Scaling up: A new national loaf

An essay about bread and the revolution. +
+ By William Greenwood

+ +

Introduction

+ The national loaf is a recipe, released by the Federation of Bakers in 1942, to replace + all other forms of bread in the face of dwindling supplies of wheat and sugar. If faced with + such a situation now, how could bread be supplied to the masses? With the squeeze on independent + bakeries more than ever, and with almost complete reliance on the electrical grid, they would + almost certainly be overwhelmed almost immediately or unable to function totally. So how could a + small group of people scale to fill this gap? How would they power their bakery? And what would + be the next step towards self sufficiency? This essay will attempt to answer all these questions + in pursuit of the new national loaf. +

+ I will not be discussing the general operations of a group of people unless they are expressly related to bread. Individual survival + and operations of your community is up to you. I will also not be discussing growing wheat or other crops, it is something I know + little about, although this would be necessary to maintain the bakery indefinitely. Both are outside of the scope of this essay. +

+ +

Ingredients

+ The first thing you will want to do after securing a property is procure supplies and equipment. If cars + and vans are not available, use wheelbarrows. +

+ Care must be taken to keep all supplies in a sustainable location. With flour + this can be done by storing it in a moisture free and airtight container, such as a large seal-able barrel. If frozen first, it can + last up to 10 years, but this should not be beneficiary. +

+ +

Flour

+ +

+ Flour is by far the most important ingredient in bread, as well as the most difficult one to acquire. Where the end goal of this + community bakery would be to be self sufficient, relying on grown wheat may not be practical as a short term solution and is outside + the scope of this essay. Therefore we will be assuming access to at least some form of grain. +

+ For us, milling would be possible, but hard work if turned manually. A millstone can be acquired from any nearby tile shop, a thick + piece of granite with some grooves cut in it will work perfectly. It could potentially be hooked up to some form of motor, as it + would not be running often, or even mechanically coupled to to a water wheel or wind turbine. +

+ 1.5kg, 5kg and 10kg bags of flour are stocked in most large supermarkets as well as Asian supermarkets as large bags of chapatti + flour. You would initially want to sweep the local area to collect as much as possible. Takeaways and wholesale food suppliers will + most likely stock large amounts of some kind of flour. Most homes, also, keep a bag or two of flour and a bag could be swapped in + return for the equivalent of bread. +

+ +

Water

+ Hopefully you have located yourself somewhere near a large water source as it will be essential for bread production. If not, + rainfall could be collected by the community. in this case, large amounts of water storage would be necessary to offset any + droughts. Attempt to secure some kind of tanker. Since the water is to be heated, it doesn't need to be sterile, but any solids in + it will be left as a part of the dough when the water evaporates. A simple water filter using organic material should be enough for + the bread itself, and bringing it to a rolling boil for a few minutes will make it drinkable. +

+ Chemicals could be used to make a large amount of water drinkable at once, Chlorine dioxide or household bleach could be used for + this. On a smaller scale, UV sterilization would be effective. Utilizing either the sun's rays, or a dedicated sterilizer. Aquariums + and pet shops selling fish could be one way of acquiring both chemical, and UV sterilization equipment. +

+ +

Yeast and levaining

+ A large amount of yeast will be available and is common is every supermarket and in many homes. Try to initially get as much as + possible. It will not last long and will die within the year so should be used as much as possible. Conveniently, the amount of + yeast is completely arbitrary and effects only how long it takes to make the bread. I would suggest using it as a backup for bread + needed within around 2 hours time, as using sourdough will not be as flexible. +

+ Depending on the situation, some form of brewing operation may be setup nearby may be able to provide leavening, produced as a + byproduct as the brewing process. +

+ +

Sourdough

+ Sourdough starter is perfect for a long-term operation, taking very little flour to keep alive and proving you with limitless + levaining power. Usually sourdough bread will use 10-20% starter, but this could be reduced in the event of a flour shortage. We can + therefore calculate that per kg of dough we would only need as little as 30g of starter for optimum ferment, also requiring us to + feed the starter 15g of starter daily. This means that for approximately every 100 loafs of bread made, we will need to sacrifice a + household bag of flour for levaining. +

+ The calculations here will most likely be very inaccurate, but it should be easy enough to work out the most effective use of flour + for you with what you have access to, as this will be vastly different community to community. +

+ It should be noted that sourdough is digested by the body differently. During the fermentation process acetic acid is produced by + LAB bacteria, making it easier to digest by the body. This manifests in decreased effect on coeliac disease or other gluten + intolerance. +

+ +

Salt

+ Salt is a common ingredient in bread, and makes it palatable. In white bread I would usually use + somewhere between 1-2%, and 1.5-2.5% in wholemeal or rye bread. Salt should be easy to acquire + in mass from supermarkets. It keeps as long as its not exposed to moisture and will probably not + be on peoples minds while searching for food. +

+ If it is not available, sea salt can be made easily from saltwater. If your location is nearby a + source of saltwater, try to acquire tarps or flat baking tins. A car park or flat roof could be + easily cleaned and used as a large salt pan if necessary. +

+ Salt has beneficial properties with other foods (lactose-fermentation, curing &c) and would be + in demand for other uses than baking bread, simply stockpiling a large amount of salt would not + be enough in the long term and some dedicated operation should be setup to supplement this. +

+ +

Seeds and other additives

+ Remember that most grains and seeds can be incorporated into bread through soaking, so along + with flour try to find as much of these as possible. Pet stores and large supermarkets will + stock large amounts of birdseed such as sunflower seeds and peanuts which will be safe for human + consumption when cooked and are a good source of protein. Rice or potatoes could be used, but + may just be more nutritious if just cooked and eaten regularly. +

+ Soaking is the process of soaking any additives in water for an hour before incorporating them + into the bread dough. This ensures that that are already saturated with water and will not draw + water away from the yeast. +

+ If it can be found, grains such as rye, wheat and spelt should be ground into flour, but if a + grindstone was unavailable could simply be incorporated whole via soaking. +

+ Where seeds are organic, either from specialty stores or grown as part of a conscious effort, + sprouting them before incorporating them into the bread can provide a far greater nutritional + value. This takes only additional water and is well worth the effort. +

+ +

The recipe

+ The bread that you actually make will not be that important, and the classic "artisan sourdough" + will be completely impractical. The only priority is now: make as much bread as possible with as + little waste as possible. This means making the most use of the ingredients available to you, + which will be completely different community to community. +

+ +

Bakers percentage

+ When working out recipes to be used to make an arbitrary amount of bread, instead of using a + unit of weight (grams, pounds &c) we use percent. This allows us to come up with a recipe that + is consistent at any scale. The total amount of flour is 100% and is the ruler we use to measure + out the rest of the ingredients. For example we might use 60% flour, 10% starter and 2% yeast. + At this point, if we know the total weight of bread we want to make +

+ +

+ For most, you will probably have far more wholemeal flour than plain white flour and plain white + should be mixed in in small amounts to enhance the gluten content and offset wholemeal flour's + higher absorption. +

+ Water should be used in moderation, as a higher hydration loaf will take longer to cook for each + unit of flour. For example: A 50% loaf and a 70% loaf of equivalent weight will take the same + about of time and space to cook, but the 70% will have approximately 12% more flour and + therefore 12% more nutrients. +

+ Seeds and other additives should be used as much as possible, both to incorporate other + nutrients but also to reduce the amount of flour used per loaf. Seeds and grains can both be + incorporated via soaking (described above in "Seeds and additives"). When using this method the + hydration percentage is based off both the flour and the seed weight. if your hydration is 70% + without seeds, if you add 10% seeds, you should adjust your hydration to 77% (because 70% of + 110% is 77%). +

+ Other than these general pointers, it is up to the community what bread they make. Generally, + its difficult to make bread that is inedible, especially if there is little food and the people + you feed will, I'm sure, be happy to offer plenty of advice like "more salt" or "could you use + sesame seeds?". +

+ +

Fermenting and Proofing

+ In large scale artisan bakeries, dough is fermented at mass within large seal-able containers. + This would be completely practical for us, and a large amount of plastic boxes or storage crates + could be procured within almost any town or city. Bread dough will double is size during + fermentation and as an approximation for our purposes, the weight of the bread is equivalent to + its volume. (The actual figure is difficult to calculate as flour is particulate so the dry + volume is vastly different to the volume when mixed with water.) +

+ Proofing is slightly more difficult due to to the fact you have to separate out the + loafs, meaning they take up far more space. We can therefore consider 3 options. +

+ +

Bannetons

+ A banneton is a reed basket floured to stop the dough sticking to it, it can also be lined with + a floured piece of cloth. For our purposes, a common plastic mixing bowl or strainer and a tea + towel would be sufficient. If more Bannetons where required, one could be woven out of reed + found throughout the world. This option does limit the bread's size and shape, although + aesthetics will not be the most important thing to be worrying about. +

+ +

Tins

+ Bread tins would be an easy to use and consistent tool for proofing bread, and more than enough + could be procured with the help of neighbors. Even if more where desperately needed, cake tins + and saucepans would work just as well. The downside to this is getting the cooked bread out of + the tin. Usually, I would grease up the sides of the tin before proofing, however access to oil + might be difficult, especially once the supplies that can be acquired from nearby shops dry up. +

+ +

Proof on surface

+ A method that i have seen done in commercial bakeries is proofing directly on a surface and + allowing the gluten to hold enough of its shape during proof time. This limits the maximum + hydration of the dough but allows us to effectively proof our dough with little space used and + no consumables other than flour. +

+ A Couche could also be used. This is a large cloth used to proof baguettes and batards. A fold + is created in the sheet to separate the loafs. +

+ As a release agent, to keep the bread from sticking to the surface, regular glutenous flour can + be used. Preferably, a substitute like rice flour or bran should be used to make it as easy as + possible to release the bread from the surface, whole wheat and low gluten flours could also be + used, but may not be as effective. +

+ +

Baking

+ Whether under the strain of widespread change or via intentional sabotage, I find it difficult + to believe that the power grid would stay a consistent source of energy. With access to a steady + stream of flowing water, however, access to a dependable source of energy is also secured. A + source of energy that has mechanically powered large-scale production since the fourth-century + BC. With a property within half a kilometer of flowing water, upwards of 10kW could be secured. + Enough to power our entire community bakery as well as comfortably housing its caretakers. +

+ The tool used to bake the bread will depend on what is available to you. A nearby takeaway may + have a pizza oven, but this may not be suitable due to its large energy consumption. The + advantage of hydroelectricity is a consistent and dependable source of energy throughout the day + and this should be used as much as possible. An assortment of average household ovens (each + approx. 2kW), further insulated to increase efficiency, would be more than enough for our + community-scale bakery. +

+ If using an alternate source of power, such as solar, larger batches in the day would be + prioritized and bread production would have to be reduced In the winter months. +

+ +

Fire

+ In a situation where electricity is unfeasible it may be easier to go back to basics. Ovens are + very simple to construct with basic building materials and a large capacity oven could be built + from just a few paving slabs and bricks. +

+ Bread in the late middle ages was baked in what was called a faggot oven which used small + bundles of sticks that burned fast and hot to heat up a chamber, which could then be swept of + ashes and the residual heat used to bake bread. It requires only an insulated area with thick + stone walls. It is more suited to higher capacity batch production. +

+ Alongside these furn ovens where also used. Open at the front with a fire kept lit either at the + back, or below the cooking area. Because of its consistent heat, food could be baked + continuously and over a longer time. The construction of both of these ovens is simple, and + could be achieved very quickly and with little effort. +

+ Using a piece of scrap 6mm steel, some bricks and mud, I was able to build a very simple and + capable oven. I used metal sheet because i wanted a cooking surface as well as a furn style oven + compartment. This oven is suitable for no more than 4kg of bread dough and is pretty crude, but + the bricks that built the mansions of the capitalists could build a far larger, more beautiful + oven. +

+ +

Solar Power

+ Solar power is a source of energy unlikely to be affected by large scale infrastructure + collapse. Not only that but the complete lack of petrol and diesel for consumer use will + inevitably cause most cars to become unusable, each containing a 500Wh battery, good for 2 + years. An array of 10 car batteries could keep a fridge running overnight while remaining above + 50% charge. +

+ Currently, however, solar power largely depends on the grid, especially at the peak of winter, + when solar panels can have as little as one hour of useful sunlight. This means that they are an + effective secondary source for low power, low priority, situations. +

+ +

+ Its feels important to say, that in the event of full collapse, combustion based dependable + electricity is completely impractical at any kind of scale. Even with a glut of car batteries + and the nearest solar power plant, equipment will begin to malfunction and eventually fail. + Without constant production modern infrastructure is unlikely to last more than a generation. + The use of electricity here, then, is to ease us into a lifestyle of more physical labor, rather + than replace the luxury of the grid. Not to say that there will be no electricity, but as + convenient and fun as it is, wide-scale dependence will flood the world and kill us all. +