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I'm attempting a recipe for buckwheat milk from Blissful Basil.

The recipe calls for the following ingredients:

  • 1 cup raw buckwheat groats
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 3 cups filtered water
  • 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • pinch sea salt

and quoting the first instruction step:

In an airtight container, combine the buckwheat groats and apple cider vinegar. Cover with warm water and soak for 8 hours or overnight. Drain and thoroughly rinse with cool water.

The exact amount of "warm water" is not specified anywhere in the recipe. The "3 cups of filtered water" in the ingredient list is meant for another instruction step.

Have emailed the creator of this recipe but there was no response from her on this, hence I'm posting my question here and hoping to get some inputs!

culinascience
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1 Answers1

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The amount is indirectly specified by the wording "Cover with warm water". You simply put the groats in a vessel of your choosing, then add as much water as it takes to cover them well. Then, add several more centimeters, so they will still be covered when they expand during the soaking.

Since you always need to have an excess of water, there is no need to specify any exact amount. Just keep them covered.

rumtscho
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  • Would the amount of water needed to cover depend on the chosen vessel? For some vessels it might take more water to cover, for other vessels, less. My concern is about the consistency as well. – culinascience Nov 05 '21 at 02:35
  • Yes, it will certainly depend on the chosen vessel. – rumtscho Nov 05 '21 at 07:30
  • I would like to ensure that I can maintain the exact same pH each time I soak the buckwheat groats, regardless of the vessel. Could I go with something more absolute rather than a relative approximation of adding enough water to cover the groats? – culinascience Nov 05 '21 at 15:26
  • Anyways, thanks for your input! It does answer my question, I guess I didn't really regard the "cover with warm water" instruction as an indication of the quantity of water to use. Because that isn't really a precise amount, which might lead to variable results on the final product. I'm really looking for consistency especially when scaling up to bigger batches. If you have any thoughts on this, that would be very much appreciated! – culinascience Nov 05 '21 at 15:51
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    If you want to always have the same pH, just make a sufficiently large batch of water-vinegar mixture of your desired pH and fill up your groats vessel with as much as you need, or even fill it to the brim, and discard the remaining water-vinegar mixture. Else, "cover with water" might not be a precise amount, but it is the right amount, which is better than precision. – rumtscho Nov 05 '21 at 15:58
  • Thats a very valid point and I'm getting the perspective now. What purpose do you think the acidity here serves though? Also is it better to lean towards the side of the pH being lower, is lower better here? – culinascience Nov 05 '21 at 18:36
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    I have no idea why the vinegar is used, so I can't tell you what is better. I cannot think of any theoretical advantage of using it (actually there are disadvantages, since it hardens the cell walls), so maybe it is for taste. – rumtscho Nov 05 '21 at 19:17
  • Just took a closer look at the recipe webpage and found that its explained there, quoting directly: `Soaking the buckwheat with a splash of vinegar (i.e., acid) makes it easier to digest which affords our bodies more direct access to the vitamins and minerals within those heart-shaped little groats.` Does it really work that way? If the cell walls get hardened instead, that would run counter to the goal of making the groats easier to digest. – culinascience Nov 06 '21 at 06:19
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    I don't know. Most health claims in the world are random unproven myths anyway, so they are explicitly excluded from a discussion on the site. – rumtscho Nov 06 '21 at 08:49