SC - Lefse/hleifr

[Nanna Rögnvaldardóttir]

- -----Original Message-----
From: LrdRas at aol.com <LrdRas at aol.com>
To: sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG <sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG>
Date: 25. ágúst 1999 00:34
Subject: Re: SC - Lefse/hleifr


Ras wrote:

>This recipe that you site is probably one of the oldest we have heard of.
>Please share the recipe. :-)

The recipe comes from "Koge Bog: Indeholdendis et hundrede fornødene stycker
Som ere om Brygning, Bagning, Kogen, Brendewijn oc Miød at berede, aare
nyttelig udi husholding, etc., Som tilforn icke paa vort Danske Sprog udi
Tryck er udgangen", Copenhagen, 1616. As the title says, this is the oldest
printed Danish cookbook, and it has one hundred recipes.

A fairly rough translation of the bread recipe is as follows:

A good household truly needs good bread and ale, and this is often  lacking
even in fairly prosperous households, not because they do not  want to use
what is needed for this, rather because rye, flour, malt, pots  and barrels
are not treated as they should, nor the fire correctly regulated; therefore
I will begin the book with a short discourse on  baking and brewing; not
fully (as that is the domain of the professional  bakers and brewers), but
only as each householder needs for his  kitchen.

Firstly take care to preserve your rye well, so no midden will get into  the
flour during the summer, as the bread will then taste bad. Therefore  sift
all husks carefully from the grain, as it may cause the rye to absorb
moisture and be damaged.

Then you should have your flour ground at the beginning of  as much as you
will use for a whole year in your household. If you have  it ground during
the summer, it will come warm from the mill, and if you then want to keep it
for some time, middens will appear or the  bread will be moldy, bad tasting,
etc.

If you want nice white bread, then take the rye when it is dry, sprinkle it
with water and place it in a barrel and tread it well with clean feet, then
send it to the mill. But the millers do not care to mill such rye, as it
wears the stones out too much.

When you want to bake, then wash your bowl carefully, and also your hands
and nails, and have everything nice and clean, no hairs, threads  and such
stuff. Then add some sourdough to the flour; as the bread one bakes with
sourdough is always more healthy than the sweet, especially  for the common
man in these lands.

When the dough is well risen, then knead it and work it quite well; the
more working it gets, the better your bread will be. Some cast a handful of
fine salt into the dough, especially during  summer and autumn, when the
danger of spoilage is greatest, as the  bread will then not spoil so
quickly. Some also add Danish cumin  (caraway), aniseeds, coriander seeds or
other such stuff to the dough,  which makes the bread taste good, even dill
seeds, fennel seeds, etc.

During the Christmas month it is customary to bake several batches in  a
row, as the oven will need less wood and the bread also keeps longer  than
at other times.

As I said, this is a quick and rough translation and any comments are very
welcome.

Nanna

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