Re(2): SC - Bread

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Sue Wensel wrote:
 
> >Well, the evidence suggests that white bread as we know it today
> >probably didn't exist until around the 18th-19th centuries. White bread
> >in period would have been made from whole wheat flour with much of the
> >larger particles of bran sifted out. That still leaves the particles too
> >small to be caught in the bolting cloth. Even if you allow for some
> >natural bleaching of the flour to occur, as, say,  it sits in a
> >not-quite-airtight container between grinding and use, I suspect it
> >still wouldn't have been likely to get any lighter in color than the
> >lighter commercial whole-wheat breads such as Roman Meal.
> 
> I don't concur on this.  Markham has several recipes calling for "fine white
> flour."  I don't think our whole wheat flours will fit that bill.  I think
> they were able to get rather fine flour by bolting several times and I suspect
> they had some fairly fine bolting cloths.  Unfortunately, I don't have any
> sources with me (at work) and the ones I have read are currently in the local
> library.

"White" appears often to have been a relative term, as in white
marmalade of quinces, which is reddish amber in color, white puddings,
which are usually pale beige. My family are all fair-complected and
fairly pale, with brown eyes and hair, and the lady next door, born in
Dublin, calls me "Blackie", because we aren't blonde or redhaired. As
for flour, I'm sure that by repeated boltings (and I have done the whole
Little Red Hen thing myself, starting from a single ear of wheat and
ending up with bread) you can get it much finer and paler than pure,
fresh, stone-ground whole wheat flour, but you still won't get the kind
of flour your baker or a bread factory uses to make white bread, and you
won't get that kind of bread, either, unless the baker makes a bread
from mixed white and whole wheat flour.
 
> The wheat I don't know much about.  What is your recommended reading on this?

I believe both "Food in History" (Reay Tannahill) and "Food and Drink In
Britain" (C. Anne Wilson) go into the issue of period bread. For the
hard science of it, see Harold McGee's "On Food And Cooking" and "The
Curious Cook". Probably also Margaret Visser's "Much Depends On Dinner".
I used to have a book called "The Staffs of Life", which went into this
pretty well also, but I don't remember the author or where the book is.

Adamantius
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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