SC - Re: Now Bread Rising

[Decker, Terry D.]

> Thanks so much for the lesson.  Exactly what I had in mind.  Do go on if
> you
> like and as you have time.  I'm thrilled so far.
> 
> Katarin - the can't-wait-to-try-these-out
> 
Glad you found my ramblings on rising interesting.  I regularly experiment
with things and I certainly have my share of mistakes.  Most recently, I
mis-timed the ferment on a sour rye leaven and managed to turn gold into
lead, or more accurately a lump of brown dough.  Depressing.  I'm out of rye
flour, so I'll have to get some.  I'll retry the experiment next week.

As a point of interest, I now know of four in period bread recipes.  They
are Platina's, Rastons from the Harleian MSS, Fine Manchet from the Good
Huswife's Handmaide for the Kitchen, and Restons, also from the Good
Huswife's Handmaide.  The first three recipes are to be found in Stefan's
Florilegium.

Platina uses a levain to start his bread and allows it to ferment overnight
in a cool place.  For practical purposes, the levain can be a continually
fed starter, such as we use for sourdough, a mixture of flour and water
which has been allowed to ferment and is used as a one shot starter, a large
piece of dough from a previous baking, or a large ball of dough which is
regularly replenished and from which pieces are taken to start batches of
bread.  In this case, I think Platina is retaining a piece of dough from
each baking to start the next.

The other three recipes use a barm.  In period this would have been dipped
off the top of an active ale pot.  I've simulated this by using dissolving a
pinch of sugar and 1 teaspoon dry active yeast in 1 pint of water.  

None of the recipes specifies a two stage rise, which makes me think that
the dough was mixed, kneaded and shaped, then allowed to rise before baking.
Being a sourdough, Platina's recipe rises overnight, much as modern French
sourdough does.  The rastons are "lat reste a whyle."  The manchets are "let
it lie halfe an hower" (before shaping).  The restons have no rise
specified.  

The restons are an enriched spice bread so the lack of a rise may be to give
them a heavier cake-like texture similar to a cinnamon roll.

The question of when the two stage rise and the sponge method of making
dough began is difficult to infer from the limited recipes.  However,
Gervase Markham's The English Hus-wife (1615) calls for a two stage rise in
his manchet recipe and Louis Liger in Le Menage des champs (1711) has
recipes, probably dating from the 17th Century,  using a two stage rise and
the sponge method.  I need to find a translation of Le Pastissier francois,
which I think will push the sponge method back to at least 1655.

I've about run out of thoughts and time.  I'll be baking goodies for
Coronation over the next few days, during which I'll type up a few recipes
including the restons.  With a little luck, I can get back to that sour rye
on Monday.

Bear 
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