Jeremy Cherfas

1 min read

Thanks to an unfollowable stream on Twitter, I came upon the website of Joshua Nudell, an historian with an interest in ancient Greek breads. A post of his, translating from Athenaeus’s Deipnosophistae, refers in passing to "the loaf from rye (or spelt)". That's strange. So I left a comment on the post, as follows:

I don't know Ancient Greek, but I do know some ancient and modern cereals, so I am hoping you can elaborate on this. Does the list mean two different loaves, one of rye and one of spelt? Or does it mean that rye is sometimes known as spelt, which would be a very interesting reading indeed.

Thanks.

This could be interesting.

Back in the saddle with a rye starter on the left for personal use, fed last night, and a white starter for friends fed just a minute ago

One of the most satisfying things about coming home after a holiday is giving all the microbiology a bit of love so it can return the favour

Rye (or spelt) ???

I realise I forgot to show off the finished black pepper rye sourdough loaves. So here they are.

A couple of plump little kalonji sourdough beauties that have been sleeping overnight in the fridge before I get stuck into the rye.

At this stage, looks are unimportant. Scalding some rye with black coffee, black pepper and anise seeds for tomorrow’s big bake.

So gratifying when people get stuck right in. This time to a black pepper rye.

First big (for me) bake of a new season. Multi-seeded and black pepper rye, raised with my starters.

Here we go again, with a 100% rye leaven for some Black Pepper Rye.

They go in, they come out. 40% whole rye sourdough with caraway seeds.