The German Catholic priest Sebastian Kneipp (1821-1897) is first and foremost remembered as the grounder of a series of spas where he put into practice his theories of the water cure. His brand of hydrotherapy — a treatment that includes walking barefoot in the morning dew, baths, wet compresses, cold affusions, etc. — is called Kneippism. Kneipp’s holistic ideas around health and healing encompass hydrotherapy, phytotherapy (the use of plants or herbs in medicine), exercise, nutrition, and an idea of mind-body balance.
Kneipp also concerned himself with ideas specifically around healthy and unhealthy flour: in the white flour we buy in the grocery store, the bran and the germ has been removed and only the endosperm part of the wheat berry remains. The parts that are removed (the bran and germ) contains large amount of B vitamins, protein, iron, fat, and fiber. Kneipp pointed out the nutritional danger in leaving out these parts, and insisted on using whole wheat flour for baking bread.
Ein bedeutender Arzt behauptet, wenn man einem Hunde nur Brod vom feinsten Mehl und Wasser gäbe, so krepiere er in 40 Tagen. Mahlt man aber das ganze Korn, also mit der Schale, und gibt ihm das aus diesem Mehl bereitete Brod, dann lebt er viele Jahre. Wenn daher die Leute jetzt nur mehr Kunstmehl kaufen und dieses zu ihrer Speise bereiten, wie armselig werden sie davon genährt!
I've been told that even in whole wheat flour — for reasons of extending the shelf life — the germ is sometimes removed. So milling your own flour might be the best way to ensure that the whole kernel is used in your flour, and this way you’ll also always have the freshest flour. A bag of whole wheat kernels stores a lot longer than a bag of milled flour, and on top of all this you can expect more complex flavors from whole wheat flour which you mill yourself.
Get your miller to grind your wheat together with the bran. Millers, as a rule, do not like to do this for well known reasons; therefore the flour returned from the mill should be well inspected. […] Those who on account of larger consumption of branbread, are able to buy one of the grinding-machines especially made for this purpose, will be best off; they can never be cheated.
When I grew up in Norway (and I believe this still holds true) the most popular bread at bakeries and in grocery stores was offered under the name of Kneipp brød. I think most people didn’t know the bread was named after Sebastian Kneipp, and in fact we considered it a somewhat trashy option, probably because it was the cheapest option and because this bread quickly went stale. I don’t know what was used in the recipe of the Norwegian Kneipp bread, but if the ingredients were something in line with Father Kneipp’s original ideas, we might unknowingly have landed on a pretty good option every time we chose that cheap and “trashy“ Kneipp bread. (Kneipp’s recipe for the bread, however, is for an unleavened bread— he thought using yeast was a bad idea. I don’t know where he stood on sourdough.)
Kneippism is listed in UNESCO’s German Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage. This is why I like to think that my sourdough bread, baked with flour I mill from whole wheat kernels, is acknowledged by UNESCO.
Soll es bei der Menschheit besser werden und Blutarmuth und Gebrechlichkeit wieder mehr verschwinden, so muß große Sorge darauf verwendet werden, daß unverfälschte Nahrungsmittel überhaupt und besonders gutes Naturmehl in die Küche kommen.
Bibliography
- Kneipp, Sebastian. So sollt ihr leben! (Winke und Rathschläge für Gesunde und Kranke zu einer einfachen, vernünftigen Lebensweise und einer naturgemäßen Heilmethode). Kempten: Jos. Kösel'schen Buchhandlung, 1889.
- Kneipp, Sebastian. My Water Cure: tested for more than 35 years and published for the cure of diseases and the preservation of health. London: H. Grevel, 1898.
- Reinhart, Peter. The Bread Baker’s Apprentice : Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 2001.