Predigestion with Malt
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the malt infusion
Soak malt for 10-12 hours.
Decant and strain the infusion until clear.
Make the mixture
Mix 1 tablespoon of the malt infusion with ½ pint of thick gruel.
Warm the mixture slightly; it will become liquid in about 10 minutes.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Malt infusion
- Contains enzymes that break down starch into sugars, thinning the gruel and making it liquid.
- Thick gruel
- Starchy base that the malt enzymes act on to change its texture.
The step that matters
Warm the mixture slightly. Enzymes in the malt work best at gentle warmth and are destroyed by strong heat. Warming only slightly lets the starch break down steadily into sugars, so the mixture thins without the enzymes being lost.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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