Comments on: Pounding and grinding

By: Rachel Laudan

Rachel Laudan — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:02:47 +0000

I think the portability is a big advantage. In the Epic of Gilgamesh there’s a nice description of how bread changes over the course of the week until it is no longer good to eat.

I don’t think the husks would be much use. To make an alcohol from grains you have to start by turning the starches into sugars by some means or other. I don’t have my reference books with me in Mexico City but I’m pretty certain there wouldn’t be enough starch in the husks.

Pounding and grinding both seem to get men worked up. All those swinging tits perhaps? All those pestles pumped in and out of mortars!

By: Judith Klinger, Aroma Cucina

Judith Klinger, Aroma Cucina — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 17:47:34 +0000

Ciao. Missing out on a few days of posts is like walking out of a lively dinner party , when you walk back in, there is no telling where the conversation will be going!
Thinking pragmatically, wouldn’t the advantage of bread be portablitiy and the ability to make enough ahead of time so that other days you have the freedom to do other things? You can stash bread in the aptly named rucksack and head out to tend sheep.
Here’s a ‘beer’ question: can you make beer from the discarded husks of the wheat? Would they ferment? Or is there enough fermentation in the residue water from malted grain to make beer? I don’t know enough about beer, but it seems likely that not wanting to waste anything…water, husks, etc. would contribute to the evolution of a fermented, calorie enriched beverage. (Do husks have nutrients?)

And to have some fun while pondering the lot of women consigned to pounding grain, remember the film Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice).
Pounding rice in the Po valley is apparently a very lusty endeavor.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:28:41 +0000

I wonder which is actually more time and energy consuming, processing cereals like wheat (hulled or otherwise) or processing quinoa?

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 01:09:40 +0000

so much for the easy life of civilization!

By: History of Greek Food

History of Greek Food — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:29:45 +0000

Imagine, hulled varieties of grains which needed to be hummelled, whether intended for human or animal consumption. And the dehulling was required many times in order to remove bitter or toxic substances, to increase storage life, to make them easily cooked ingredients. Then, the grains needed to be grinded, crushed, soaked or boiled. Hard, hard days.

By: Adam Balic

Adam Balic — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:10:55 +0000

Right, but naked wheat has been around for 3,000 years at least and doesn’t require pounding, only threshing. Millet, Hulled Wheat (Einkorn, Emmer, Spelt), buckwheat, barley, sorghum (and maize for that matter), can all be processed to an edible form by pounding, without going onto grinding to a flour. Even in modern Western European setting, when you see recipes for emmer or barley they will most likely be used in a gruel, not for bread.

But the fact remains that people processed Emmer by pounding, then ground it to produce flour, then made bread from it. Seems to be a poor use of resources, unless I am missing something. Was it a status thing? The Romans had bread but a lot of people ate puls, which is gruel. .

In modern Mexico very poor women grind maize to produce flour (or is it exclusively Masa?) which is make into bread. In terms of resources why not just stick to pozole? Or is this wrong and the use of the Metate did or still did indicate a higher status then eating pozole? Metate were used as grave good were they not?