Re(2): SC - leftovers

[Paul Shore]

Michael F. Gunter wrote:
> 
> >
> > Gunthar,
> >
> > I would be interested in seeing this recipe. I have by no means seen all
> > the period recipes available and most of the books I have do not cover
> > much in the way of foods for the masses. Certainly in the 15th century
> > cookery books, platina and valleient which are the books I use the most,
> > I haven't seen anything simliar to pizza.
> >
> > Clarissa
> >
> 
> I wish I could but I have no idea of the exact reference book.  I just remember
> reading it and thinking it would be fun for a "No, really.  It's period." Feast.
> 
> Sorry,
> 
> Gunthar

One of the problems with documenting flatbread dishes is that it is
clearly intended as a peasant dish: yet another indicator that food
quality is not always in direct proportion to its price.

Interestingly, it seems to have been fairly standard practice for the
nobility across Europe in the Middle Ages to have eaten their bread
either with soft crusts or with the crusts trimmed off. This is a dish
which, quite intelligently, to my mind, attempts to maximize the crust
element.

Flat breads like this one are probably prehistoric, and the fact is that
there is an extremely sparse record of bread recipes, and few of those
that remain to us are for peasant breads, if any. However, pictures and
descriptions remain. Probably the oldest traditional flatbread still
eaten today, and closest to pizza, is the pissaladiere of Marseille,
Provence, Nice, etc. It is generally made from a stretched  disk of
bread dough, topped with olive oil, garlic, caramelized onions, herbs,
black olives, and anchovies. Probably Greek with later Roman additions.

I think the best rule to follow if one wanted to try to proceed on the
theory that this (or a variant thereof) is a period dish, is to remember
the difference between what we know and what we are guessing based on
what we know. The temptation to simply make pizza without tomatoes seems
to be quite strong for some people (myself included) but there is no
real indication that that would be recognized by an actual person in
period as a familiar food. Flatbreads seem to have been most prevalent
in places where low-gluten grains prevailed, and in areas where, for one
reason or another, ovens were less common. Focaccia, its French cousin,
fougass (sp?) and the various pizza-like breads are in a distinct
minority against oatcakes, bannocks, pancakes, sgians [scones], lefse,
lavosh, etc, inasmuch as they violate the rules rather than support
them. That's one of the reasons they are a bad thingto make unbased
assumptions about.

Toodle-pip!
Adamantius   

Incidentally, Neapolitan pizza is reported (by the Neapolitans, anyway)
to have been invented in the 18th century...