Ezekiel Bread (Sprouted Grain & Bean)

The six-ingredient bread, built from the grains and legumes a homestead stores by the sackful.

"Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of it." (Ezekiel 4:9)

Why it is worth it

The verse names six things grown and stored on any homestead: wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt. Pairing grain with legume makes a complete protein, a full meal in a slice. The verse is an ingredient list, not a measured recipe, so what follows is a modern honest method for turning those six into real bread. (This version uses chickpeas as the bean; use whatever bean you grow.)

The method, in two streams

Grains and legumes are handled separately. The grains (wheat, spelt, barley, millet) are soaked and sprouted, then dried and milled to flour. The legumes (lentils, chickpeas) are soaked, then cooked all the way through in fresh water, then dried and milled. Cooking the legumes is not optional: raw and merely-sprouted beans carry lectins that can make you sick, and cooking destroys them. Blend the flours, then either raise a yeast loaf or bake a quick flatbread.

1 · Soak & sprout (separately)

2 · Cook the legumes, dry, and mill to flour

A worked example blend, weighed after drying and milling: 600 g wheat, 200 g spelt, 50 g barley, 50 g millet, 50 g cooked lentil flour, 50 g cooked chickpea flour (1000 g total). The yeast loaf below uses 500 g of this blend; the flatbread uses 250 g.

3 · Make & bake a yeast loaf

500 g flour blend, 350 to 400 g water added gradually, 7 g instant yeast, 10 g salt, 20 g olive oil. Mix, knead until cohesive, rise until puffy, shape into a greased 9x5 pan, proof, then bake at about 375 F (190 C) until the dense center reads roughly 200 to 205 F. Cool fully on a rack before slicing.

4 · Or a no-leaven flatbread

With no yeast or other leavener, mix 250 g of the blend with water (and a little oil and salt) into a stiff dough, roll thin, and bake on a hot stone or griddle. This is the plain, unleavened form.

Unleavened Bread (Matzo)

Flour and water, no leaven and no waiting: the bread of the Exodus.

"They baked unleavened cakes of the dough... because they were thrust out of Egypt, and could not tarry." (Exodus 12:39)

Why it is worth it

The simplest bread there is: no yeast, no rise, nothing to keep alive. When you have no leaven, or no time, flour and water on a hot stone still feeds you. It is the Passover bread and the plainest trail bread at once.

Step by step

1. Mix flour with a little water and a pinch of salt into a stiff dough; work it fast.
2. Roll thin and prick all over so it does not puff.
3. Bake on a hot stone, griddle, or in a hot oven just a few minutes a side until dry and blistered.
4. Eat fresh, or dry it hard to keep like hardtack.

Barley Bread

The poor man's loaf that fed the five thousand.

"There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes." (John 6:9)

Why it is worth it

Barley grows where wheat will not and was the everyday bread of the poor. It bakes into a denser, darker, nuttier loaf. For a homestead it is a hardy backup grain that keeps you in bread through a bad wheat year.

Step by step

1. Mix barley flour (alone, or part wheat for a lighter loaf) with water, salt, and leaven.
2. Knead, let rise (barley rises little on its own, so sourdough or a wheat blend helps), shape round.
3. Bake hot until the crust is firm and hollow-sounding.

Esau's Red Lentil Stew (Pottage)

The bowl of stew a man once sold his birthright for.

"Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils... and he did eat and drink." (Genesis 25:34)

Why it is worth it

Red lentils cook down fast into a thick, filling, protein-rich stew with nothing but water, salt, and whatever onion, garlic, cumin, and oil you have. It is the cheapest hot meal on the place and it kept the ancient world fed.

Step by step

1. Rinse red lentils; simmer in plenty of water until they fall apart (20 to 30 minutes).
2. Fry an onion (and garlic, cumin) in oil and stir it in; salt to taste.
3. Cook down to a thick pottage; serve with bread to scoop it.

Parched Grain

Roasted grain by the handful: the field lunch of the harvest.

"Eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she ... did eat ... and he reached her parched corn." (Ruth 2:14)

Why it is worth it

Fresh grain dry-roasted in a pan puffs, browns, and turns nutty, ready to eat by the handful with no grinding and no baking. It kept for the road and fed the reapers in the field. The simplest way there is to eat your wheat or barley.

Step by step

1. Dry-roast threshed grain in a hot pan, shaking, until it puffs and browns.
2. Salt it; eat warm by the handful, or carry it in a pouch.
3. Soften old parched grain in water, broth, or (as Ruth did) with a little vinegar.

Pressed Fig Cakes (Debelah)

Dried figs pressed into a cake that travels and keeps for months.

"[Abigail] took ... two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses." (1 Samuel 25:18)

Why it is worth it

Ripe figs dried hard and pressed into a dense cake carry sweet energy by the saddlebag, and were money, gift, and ration all at once. (The same fig cake, mashed, was the poultice that healed King Hezekiah's boil.)

Step by step

1. Dry ripe figs in the sun or a low oven until leathery.
2. Chop or mash and press hard into a mold or a round, binding with their own stickiness.
3. Dry the cake further, then wrap. Slice off pieces as needed.

Pressed Raisin Cakes

Dried grapes pressed into sweet cakes of pure energy.

"He dealt ... to every one a loaf of bread, and a good piece of flesh, and a flagon of wine [a cake of raisins]." (2 Samuel 6:19)

Why it is worth it

Grapes dried to raisins and pressed into cakes were handed out at feasts and carried as marching food (David fed a whole crowd with them). Pure, keeping sweetness from your own vines.

Step by step

1. Dry grapes to raisins in the sun.
2. Press them hard into cakes; they bind with their own sugar.
3. Dry a little more and wrap for storage.

Curds & Honey (and Leben)

Soured milk set to soft curd, eaten with wild honey.

"Butter and honey shall he eat." (Isaiah 7:15)   "[Abraham] took butter, and milk ... and set it before them." (Genesis 18:8)

Why it is worth it

Before refrigeration, milk was kept by souring it. Leben (soured, cultured milk) and the soft curds strained from it were a daily food, and sweetened with honey they were a treat set before honored guests. It is the simplest dairy a homestead makes (see the Larder cheese pages).

Step by step

1. Warm pasteurized milk and stir in a defined culture (a spoon of live cultured milk or a packaged starter), holding the temperature the culture calls for until it sets.
2. Strain the curds in clean cloth, chilled, to the thickness you like.
3. Salt for savory, or spoon with honey for sweet.

Roast Lamb with Bitter Herbs

Whole lamb roasted over fire, with unleavened bread and bitter greens.

"They shall eat the flesh ... roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it." (Exodus 12:8)

Why it is worth it

The Passover meal, and the oldest way to cook meat: a whole young animal roasted over an open fire, not boiled, eaten with flatbread and sharp bitter greens that cut the fat. For a homestead it is how you feast a crowd from one animal (see Hunting and Food for the butchery).

Step by step

1. Dress a young lamb or kid; season simply with salt (and herbs if you have them).
2. Spit it whole, or joint it, and roast slowly over coals, turning, until done.
3. Serve with unleavened bread and bitter herbs (see below).

Roast Quail

The small birds that fell on the camp in the wilderness.

"At even the quails came up, and covered the camp." (Exodus 16:13)

Why it is worth it

Quail and other small game birds dress out fast and roast in minutes over coals, a quick meal of real meat (see Hunting for snaring and dressing birds).

Step by step

1. Pluck or skin and gut the birds (do not rinse raw poultry, which just spreads germs).
2. Salt, skewer, and roast over coals, turning, until done.
3. Eat hot off the stick.

Broiled Fish & Honeycomb

Fish grilled on the coals by the shore, the breakfast on the beach.

"They gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb." (Luke 24:42)   "A fire of coals ... and fish laid thereon, and bread." (John 21:9)

Why it is worth it

A fresh-caught fish laid on the coals is the oldest cooked meal by the water, and the one the risen Christ ate and served. Nothing but fire and fish, with bread and a little honey (see the Old Ways and Hunting for catching and dressing fish).

Step by step

1. Gut and scale the fish; leave it whole or split it open.
2. Lay it on hot coals or a grate, or skewer it by the fire; turn once.
3. Cook until it flakes and reads 145 F; eat with bread, and honeycomb for sweet.

Locusts & Wild Honey

The wilderness ration of John the Baptist: roasted insects and comb honey.

"His meat was locusts and wild honey." (Matthew 3:4)   "The locust ... ye may eat." (Leviticus 11:22)

Why it is worth it

Locusts and grasshoppers are honest protein that scripture lists as clean food, and wild honey is pure energy. Together they kept a man alive in the desert. For a homestead, insects are a free protein in a lean year (see the Old Ways on eating insects).

Step by step

1. Catch grasshoppers or locusts in the cool of morning; remove wings and legs.
2. Roast them dry in a hot pan or over the fire until crisp; salt them.
3. Eat as is, or grind to a protein meal; pair with honey cut from a wild comb.

Pressed Olive Oil

Crush and press the olive for oil to cook, light, and anoint.

"Pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always." (Exodus 27:20)

Why it is worth it

Olive oil was cooking fat, lamp fuel, soap, medicine, and holy anointing all in one. If you can grow olives, pressing your own oil gives you the most useful liquid on the place. The first cold-pressed ("beaten") oil is the finest.

Step by step

1. Crush ripe olives, pits and all, to a paste (a stone basin and roller, or a sturdy mortar).
2. Spread the paste in mats or a cloth and press hard; the oil and watery juice run out together.
3. Let it settle, then skim or decant the oil off the top of the water.
4. Store in a cool, dark jar.

New Wine, Wine & Vinegar (Posca)

From the grape: sweet must, wine, and the sour wine soldiers drank.

"Dip thy morsel in the vinegar." (Ruth 2:14)   "They filled a sponge with vinegar ... and gave him to drink." (John 19:29)

Why it is worth it

Grapes give you three keeping drinks from one harvest: the fresh sweet juice (must or "new wine"), fermented wine, and when wine sours, vinegar. Vinegar watered down (posca) was the cheap, safe, thirst-quenching drink of workers and soldiers, and a preservative for the larder.

Step by step

1. Tread or crush ripe grapes; strain the juice (new wine) for drinking fresh.
2. To make wine, ferment the juice under an airlock until a hydrometer shows it is finished (stopped bubbles alone are not proof); rack it clear and age it.
3. To make vinegar, let finished wine stand with a vinegar "mother," covered with a cloth that lets air in but keeps insects out, until it turns sour.
4. Posca: cut vinegar with water, a little honey and herbs, for a field drink.

Bitter Herbs, Mint, Dill & Cumin

The sharp greens of the Passover and the kitchen herbs of scripture.

"Ye pay tithe of mint and anise [dill] and cummin." (Matthew 23:23)   "With bitter herbs they shall eat it." (Exodus 12:8)

Why it is worth it

The bitter herbs of Passover (lettuces, endive, dandelion, horseradish and the like) cut rich meat and clean the palate, and the kitchen herbs (mint, dill, cumin, coriander, anise) flavor and preserve. All grow easily in a homestead garden (see Food) and dry for the year.

Step by step

1. Grow and cut bitter greens fresh to eat alongside roast meat.
2. Grow mint, dill, coriander, cumin, and anise; cut herbs fresh or dry them.
3. Let dill, coriander, cumin, and anise flower and set seed; dry and store the seed as spice.

The Seven Species of the Land

The seven foods the land was blessed with, and how to keep each.

"A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey." (Deuteronomy 8:8)

Why it is worth it

These seven together are nearly a whole diet, and each one keeps: grain stores dry, grapes become raisins and wine, figs press into cakes, pomegranates hold for months, olives give oil, and dates dry or boil down to date honey. (The "honey" of the verse is traditionally understood as date honey, not bee honey, so the seventh species is the date.) Grow and put up the seven and your larder is covered.

Keeping the seven

1. Wheat & barley: thresh, dry, and store sealed (see Food, Storage).
2. Grapes: raisins and wine (above).
3. Figs: pressed cakes (above).
4. Pomegranates: keep cool and dry whole for months; dry the seeds (arils).
5. Olives: cure in brine to eat, or press for oil (above).
6. Dates: dry them whole, or boil them down to date honey (silan); both keep well.

Manna (the closest you can make)

The bread from heaven: miraculous, but here is its taste.

"It was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey." (Exodus 16:31)

Why it is worth it

Manna itself was a daily miracle, not a recipe, and it could not be stored (it bred worms overnight). But scripture tells us its taste, so you can make a honey wafer that eats like it is said to have: pale, light, and honey-sweet.

Step by step

1. Make a thin batter of fine flour, a little honey, and water (a touch of oil keeps it tender).
2. Drop small rounds on a hot greased stone or pan; cook through, thin and pale, not browned.
3. Eat the day you make them. Do not dust with raw flour to whiten them (raw flour is not safe to eat).

End of draft. Add, cut, or reorder anything. On your word I will finish the art list, convert it to PHP, and publish it as its own chapter (or fold it into the Larder).

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