SC - Intro and Bread Request

[Donna Hrynkiw]

Greetings to this gathering of folks from Elizabeth Braidwood of An Tir,
newly subscribed to this list.

(I do believe I see a few familiar faces here -- Berengaria, Anne-Marie...)

I come with a request and bearing a few gifts in compensation.

First off, I'm not an SCA Cook (do I hears gasps all around?), but I do
enjoy baking a tasty and interesting loaf of bread or two. Only recently
has my bread-baking interest turned toward medieval breads. Any bakers out
there?

I've explored obvious bread-history sources, such as Elizabeth David's
"English Breads and Yeast Cookery", "World Sourdoughs from Antiquity"
by Ed Wood, and now I'm searching for the more obscure stuff. (Or have
I missed any 'obvious' sources?)

What I would like to request from you is to drop me a note when you run
across a reference to medieval flour, bread or baking in your wanderings;
references to bread (especially if they're describing it), pictures
of bakers and ovens, millers and mills, references to baking techniques
(rising/fermenting, frequency of baking, etc), well, you get the idea.

In the meantime, I'm experimenting with spelt flour, drying and keeping
my sourdough starter, baking with ale barm/godisgud, and getting the
balance of rye vs. wheat juuuuust right in my own 'sourdough rye' bread.
I'll let you know how it goes.

In return, I offer some links to interesting food/cooking websites you
may not know about:

John Baptist Porta "Natural Magic" (1584)
   http://www2.tscnet.com/pages/omard1/jportat2.html
   Twenty "books" on such diverse topics as "Of the Generation of Animals",
   "Of Increasing Household-Stuff" (preserving fruits, bread, etc), "Of
   Distillation", "Of Cookery", "Of Fishing, Fowling, Hunting, etc", etc

Masonry Stove Builders "Brick Oven" page
   http://mha-net.org/msb/html/bakeoven.htm
   It's my dream to build a brick bake oven in my back yard one day.
   More oven-building: http://www.ftech.net/~regia/ovens.htm
   
The Old Timer Page
   http://www.lis.ab.ca/walton/old/default.htm
   Making butter or soap or sauerkraut, or building a root cellar hasn't
   changed much in hundreds of years.

Cheese of Antiquity
   http://www.windward.org/ush/cheese.htm
   Despite its title, this is actually a page about SCA cheese-making.

Spicefinder
   http://www.silk.net/sirene/spicefin.htm
   Identifying uncommon spices by Francesco Sirene, Spicer.

Best,

Elizabeth
Call me "E.B."

==================
"What do you get if you don't document your zoodles? A Zoodle without
a cause."   -- Arlys

Gaudium est in Factio (The Joy is in the Doing.)
Mistress Elizabeth "E.B." Braidwood, Northern Region, An Tir
braidwood at antir.sca.org  or donna at kwantlen.bc.ca

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