Drink your old bread? YES! Ferment those leftovers and within a week or two that bread will be turned into a fizzy drink similar to beer that is both nutritious and delicious. Depending on how long you ferment it and how much sugar you put it - the wild yeasts aren’t designed to make an alcohol much higher than 1.5-2.8% abv. Depending on all the variables - the more sugar and time, the boozier.
Not only is this an excellent way to use up a stale loaf but it’s a little bit of magic as it ferments and fizzes and tastes like a very rustic cross between cider and beer. The most ancient beer I guess.
Once known as Russian ‘cola’, real Kvass isn’t just enjoyed for the flavour and fizz but also for the energy and nutritional content. At times it was safer than water and thought of as medicinal; it could kill parasites and unwanted bacteria. It was the most common drink in every class. As with Piquette, when 'high society' considered it a peasants drink, it also lost it's appeal gradually with mainstream society.
Kvass then had to compete with western soft drinks flooding in but more recently making a bit of a come back - yes! We are all starting to need our traditional living foods again. In fact, there is a Russian company called Nikola (which in Russian sounds like ‘not cola’) who are promoting their Kvass with a campaign touting ‘ anti- cola-nisation’, (haha love it).
The first time we made a large vat of this was the most public. Alla Wolf-Tasker, our local mentor and food doyenne, had invited a famous Russian chef (Vladimir Mukhin) to our little town of Daylesford. They decided to pair Kvass with one of the dishes and she called to see if I could make it. I said yes even though I’d never really made it for anyone but myself. It occurred to me that it would be very difficult to successfully brew and meet the standards of both a childhood memory (Alla) and a visiting, patriotic chef (the Russian)? Oh well.
Ah I always say yes. And then get anxious. And whilst I didn’t get anything other than the satisfaction and memory - I believe it turned out fine. No regrets.
The word Kvass literally means ‘leaven’ and is traditionally made with dark Rye bread. I recommend using this to begin with as the flavour carries beautifully and the drink is a gorgeous caramel colour. It also gives a lovely body to your Kvass. After you’ve made your first few successful batches I think go ahead and experiment with a mix of breads. There is a variation below using hot cross buns or raisin toast too of which I often have ends left over at home.
RYE KVASS RECIPE
EQUIPMENT
5 litre plus jar, food safe bucket or tub
large stirring spoon or stick
bottles
funnel
strainer
fire/pot/oven for toasting the bread
INGREDIENTS
800 g cubed, dried and roasted dark rye bread (about a loaf)
4 litres of your best water
300 g organic raw sugar
100 g raw honey
100 g malt
handful of raisins (organic, no oil)
one swath of orange peel
A sprig of mint
A tablespoon of your sourdough discard if you have some.
HOW TO:
Cut the rye bread into cubes, or if already in slices, that’s OK. Leave out to dry.
Spread the bread out onto an oven tray and roast at 180ºC until dried into rusks; burning it in places will give you a caramel flavour. I love to pop them onto the BBQ, smoke them and then burn the edges which gives a gorgeous, dark almost whiskey flavour.
When your bread is ready - pour some of the water into your fermenting container, add the sugars, and stir to dissolve as well as possible.
Add the toasted bread, raisins, orange peel and mint and the rest of the water
Cover with a cloth and sit aside to ferment for around a week
You’ll want to check in and stir this occasionally - literally dunking the bread back under
You want to keep it moving so as not to attract yeasts as the top layer can get mouldy if left to sit alone for too long.
Taste it after 5 days, and if it is souring nicely with a lovely depth, and a hint of effervescence, it’s ready to bottle.
Don’t panic if it’s not ready. There are so many variables to consider here; the temperature in your room, the kind of bread, the sugars you added and so on. I’ve been known to let mine go for several weeks so don’t worry if it needs more time.
When it is ready - strain the solids out, and if you want something clearer then line a strainer with some cheesecloth and strain again.
Bottle your Kvass - and if you feel it needs a boost to get it fizzy (say the flavour is just right but only a very slight hint of effervescence - then add a few raisins and then lid. The extra raisins will add sugar and feed the yeasts to help boost the fizz.
This is the second ferment (2F) so you can also pop in more mint, or other flavours if you like. Things like sour cherries, or coffee beans, vanilla and other spices go really well. I have made a lovely one with a few sticks of rhubarb and a dash of cold (left over) coffee.
Make sure to lid well. To encourage further carbonation sit your bottles out for a further 24 hours before refrigerating. This is one of those ferments that can actually POP! So make sure you are using very thick bottles.
Kvass is best served chilled.
NOTES:
Refrigeration slows fermentation down but doesn’t stop it. Use good quality, thick glass bottles, swing top or plastic soda bottles.
As with all fermenting projects like this - keep your work area and hands very clean - even more so your bottles, funnels, bowls and strainers. Sanitised with very hot water but don’t panic too much. Imagine how we made versions of this in the most rudimentary kitchens long ago.
If you don’t have malt just use honey - if your honey is too precious, just use sugar. The amount and types of sugar you use is really up to you and you will hit the ‘sweet spot’ of what you like and what makes if fizzy over time. This is how we like it and what goes well with the dark rye bread we have.
The mush that is left? You can use this too. We have blended it to make a paste and dehydrated that into crackers which was quite lovely.
One flavour variation:
Hot cross bun or raisin toast kvass
We have always gone camping at Easter. Mornings are for hot cross buns toasted on the fire, and early evenings are for rugging up and sitting by the fire with a glass of this. Maybe you’ll just drink this in the morning instead.
Simply replace the rye bread with hot cross buns (or if unavailable, raisin bread), toasted and slightly caramelised here and there as per the recipe above.
Taste after a couple of days. Depending on the strength of the flavours in the bread you may like to add a cinnamon stick, a couple of cloves, a handful of extra raisins and some orange peel, sliced. Then let it ferment further until soured nicely, then bottle.
