 2 – Assemble your materials: cabbage, a large crock or food-grade bucket, sea salt or kosher salt (non-iodized), a plate that fits snuggly inside the crock/bucket and a knife to chop the cabbage with.
	Step 3 – Chop the cabbage and place it in the crock/bucket, sprinkling salt on it in layers so that the salt is evenly distributed throughout the cabbage. Use about 1 tablespoon of salt per head of cabbage.
	Step 4 – Press your plate down onto the top of the cabbage.
	Step 5 – Place something heavy like a gallon jug of water on top of the plate to provide constant downward pressure on the cabbage.
	Step 6 – Put a towel over the whole thing to keep out bad stuff and wait a week for the fermentation to do it’s thing.

After about a week you can start scooping it out and eating it. The pressure and salt cause all of the water to be extracted out of the cabbage. This creates an acidic brine that bad bacteria can’t grow in. Lactic bacteria love it though, and will colonize and ferment your cabbage into sauerkraut. Just make sure you sterilize your utensils and crock before you begin, to minimize bad bacteria growth. And make sure your plate fits really snug inside the crock so that it will minimize air contact. With store bought cabbage, you may have to add some water to the crock to get the brine level up above the plate where it should be. Fresh cabbage from the garden or farmer’s market has more water content.

Gluten is produced through the kneading process. As you knead the dough, the protein in the wheat is converted into gluten, which makes it gooey. It’s this gluten that turns the dough into a balloon so that it traps all the gasses produced by the yeast and helps it rise really well. So, if you don’t have enough protein in your flour or if you don’t knead long enough, you won’t get enough gluten and the bread won’t rise well.

I think this is probably where the notion that ground wheat doesn’t rise well came from. Not enough kneading and/or using the wrong type of wheat. “Hard Red” wheat has the highest protein content with as much as 15% for spring wheat. That’s even higher than bread flour. Hard or soft “White” wheat has a much lower protein content and thus, won’t produce a fluffy sandwich bread without adding extra gluten. So, with all of that said, here is the recipe. I’ve provided links to the various ingredients. Enjoy!

Sandwich Bread Loaf:

Dry Ingredients:

• 3.5 Cups of Ground Hard Red Wheat Flour
• 2 TBSP of Ground Flax Seed
• 1 TBSP of Salt
• 2 TBSP of Soy Lecithin

Wet Ingredients:

• 12 oz. of Warm Water
• 2 TBSP of Olive Oil
• 2 tsp Instant Dry Yeast
• 2 TBSP of Honey

Instructions:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together into the mixer bowl. Don’t add the yeast to the dry ingredients.
2. Now add the dry yeast, oil and honey to the warm water and stir it around with a fork vigorously until all of the honey is dissolved.
3. Now walk away and let the yeast liquid sit and fester for about 15 minutes. The yeast is going to get really active and start to foam up(this is called “proofing” the yeast).
4. Start the mixer on medium speed, using dough hooks, and let the dry ingredients get thoroughly mixed together.
5. Now begin drizzling the yeast liquid mixture into the bowl until the whole thing is mixed in.
6. Knead the dough on medium speed for 15 minutes.
7. Flour the counter top and dump the dough out onto it.
8. Knead the dough by hand for a few minutes just to make sure it’s smooth and not too wet.
9. Now stretch and shape the dough into a ball with the seam at the bottom.
10. Clean and dry out your mixing bowl and then spray it inside with cooking spray or wipe it with oil.
11. Drop your dough ball into the bowl seam side down and shoot it with a light shot of cooking spray also.
12. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a hand towel and let sit for an hour or until it doubles in size.
13. After it doubles, uncover and punch down the dough to get all the air out. Don’t punch it hard, just make sure it’s deflated good.
14. Now turn it out on the floured countertop again and knead it very lightly for about a minute. You just want to work it a little to get it back to a good shape.
15. Now, crisco the inside of a loaf pan. Use plenty of lard/crisco. You don’t want the loaf sticking to the pan. That’s a disaster.
16. Form the dough into a square shape, seam side down, and drop it into the loaf pan.
17. Cover and let sit again until it rises about an inch above the sides of the pan.
18. Mix one egg together with 2 TBSP of cold water in a small bowl. Using a sauce brush, wipe the top of the loaf thoroughly with the egg/water mixture(called an egg wash) so that it’s coated good. You can also crush up some almonds and sprinkle them on top for a nice touch.
19. Lower your oven rack to a little below center and put the pan on the rack.
20. Set the oven to 400° F and set the timer to 30 minutes.
21. When the timer goes off the bread is done. Let it cool on a wire rack for about an hour, then slice and eat.

It’s hard to know, at first, whether a bill like this is a “juicer” bill, a help-my-big-corporate-donor bill or just stupidity. I always lean toward the first until proven otherwise, so that’s going to be my take at the moment. I won’t accept stupidity as an answer unless they prove it to me. What does strike me as humorous though, is all of the outcry in the blogosphere about this bill. People are just simply going crazy about it. But you can tell that they probably could care less about the two thousand other industries that are being just as taxed. People always get up in arms when government comes knocking on their door, but don’t seem to care when he knocks on the neighbor’s.

The justification for the bill goes as follows:

Mr. Obama and Congress increased taxes on tobacco products earlier this year…but tobacco for roll-your-own cigarettes saw a disproportionate leap, from $1.10 to $24.78 per pound.

But tobacco companies quickly adapted. The Associated Press found that as soon as the tax was on the books, companies all but shut down their roll-your-own brands and reinvented them under a less-restricted, less-taxed category: pipe tobacco. It’s still destined to be rolled and smoked, but it’s taxed at barely a tenth the rate, $2.83 per pound.

The tax implications could be huge. As much as $32 million a month could be lost in taxes if the sudden spike in pipe tobacco is just cigarette tobacco in disguise.

–AP

So, the AP estimates that the government is losing $32 million per month on tobacco taxes as a result of pipe tobacco being taxed at the lower rate. This is the “loophole.” But, surely by now we all know that it’s never that easy. Increasing the tax on pipe tobacco up to parity with other tobaccos will decimate that industry, such that the realized tax revenue will be nowhere near $32 million. They’ll be lucky to get half of that. And, everyone involved knows this. If you are thinking something along the lines of “don’t they realize what it will do to X industry?!” Of course they do. Don’t kid yourself by pretending that politicians are ignorant of the consequences of proposed legislation. Don’t be this guy:

“Many times our government passes things without first taking an extra few days to say, ‘What are the unintended consequences?”‘ Altman said. “That’s what happened here.”

–AP

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that government policies are targeted, fully thought out and all of the consequences are intended. I’m not saying that at all. But, specific legislation such as this is always targeted toward producing a particular result. In this case, the most logical intent of the bill is probably the same as it always is: to either put smaller competition out of business or just “juice” the industry for campaign donations. It’s almost always one of those two things.

The bottom line when analyzing a proposed bill that would potentially decimate a certain industry is to make sure you don’t fall into the trap of thinking it’s unintended. No, no. It’s always intentional. Someone is benefiting from it. You just have to find out who.

Beer Bread:

Dry Ingredients:

• 2.5 Cups of Wheat Flour
• 1 Cup of Bread Flour
• 1 TBSP of Salt

Wet Ingredients:

• 12 oz. bottle of warm beer
• 1 oz. of olive oil
• 2 tsp Instant Dry Yeast
• 2 TBSP of Honey

Instructions:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Don’t add the yeast to the dry ingredients.
2. Warm the beer by putting the bottle/can in a bowl of hot water for about 10 minutes. Longer if it came out of the fridge. You want it warm. Not hot, not cold. Warm.
3. Now add the dry yeast, oil and honey to the warm beer and stir it around with a fork vigorously until all of the honey is dissolved.
4. Now walk away and let the yeast liquid sit and fester for about 15 minutes. The yeast is going to get really active and start to party. Don’t crash it.
5. Come back and dump the liquid/yeast mix into the dry ingredients.
6. Get your hands wet with some water and begin to mix. You will get messy, but it’s worth it.
7. When everything is mixed thoroughly, flour the countertop and dump the dough out onto the flour.
8. Knead the dough for 6 minutes until smooth, adding plenty of flour as needed. Don’t skimp.
9. Now stretch and shape the dough into a ball with the seam at the bottom.
10. Clean and dry out your mixing bowl and then spray it inside with cooking spray or wipe it with oil.
11. Drop your dough ball into the bowl seam side down and shoot it with a light shot of cooking spray also.
12. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a hand towel and let sit for an hour until it at least doubles in size.
13. After it doubles, uncover and punch down the dough to get all the air out. Don’t punch it hard, just make sure it’s deflated good.
14. Now turn it out on the floured countertop again and knead it very lightly for about a minute. You just want to work it a little to get it back to a good shape.
15. Now, crisco the inside of a loaf pan. Use plenty of lard/crisco. You don’t want the loaf sticking to the pan. That’s a disaster.
16. Cover and let sit again for about 30 minutes. It will rise quite a bit, but don’t let it get too big where it’s ballooning out over the sides of the pan.
17. Lower your oven rack to a little below center and put the pan on the rack.
18. Set the oven to 400° F and set the timer to 30 minutes.
19. When the timer goes off the bread is done. Let it cool on a wire rack for about an hour.

The Scratch Version:

Dry Ingredients:

• 2 Cups of Wheat Flour
• 1/2 Cup of Bread Flour
• 1 TBSP of Salt
• 2 tsp Cocoa Powder

Wet Ingredients:

• 5 oz. room-temp Whole Milk
• 1 oz. of Vegetable Oil
• 1 TBSP Sugar

Pre-ferment:

• 1 Cup (8 oz.) of Yeast Water
• 1/2 Cup of Milled Wheat Flour
• 1/2 Cup of Bread Flour

Instructions:

1. Mix up your pre-ferment 72 hours before you plan to make your bread using the recipe above. On the day of bread making, move to step 2.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and dump in your pre-ferment dough.
3. Dump the milk and oil into the mix.
4. Get your hands wet with some water and begin to mix. You will get messy, but it’s worth it.
5. When everything is mixed thoroughly, flour the countertop and dump the dough out onto the flour.
6. Knead the dough for 5 minutes until smooth, adding plenty of flour as needed. Don’t skimp.
7. Now stretch and shape the dough into a ball with the seam at the bottom.
8. Clean and dry out your mixing bowl and then spray it inside with cooking spray or wipe it with oil.
9. Drop your dough ball into the bowl seam side down and shoot it with a light shot of cooking spray also.
10. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a hand towel and let sit for a few hours until it at least doubles in size. Give it plenty of time. I’ve even had to leave them overnight before.
11. After it doubles, uncover and punch down the dough to get all the air out. Don’t punch it hard, just make sure it’s deflated good.
12. Now turn it out on the floured countertop again and knead it very lightly for about a minute. You just want to work it a little to get it back to a good shape.
13. Now, crisco the inside of a loaf pan. Use plenty of lard/crisco. You don’t want the loaf sticking to the pan. That’s a disaster.
14. Cover and let sit again for as long as it takes to rise again. You want it to double in size.
15. Lower your oven rack to a little below center and put the pan on the rack.
16. Set the oven to 400° F and set the timer to 30 minutes.
17. When the timer goes off the bread is done. Let it cool on a wire rack for about an hour.

Now, you’ve just made bread totally from scratch. Little House on the Prarie eat your heart out.

Dry Ingredients:

• 1/2 Cup Bread Flour
• 1/2 Cup Wheat Flour

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 Cup (8 oz.) Yeast Water

Directions:

1. Combine flour and yeast water in a medium sized container, something about the size of a pickle jar.  Cover with a clean hand towel and let sit for 48 to 72 hours.  If you can’t use it immediately after the 72 hours is up, just lid it and stick it in the fridge until ready to use.
2. After 24 hours it will start to look like a sponge, with large air holes all in it.  This is the yeast doing it’s magic.

That’s all there is to it. The yeast in our home grown yeast water will take over and begin to grow and produce great flavours as they eat the sugars in the mixture. Remember, it’s the yeast that makes bread taste like bread. That’s why this pre-ferment makes such a big difference in flavour. It’s also very important that you remember to subtract these amounts from your main ingredients list for your bread.  So instead of using 6 oz. of water and 5 oz. of milk, just leave out the water from the final recipe.  Adjust the flour amounts down to compensate as well.  I’ve read that a pre-ferment also helps the bread to preserve longer.  I don’t understand the chemistry involved in that so I’ll just have take that on faith.

In the next post we will put it all together and give a complete scratch bread recipe with full instructions. Now go make your pre-ferment.

Once you have your wheat you will need a grinder(mill). The one we have is the Wonder Mill Jr. It’s a hand crank mill that comes with steel grinding wheels and stone grinding wheels. The stone will get a finer grind for a more authentic flour, but the steel plates are nice as well for things like grinding corn into corn meal. We chose a hand grinder in case we ever got into a survival situation without power. In that case we could still make bread with a gas oven. It’s up to you which route you go. The hand grinder is irreplaceable when you need it, but inconvenient for day to day use. It’s a trade off. Just do your research.

When you first start grinding your own wheat flour for bread baking, you will find out soon that the flour is very heavy. In order to get a good bread it’s necessary to get the grind down very fine. We do that by getting a large basket strainer and sifting out the flour to trap all the large pieces. We then dump the contents of the sifter back into the mill and grind it again. That gets the flour down very fine and makes great flour for bread. If your grind is too big, it won’t rise well or it will come out hard as a brick. Just experiment with small batches to get your method down.

Ok, the first thing we’re going to need is yeast so that’s what we’ll cover today. Have you ever been making bread and wondered what people did before instant yeast? Well, they either didn’t leven their bread or they cultured their own yeast in the form of “yeast water.” It’s actually very simple.

Yeast Water:

Dry Ingredients:

• 1 Handful of Raisins
• Pinch of Sugar

Wet Ingredients:

• Quart Sized Jar full of Tap Water

Instructions:

1. Put raisins and sugar in a jar full of water. Something about the size of a pickle jar should do. But, please don’t use a pickle jar unless you want some dill bread.
2. Leave the jar open and sitting on the countertop for 5 days.
3. When it smells strongly of yeast, you have yeast water!

Yes, it really is that simple. The yeast that is naturally occurring on most fruits and vegetables will begin to eat the sugar and replicate into a nice yeast colony. Now, using the yeast water involves replacing your 5 ounces of water in the original recipe I gave you with an equal amount of yeast water. But instead of mixing it with the milk/sugar/oil, we will mix the yeast water into a “pre-ferment.” I’ll show you how to do that in the next post.

* I learned about making yeast water from this great site: http://originalyeast.blogspot.com/

We haven’t shellac’d them yet so the color will be darker when we do that. We got our supplies at www.seatweaving.org

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