SC - waste?

[CBlackwill at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/28/00 11:22:47 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
cindy at thousandeggs.com writes:

>  was glancing through Markham today, looking at a bread recipe, & came
>  across this line: "fold it in a cloth, and with your feet tread it a good
>  space together".  This reminded me to ask you - when the dough is folded,
>  kneaded, rolled out, or whatever, on a cloth (depending on the elasticity
>  of the dough) some tends to stick to the cloth.  (And if the cloth is left
>  for a few days unwashed it turns truly 'orrible, Bruce.) My question is,
>  what, if anything, was done with these 'leavings'?  Were they rinsed out,
>  or dried & beaten off, and used somehow?  Or were they wasted? Has anyone
>  come across a reference to this?

I may be wrong about this, but i think even in the Middle Ages good cooks and 
scullery maids would spread a generous amount of flour on the cloth prior to 
rolling (or stomping) the dough.  Therefore, there should have been very 
little waste stuck to the cloth.

As for the use of anything that did get left behind, I, personally, have 
nothing on this.  I can't imagine there would be much use for it, unless you 
have a lot of ducks to feed...



Man cannot live on bread alone... he must have beer to soak it in.