Wheat and flour in Menorca

Menorcan peasant tradition mandates that wheat be sown when the month of December begins and this custom stated that sowing should always begin on Saturday, because this day of the week is dedicated to the Virgin. It was also believed that it should be done on the old moon.

Many varieties of wheat were planted in Menorca, although the best known was Triticum sativum, which has numerous variants, of which the most used was the so-called xeixa gross, light in color and coarse grain, and which was already documented in the XIV century. The small xeixa was also planted, also light in color, but with small grains, which was more suitable for planting in thin lands. Other wheat known on our island when it was planted was blue cane, which was introduced around 1924, and which was quite productive, but the ears were picked and broken by the wind. In the 19th century, Algiers wheat was introduced and after the Civil War, red wheat began to be planted, with good results. The change made to the Menorcan peasantry towards livestock and milk production caused the wheat fields to become pasture fields for cows and for the production of cheese.

In the past, when wheat was grown on our island and the mills were in full production, the following flours could be found:

– Flour-flor or flower flour was the finest of all, with it the ensaimadas of San Juan, cocas bambas, muffins were made… It was mixed with normal flour to make bread. In recipes where fine flour is used, we can use loose or pastry flour. To make ensaimadas it was customary to mix both flours.

– Normal flour was what was used to make bread and also to make cokes, empanadas and other pastry products. It would be the current flour of strength.

– White prims were used to make coca blonde, which was a very hard whole wheat bread that was not usually kept for more than a day and was consumed almost instantly.

– Prims that were mixed with bran to feed animals such as chicks and hens.

The old yeast

To make the bread, once the flour was obtained, the pastry was used, a table-shaped piece of furniture made of wild olive or oak wood, with a door at the top that led to the receptacle inside which the dough was kneaded and where A small piece of it was always kept in a little corner, spread with a little dry flour on top, which was reserved until the next batch of bread. This little piece was called old yeast and contained enough fermented flour for the bread to rise in the following week’s baking. Before storing that little piece of pasta, it was shaped into a round shape like a small roll and a cross was made with a knife.

As Tòfol Capó (DEP), a former baker, told us, the old yeast was a remnant of bread from the previous kneading. It was customary to leave it in a covered bowl with a little flour. The night before using it, it was soaked in water. The next day the bread was made by adding the old yeast which was what made the dough rise.

This old yeast, in ancient times, was part of the dowry given to daughters, due to the fact that as soon as they were married they could begin to knead bread for their new home.

How to make sourdough starter at home

You will take a piece of baker’s yeast the size of a chicken egg and melt it in a bowl of hot water. Inside a container you will put the yeast melted with the water, a whole egg – the yolk and the white -, a teaspoon of sugar and the flour that you drink.

You will knead it, make a ball that you will put inside a bowl and make a cross on top, shake off good flour, cover with a kitchen cloth and reserve for making bread, cokes or other preparations that need to rise.