Free Making It: Radical Home Ec for a Post-Consumer World by Kelly Coyne, Erik Knutzen

until the vegetables are soft and the meat cooked through. When it’s all done, fish out any bones. Cooked bones are dangerous because they splinter and can perforate a dog’s throat or intestines.
    If you wish, you can blend the soup with a stick blender or in a countertop blender to make the soup more homogenous and easier to digest, but this isn’t strictly necessary. Transfer the soup to a covered container, refrigerate, and dole it out by the scoopful over kibble. It only keeps about a week, so adjust the quantity you make to the size of your dog.

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    Serious Bread

    PREPARATION: 1 3/4 hours
    WAITING: 16 hours
    V OLLKORNBROT, “whole kernel bread” in German, is a dense, whole grain bread popular in northern Europe but difficult to find elsewhere. It’s so dense, in fact, that it’s the black hole of breads, able to suck SUVS into its gravitational pull. V OLLKORNBROT is made with whole kernels of wheat and rye, flaxseed, and sunflower seed. A loaf weighs more than 2 pounds when it comes out of the oven. One slice is a meal.
    Vollkornbrot has such a high moisture content that you can make it on the weekend and nibble at it for the rest of the week. It never seems to dry out. Also in its favor is that it’s a no-knead bread, and it requires no shaping. Making this bread is a 2-day process, but most of that time involves letting the dough sit.
    You can find wheat and rye berries (i.e., whole kernels of wheat and rye) in your typical health food store bulk bin. Rye flour is often sold in bins, too, or in bags alongside regular flour. Crack the wheat and rye berries by throwing them in a blender or a food processor for a few seconds, or grind them in a grain mill. Process the berries in batches so they don’t overwhelm the appliance. You’re done when there are no more whole kernels and all kernels are chopped in half at minimum—finer is better.
    YOU’LL NEED
     
4 ½ ounces wheat berries, cracked
4 ½ ounces rye berries, cracked
4 ½ ounces whole wheat flour
4 ½ ounces rye flour
1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
2 cups water
3 tablespoons sourdough starter (whole wheat, rye, or white) or ½ teaspoon active dry yeast
2 ½ ounces whole wheat berries
½ cup flaxseed
½ cup sunflower seeds (optional)
1 ½ tablespoons barley malt syrup (optional)
Handful of rolled oats

    K ELLY: Erik, I notice the Vollkornbrot recipe is made with sourdough starter, not yeast.
    E RIK: It’s better that way.
    K ELLY: But how many people keep a sourdough starter? Can’t it be made with packaged yeast?
    E RIK: They should make their own sourdough starter. All it takes is flour and water. Sourdough bread tastes better, stays fresh longer, and is more nutritious. Think of all that beautiful wild yeast out there, waiting to be harnessed.
    K ELLY: But realistically . . .
    E RIK: Really, it’s not that hard. It’s how this bread is made. The sourness of the starter melds with grains and makes the flavors deeper, richer. And once people have a starter, they can make other loaves, sourdough pancakes, all kinds of things. Nothing can really replace the flavors wild yeasts bring to the table. Store-bought yeast is for chumps.
    K ELLY (GETTING STERN): Chumps like us. We use it in focaccia. There has to be an alternative, or people won’t bake this bread. It’s hardly raised at all, so it can’t matter that much.
    E RIK (ROLLING HIS EYES): Okay, okay. I’ll work up an alternative. But seriously, they should try it with the starter.
    PUTTING IT TOGETHER
    DAY 1
    STARTING THE SPONGE
    Just before you go to bed, combine the cracked wheat berries, cracked rye berries, whole wheat flour, rye flour, salt, water, and sourdough starter in a large bowl. If you’re using yeast instead of starter, dissolve the yeast in the water before adding it to the other ingredients.
    At the same time, place the whole wheat berries in a separate bowl and add enough water to cover. Let both the sponge and the wheat berries sit, covered, overnight.
    DAY