SC - Long-Period food, bread, etc.

[Philip & Susan Troy]

James & Melody Mahanna wrote:
> 
> I am preparing to Feastocrat my first feast in March.  One of the
> Lords who usually has this honor informed me tonight that "no-one likes
> period food".  I have been diligently been researching various recipes
> from period sources along with Internet resources and couldn't
> disagree more!  Most everypne I have spoken with wants (1) Edible food 
> (2) A pleasurable experience & (3) A reasonable attempt at period food.

So there were a few people you spoke to who didn't want those things ; 
)  ? I'm surprised!

Actually, I have heard the line that nobody likes period food dozens of
times in the past fifteen years or so in the SCA, and it is utter
nonsense. Nobody likes bad food. Everybody likes good food. Just as
modern food can be good or bad, so can period food. With almost no
exception, every instance I can think of wherein people didn't like
period food was the result of either one of two causes: either the food
was just badly prepared because the cook didn't know any better, or
somebody decided to make it bad in order to show that period food is
bad. Yes, that last bit sounds insane but I am told there was once a
gentleman in Anteorra (perhaps His Holiness Sir Gunthar could confirm or
deny this?) who kneaded gravel into his bread because he felt it would
make it more authentic. In the same category, as far as I'm concerned,
are things like putting sheep's eyeballs in the soup, because the cook
felt that that is the sort of thing period people would have liked, and
then he could go back to steak and potatoes for his next feast.

As with the axiom that there are no small parts, only small actors, I
feel there are no (or at least very, very, few) bad period dishes, only
bad cooks. This is borne out by the (I think) fifteenth century English
proverb which states that God sends us good meat, but the devil sends
cooks. 

> I personally feel that if I am paying to recreate the Middle Ages the
> person cooking should make a reasonable attempt to cook that way.

Yep. To me a cook is bound by the same type of rules that any other
practitioner of an SCA activity is. He or she must ask himself what this
teaches us, or others, about the period we concentrate on. Avoiding
period food because "people don't like it" is kind of like a really
klutzy, incompetent fighter arguing that he should be allowed a gun on
the field, since fighting with period-type weapons, in a period style,
doesn't succeed in killing his opponents. In both cases I'd suggest the
person try a different approach.

> Anyway ...(big deep breath) is there anyone with a GOOD yeast bread
> recipe.  I have a wonderful Russian Round Bread recipe, but I am not
> quite sure how "period" it is.  Thanks!

There aren't a heck of a lot of period bread recipes that have survived.
This is probably because much of the bread that was eaten in period
would have been baked by professional bakers, in a bakery, which had
little or nothing in common with the kitchens whose recipe collections
have come down to us. 

A simple "white" bread recipe, as suitable for most of period Europe,
would be something like this:

2 packets dry yeast, or equivalent in sourdough starter, barm, etc.
1 Tbs salt
1 Tbs sugar
~1 cup lukewarm water (~100-110 degrees F.)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour

Various things like a couple of tablespoons of butter or an egg could be
added, and something like milk or ale could be substituted for the
water, but I find technique to be more important than non-essential
ingredients, especially when you are dealing with potential
ovo-lacto-vegetarians, to say nothing of period dietary laws regarding
animal products.

If you're using dry yeast follow the directions on the package. Anything
else you might use, be it fresh cake yeast, barm, sourdough, or
whatever, would end up being mixed with the sugar, the salt, and the
liquid. Start with a cup of the liquid, but you may need a bit more. You
don't want to use any more liquid than is absolutely necessary.

Add the flour and mix to make a stiff dough. Use only enough liquid to
absorb all the flour into the mass of dough. Knead the dough until it is
smooth, elastic, and not sticky. It may actually have a slight shine to
it. This should take around ten minutes, but whole wheat doughs might
take longer, so you're better off with the above signs. Put the dough on
a floured board, and cover it with a _slightly_ oiled bowl, or put it
into the oiled bowl, roll it around a little until it is coated with
oil, and cover with a piece of plaswrap. Leave it to rise in a warm,
draft-free room. Preheat your oven to around 425 degrees. If your
kitchen wasn't warm enough to be a warm, draft-free room, it probably
will be in a few minutes after you light your oven. Let the dough rise
until double in bulk, probably around 45 minutes. Punch it down, give it
a quick knead of one or two turns, and return it to the board or bowl,
and let it rise again until almost double in bulk. This time it will be
faster, probably around 30 minutes.

Now form your loaf. The easiest way to do this that I have found is to
flip the dough over, so that the domed top is now on the bottom as the
dough lies on the board. Gather the edges up and together, pressing them
together like drawstring pouch. Keep repeating this process until the
top is a small knot of compressed dough in the middle, and the rest of
the surface (the bottom) is a tightly stretched elastic membrane of
extended gluten. Now flip it back over, tucking the knot into the center
as you flip. Now your stretched membrane, which is the foundation for a
good crust, is on top, where it belongs. Place it on a baking sheet, or
in a greased pan (I'm extremely fond of using a cast-iron skillet), or
on a wooden baker's peel, or whatever you plan to use to get ead into
the oven. You may want to slash the surface of the dough with a sharp
knife, razor blade, etc. A cross is nice, and very common, but you might
want to experiment with, for example, the Gervase Markham trick of
slashing a circular cut around the waistline of your round loaf, which
will give you a sort of hatbox shape to your baked loaf. Let the loaf
rest one more time, for 20 or 30 minutes. Again, it will have risen
somewhat. Put the loaf in the oven.

Beep. Beep. Certified professional baker's trick alert! Keep handy a
clean plant mister filled with plain water. Spray the loaf with a fine
mist of water just before putting it into the oven. After five minutes,
do it again. After another five minutes, do it a third, and final time.
This helps develop a good, baguette-like, crust. (If you miss and hit
the back or bottom of the oven, instead of the loaf, it really doesn't
seem to make a difference, provided you don't extinguish the oven flame.
Electric ovens are shielded from this type of thing, and should pose no
problem.)

Bake for anywhere from 25-45 minutes, depending on the size and shape of
the loaf. If, after half an hour or so, it shows no signs of browning,
you might consider a wash or glaze of some kind. An egg beaten with a
little water and some salt is the industrial standard, but you can use
whites only, with water and salt (which gives a shine, but no browning),
yolks with water and salt, or even milk or cream and salt, for both
browning and sheen.

The bread is done when it produces a hollow sound when rapped on the
bottom. If you have it in a loaf pan, you can do the old bit with
sticking a skewer in it, or try tapping it on the top.

I'm sure there are others on this list, who bake more than I do, and who
might have different methods, or favorite special recipes. But, this one
works well, and provides a good all-purpose period-type loaf, and is
almost universally acceptable to anyone who eats bread at all, so even
those who don't eat eggs, or milk products, or who want assurances that
no yaks were molested during the production of this loaf, should have no
problems. The only real problem I can think of would be for those who
don't eat processed sugar, but then the yeast will have eaten most of
it, anyway.

Hope this helps!

Adamantius
______________________________________
Phil & Susan Troy
troy at asan.com
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