SC - Bread

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Sue Wensel wrote:
> 
> >I've used unsliced commercial whole grain loaves, the market calls
> >them "Peasant style."  They're often round or oval instead of
> >Wonder Bread shaped.  Sometimes I use bread dough from the
> >supermarket, but baked on site that day (and if I could get dough
> >other than plain white, I'd do it more often).
> 
> Why do you not use plain white?  I understand the loaf shape, though I don't
> know what evidence we have for it.  Bread pan shaped loaves strike us as too
> modern.  Is that part of your reason for not using white bread?
> 
> >Caitlin Davies
> 
> Just curious.
> 
> Derdriu
> swensel at brandegee.lm.com


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.

Period European breads would also have been heavier in texture, since
through most of Europe the wheat grown and eaten was much softer (read
lower in gluten) than what we are accustomed to today.

Adamantius
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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