Washing Wheat & Recipe
July 9th, 2009
Folks . . because I wash my wheat berries doesn’t mean you have to wash yours! Really, I just rinse them. Here’s why: When I first began reading about buying wheat and grinding my own flour, the most common recommended method for long term storage was:
- Freeze the wheat for at least 3 days.
- Bring it back to room temp.
- Put it in mylar (I think that’s the word — they look kinda like aluminum foil) bags.
- Add oxygen absorbers.
- Seal the bags.
- Place the bags in buckets and seal the buckets.
When questioned about why to freeze the wheat for 3 days, I was told it was to kill any larvae or bugs that might be in the wheat.
So, I freeze the wheat to kill the bugs. My thoughts are . . there must be some chance there’s bugs in the wheat and maybe those bugs did their business on my wheat so . . my wheat gets rinsed.
The wheat I buy is definitely food grade, fit for human consumption. Wheat Montana 50 pound bags are in big paper bags that are sealed. Those bags are shipped to the Amish store. How are they shipped? Could there be critters in the trucks or on other stuff being shipped at the same time? Then the bags are stored in the Amish store . . no air conditioning, no climate control at all.
Chances are it’s perfectly safe to use the wheat without rinsing it but I’d just rather be safe. Sometimes there’s a bit of dust or crumbles in the bottom of the bag and I’m just not sure what all that is. My wheat gets rinsed but I’m surely not saying it should be rinished.
Just for the record, I wash spinach that comes in the bag and says “ready to eat” and when I fly, all my clothes get washed as soon as I get home . . just in case someone else’s cooties crawled out of their luggage and got into mine.
Here’s my whole wheat bread recipe, based on the recipe provided by Pleasant Hill Grain. Anything that’s been mentioned on this blog can be found by typing in a few key words over in the “search” box near the top right.
There are quite a few dough enhancer recipes on the internet. You can find them by typing in something like “dough enhancer recipe” on google. I have made my own but I can’t get several of the ingredients so if I’m going to have to mail order anyway, I just get the dough enhancer.
