by Lars.
To be utterly honest, this is something that we should have done long ago. It borders on embarrassing in retrospect. I am sure that the idea has fluttered past our intuition as we ruminated on other flickering possibilities while absentmindedly snacking on bits of our fermented barley.
Yes, that’s what this is- our barley that we have carefully inoculated and cajoled into a lovely firm matrix of taste augmenting mold. Taste transforming.
Better. Smarter. Faster.
So we merely sliced our “loaf”, yes it does slice like a cake, and fried a piece in a pan for a bit of maillard. And to warm it through of course.
It was amazing.
Sweetness, with a palatable umami. Still a proper flavor from the barley.
René found traces of iberico fat- and it is certainly does have a intense nutty luxury.
The process is relatively simple:
Soak organic virgin barley for 24 hours.
Steam for 1.5 hours.
Cool to room temperature (or at least 30c)
Mix in Aspergillus orzyae.
Place in a 30c full-humidity environment. This is almost 100% humidity and is rather like a bathroom after a shower.
Mix well after 8 hours.
Leave alone for the next 28 hours.
We hope some one out there gives it a shot-
We would like to thank Kunal Chandra for the photos, he stopped in to say hello and spend an enjoyable day with us.