SC - Travel Bread

[Decker, Terry D.]

I've never come across this one.  I'm not sure I would find a bagel salted
with horse lather very palatable.

Frankly, most of the travel breads I am familiar with are double baked
breads like hardtack or flat bread.  These would most likely been wrapped in
a cloth and carried in a pack or a saddle bag.  Hanging food around the neck
of a horse is the kind of thing I would expect of a post rider or by troops
on a forced march, rather than just travelling.

A water bagel with its tough skin and its' moisture retaining properties
might make a good travel bread, but I haven't seen a reference to bagels
being used this way.

Most breads with center holes are shaped that way to insure they bake
properly.  That they can be hung from a staff and sold is an added
advantage.

Apocryphally, the bagel was first made in 1683 to Jan Sobieski's victory
over the Turks.  But there are supposed to be some earlier references to
them.  There is some archeological evidence that a bread of this type was in
use by the Uighurs as early as 100 CE.  

Bear


> Just a general question..... Dr. Henry Lumpkin in his lecture series "The
> History of Warfare" Made the statement that travel bread was made in a
> bagel
> shape, threaded through rope and hung around the horses neck when
> traveling
> light (Such as a Knight on horseback). 
> 
> I was wondering if any of you bread experts
> out there could point me to an actual written historical reference to
> this?
> 
> Did traval bread sometimes come in the form of a bagel and was the
> function to
> be hung on a rope? 
> 
> Actually, when you think about how much jews had to travel... it makes
> sense,
> but if anybody knows where to look, point me in the right direction
> please?
> 
> Corwyn
> 
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