food + science = drool

So I finally ordered Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads, and I read the first 75 pages of it yesterday. This is the part BEFORE the recipes. The intro. I know, right? 75 pages of intro. But it really was worth it… I’ve never really read much about the science of bread baking before (except that I knew what gluten was, but that’s about it), and I think it’s actually going to make the whole process much easier to understand and predict. Plus, given that I think all the recipes in this book take at least two days to make, knowing WHY it has to take that long will help me be more patient. Normally I say to hell with anything that takes more than 3 or 4 hours.

But I learned so many sciencey things from this intro. (Keep in mind, I am a scientist by trade, so one surefire way to get me hooked on something is to start talking about enzymatic reactions or taste buds or microorganisms transforming things.) I never knew the difference between bread flour and cake flour before (they’re made with different strains of wheat berries with different amounts of protein), or that there are enzymes tied to yeast that break down the starch in the flour to make sugar for the yeast to eat. And I never knew that if you just put some flour and water together and left it for a few days that you would get “wild yeast”. OMG, where does it even come from? And I never really thought about how bread has acid and sour and sweet flavors in it — I just didn’t think that hard about how complex bread tastes because it’s just bread.

Well, not anymore. Now it seems like a whole little planet of awesome organisms running around in cute little ecosystems, munching on flour particles. Too bad the whole story ends with mass extinction in my 400 degree oven. Oh well! Sorry, little microorganisms! No hard feelings, right?

I’m amazed, and slightly confused, but still amazed. And I can’t wait to make a whole wheat starter and nourish it in my fridge like a creepy alien life form. Plus there’s a recipe for whole grain bagels. Really you can’t go wrong with this book.

I’ll let you know when I try out some of these recipes, but be warned, there’s about 5 days of prep work to do first before you can even think about turning your oven on. *sigh*

In the meanwhile, I’ll make some scones or something to provide the instant gratification that I so desperately need in my life.