SC - Re: "Interpretation" vs "redaction?"

[ana l. valdes]

What do you mean by dark?  I can get a dark brown from whole meal rye.  Or a
light to medium brown from whole meal wheat. I'm certain a medieval baker
could get the same.  What I have not been able to reproduce is the black of
a modern pumpernickel loaf.

It is likely the darkest loaves in the Middle Ages were adulterated with nut
flour or ground legumes.  In general, the bread of choice was fine wheat
bread, as white as possible, and brown breads were for the less affluent.  I
haven't tried these flours yet, but it is an idea for what to do with the
leftover walnuts from the Christmas baking.  It may also be that I haven't
been able to get the right grade of dark, whole meal rye flour, but I doubt
it.

I suspect that the coffee, cocoa and black molasses business is of 19th
Century origin to produce those healthy peasant breads and restore the
vitality of the good burghers.

In general, the way to get a darker loaf is to use a coarse, whole meal
flour from dark grain and don't bolt out the germ.  The oils in the germ
tend to make the crumb bake darker.  Using dark syrups for sweetner seem to
help darken bread, but that is probably from the complexity of the sugars,
rather than the color of the sweetner.  Also I don't see a medieval baker
wasting much sweetner on an inexpensive loaf. 

Thanks for making me think about that.  I may be able to get a natural black
loaf yet.

Bear 


> By this presumption, that cocoa or molasses are oft added to pumpernickel,
> 
> than their is no period dark bread?  Other than adding honey or mead/mash
> to 
> bread how would period dark bread have been made.
> 
> Frederich
> 
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