A report from Dubecko Mill: Ambiente's journey to good flour
Years ago, Ambiente started to deal with good Czech meat, and now they're discussing the subject of grain and flour that make up the vast basis of Central European cuisine. The people of the UM educational centre on Národní street have embarked on a winding journey of old-fashioned knowledge, and they are building on it in cooperation with millers to get to know the raw material that is baked and cooked with on a daily basis.
"Welcome. Our mill was originally a water mill, with one floor, a drive and a mill wheel with a diameter of 6.5 metres. Until about 1900, it was ground on stones, then they were replaced by cylindrical grinding tables," says Michal Zuna, who inherited the craft and the mill. At the entrance we pass an inscription from 1833, but according to the family tree, the flour at Dubecko 1 was already being milled in around 1700.
As proof of tradition, we see where the sluice and sluice gate used to be. An underground tunnel still runs under the courtyard, through which the water from the mill was drained. "Leftover grain and flour was swept into the canal, so it held fish. My grandfather used to go there to fish for trout," notes Michal.
War and restitution
After the Second World War, the Dubecko mill was rebuilt. The floors, beams, stairs and some of the wooden trays date back to 1948. "Later, the mill was confiscated. It belonged to the national company Mills and Pastry Mills Pardubice and stopped until 1991, when our family got it back in restitution and restarted. We started from scratch," says Michal, who graduated from the now-defunct miller's course at the school in Pardubice, but most importantly took over the experience from his grandfather directly in the mill.
"In 2004 I took charge of the entire mill and about ten years ago we replaced part of the technology with more efficient and cleaner technology," adds Michal, leading us straight to the milling centre.
Miller vs. farmer
"We are a small mill. We grind 600 to 700 tonnes of grain a year. We take it from the Českodubsko and Jilemnice regions, from where we mainly have mountain rye, which grows more slowly and is therefore more aromatic than rye grown in the lowlands," says Michal. Wheat and spelt are bought from farmers near Nové Město na Moravě and Velký Meziříčí. Red wheat is also brought to the mill from Vysočina and Moravia.
"We are not so much concerned with varieties as with the quality of the grain. We have a small laboratory in which we test every single pile of grain. We are interested in various factors, such as moisture, nitrogen and ash content or, for example the fall number. The ideal fall number for rye is between 180 and 280, and for wheat around 350. If the value is too low, the enzymes will break down the gluten and the dough will melt. In contrast, a high fall point means flour that is too thick and a stiff dough."
The fall number indicates the time it takes for the dough to drop. It tells bakers the activity of alpha amylase, an enzyme that breaks down starches and affects the stickiness of the dough, because starches affect the water and flour binding properties.
At the varying properties of cereals (and flour) are responded to in a miller's way in Dubecko. 'The weather plays a big role. This year, for example, we are struggling with a high fall number. However, we don't add any improvers to the flour. We ensure its stability by separating the grains according to quality and then mixing them together," says Michal, adding:
"Rye grows differently under Ještěd than at Jilemnice, and you can also tell whether the grain has been ripened in the sun or in the forest. That's why we always try to we try to sow more grain from more farmers. We determine the ratio on the basis of a table that we have created, most often by the fall number."
A supply of properly mixed grain can last Michal up to two months. "The bakers we bind don't have to get used to a new batch of flour as often. As small-scale producers, we are are able to supply them with a month or two of flour from the same grain that behaves as expected."
From grain to sack of flour
We go through several floors of the mill, from below the knee to the sower. To give us a better idea, Michal offers us a map showing the path of the grain - starting at the receiving basket, ending at the sacks. "In general the hardest part is preparing the grain for milling, or for threshing. First, the grain is sent to the cleaning plant which removes straw, clay and sand or unthreshed ears," says Michal. "Then the grain is de-stoned. Otherwise, on the sieves, these parts could fall through and ruin the rollers, or they could crunch between people's teeth."
Then to the grinder, which scrapes the dust from the grain's husk, abrades its surface and partially removes the tip and germ. The flour then contains fewer wild enzymes and fats and has a longer shelf life. "The coarsened grain is sliced to soften the husk. During transport, the grain dries out, and if it were milled dry, the flour would not absorb liquid as well as arid soil," explains Michal, pointing to the the bin. There, the soaked grains wait before milling. In summer they require five or six hours, in winter they are left to rest until the next day.
Passages, types and relaxation
Michal pours the flour into his palm after the first milling, the so-called first scrap, and we learn that the grain goes through up to seven milling rounds - depending on the variety. The prepared grain is milled on roller mills, but the work also involves the sower. 103 sieves in thirteen layers sort the flour and the so-called overflow, which must be further milled on the designated milling tables. Incidentally, they make the sieves themselves in Dubecko, using silk fabric and glue.
"The finished flour is captured by the passage auger. This is how we gradually get the individual passage flour, each with its own specific characteristics. They consist of different passages of the milling process and their combination results in type flours, such as egg or bread flour. Theoretically, we can produce up to 20 types of flour, which differ in coarseness and fibre content," says Michal.
The type flours are mixed automatically, the present mixer thus serves only as a the hopper in which the flour matures. "Freshly milled flour is warm, moist and undergoing biochemical reactions, so it needs to breathe and 'calm down' to work well. Only then is it bagged," says Michal. "We treat the new crop in a similar way. The harvested grain needs to rest after the harvest, so we don't mill it until September or October."
Be careful!
"We grind the rye into semolina and process it into the next grinding stool. Hard rye is crushed with more force than wheat. But when we grind the semolina separately as we don't have to apply as much pressure, so we don't damage the starches in the grain. This actually makes the flour less absorbent," says Michal, explaining why his rye flour suits bakers.
"Flour from two mills will never be the same, even if the same grain is used. Each mill has a different milling system, different technology, but also different sieve composition. It is said that the longer the mill, the better the flour. Long mills have a larger grinding gap, so less force is used in the grinding process. The grain is milled more gently and retains its high quality," explains Michal.
Rye specialist
It is not only in the Czech Republic that rye has long been displaced by the ubiquitous wheat. We are all the more pleased to see bins filled with rye flour. "Rye is typical for our region, but it was not so popular during socialism and most millers focused on wheat. After the revolution, the demand changed a bit, so in 1992 we converted the mill to rye," recalls Michal, explaining:
"The rye is milled using stools with specific grooves. Today, we also grind spelt and red wheat, but it took us about two years to learn how to properly adjust the technology to the grain variety. For example, we change the coarseness of some of the sieves or the air pressure because the grains of rye and wheat are different in size and weight."
Bio or not?
We move from the noisy mill to the shop. Although they specialise in bread and whole wheat flours in Dubecko, there's no shortage of plain light flour or semolina on the shelves. On the rye flour packaging we notice the organic label. "The impulse was the cooperation with a bakery in Genoa nad Nisou, but also with another company that was looking for rye bio-flour. Eventually, we also certified organic spelt and organic red wheat," says Michal, who has been sowing organic grain for the last four years.
"It costs us extra energy - the milling path has to be cleaned of conventional grain before milling. Besides, organic rye is more susceptible to mould and ergot because it is not sprayed with any chemicals. But the resulting flour is excellent, both in terms of flavour and fall number."
Flour dumplings
"Pastry chefs often buy light, smooth spelt flour from us, which is milled like rye egg. Bakers, on the other hand, like red wheat flour," Michal recommends. Sláva Grigorik, head baker U Kalendů"Purple wheat has an intense sweet taste and aroma. For our bread, we mix it half and half with spelt and partly with plain wheat."
"At home, we also make dumplings with red wheat semolina. They are beautifully floury and taste great," Michal concludes. Ambiente take something from everything, to bakeries and to Myšák confectionery. Such purchases make sense!
