Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Chemistry => Topic started by: PhirePhly on 03/06/2005 04:00:45
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Gluten, as I understand things, is a combination of glutenin and prolamine.
Water and kneading dough facilitate it's creation.
The effect on bread is that the resulting gluten matrix provides a series of small bubbles that trap CO2 as it's produced by fermentation of sugar by yeast.
My question is what other short chain proteins might be coaxed into producing a similarly elastic long-chain protein in a similar process.
I'd like to see if I can produce a gluten-free bread for a friend who suffers from ciliac disease. Most of the available GF breads don't taste or look like bread. I won't describe what they do taste and look like as this is a family-type forum.
Thanks,
L. Lisov
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Buckwheat (gluten free)
Buckwheat is not a true cereal as it is not a member of the grass family, instead being related to sorrels and docks. If you look at docks closely, you can see that the seeds, though smaller, have the same distinctive triangular shape. Buckwheat, a native of central Asia, is now grown in Europe, N America and the former USSR countries, but it is still not widely used in Britain. 100g of buckwheat provides 11.7g protein, 3.9mg iron and it is very high in calcium with 114mg per 100g. Available raw the seeds are greenish-pink, or roasted (known as kasha) the seeds are darker reddish-brown. It can be cooked (1:2 parts water for 6 minutes, leave to stand for 6 minutes) and served like rice or you can add it to stews and casseroles. Buckwheat flour can be added to cakes, muffins, pancakes etc. where it imparts a distinctive flavour. Look out too for buckwheat spaghetti, soba.
http://www.vegsoc.org/info/cereals.html#buck
I've eaten flatbread made with buckwheat flour and can verify it has "distinctive" taste and smell, [xx(] .
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I have experimented with wheatless baking, and have turned to oats with some success (although don't oats also contain gluten?) However I find it profitable to mix them with other grains to more closely simulate wheat: particularly sorghum flour and rice flour. Does wheat germ contain gluten? If not, I would recommend adding it also. The recipes I have tried usually also have eggs. A "health food" cookbook has a number of wheatless baked recipes, which typically rely on increased egg for their cohesiveness. I believe in some cases this egg is well whipped with air first and then carfully mixed with the grains. Suggestion: if you are going to use flours of oat or corn, get the type which has been precooked to some extent, e.g., quick oats or masa harina. It will be much more digestible. Buckwheat undoubtedly is a useful addition to some of these mixes because of its high nutritional value, although it is not of a texture which would in itself lend itself to bread making. There is also come kind of a process whereby utterly glutenless grains are rendered into hard crackers. It is done with both corn and rice. The result is very bread like in a physical sense in that you can make sandwiches using it, because it is stiff like Syrofoam. Presumably the process could be used with more robust mixtures of glutenless grains such as what I have described already. How they do this I am not sure, but it may involve cooking under pressure followed by expansion. I suspect you cannot do this with ordinary kitchen utensils, although if you have a pressure cooker -- maybe. If you can find out what the process is.
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What are the symptoms that lead you to seeking a gluten free diet ?
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What are the symptoms that lead you to seeking a gluten free diet ?
I'd like to see if I can produce a gluten-free bread for a friend who suffers from ciliac disease.