SC - barley & fashions in food preparation techniques

[Stapleton, Jeanne]

> When do folks start putting caraway seed in rye bread?  Or poppy seed on
> rolls, etc., or adding nuts and other 'good stuff' to various breads?  Do
> we know any of this, with so few bread recipes?
> 
> Allison
> allilyn at juno.com, Barony Marche of the Debatable Lands, Pittsburgh, PA
> Kingdom of Aethelmearc
> 
I don't know when caraway got into rye, but sesame and poppy seed cakes show
up in Egyptian tombs.  Unfortunately, from the descriptions, I can't tell if
the cakes are made of seeds with a binding agent like honey or are a dough
with seeds worked in.  What I need to do is spend some time in the stacks of
a good archeology collection.

As an opinion, I think that having seeds in bread is likely prehistoric in
origin and occurred originally because of the low extraction rates of hand
milling. 

There is a mosaic of a bakery from Herculaneum or Pompeii which (IIRC) shows
a ring shaped loaf with what appears to be sesame seeds on it.  Since my
memory is foggy, I'll locate the photograph of the mosaic and let you know.

As for adding "good stuff" to breads, this appears to have become a common
thing in Elizabethean England with the increased availability of fresh and
candied fruits.  I've come across a recipe for "Restons" from the late 16th
Century which appears to be a fruit bread.  I plan to compare it to the 14th
Century "Raston" recipe to see how the recipe has changed.

I haven't checked the Arabic corpus, but perhaps Cariadoc could tell us if
it contains any bread recipes with nuts or fruit.

Bear  


 
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