[Sca-cooks] Spanish baking question: "breaking" the dough

[Decker, Terry D.]

I see two possible equivalencies in English for "break down the dough."

A "brake" is a device for kneading large amounts of dough.  The modern
version looks something like a large, motorized wringer.  You seldom find
one outside of an industrial scale bakery.

The drawing (and I have not been able to ascertain if it is indeed
comtemporary) I have seen of a medieval brake is of a large pole attached to
a pivot point on the wall such that it can be rolled across dough on a
kneading table.  "Riding the brake" in this context means sitting on the
pole to increase the pressure on the dough.

The device makes a great deal of sense when one considers that a medieval
baker was often called upon to turn 240 pounds of flour into bread during a
day's baking.  So if this recipe deals with large quantities of dough, the
"breaking" may refer to kneading.

The other possibility is the one you mention, breaking down the gluten.  It
takes about 30 minutes to get gluten breakdown by hand (less if you don't
use salt, which strengthens gluten).  So, looking at the ingredients, I
would estimate about 10 minutes in a mixer.  When you stretch the dough and
it doesn't form strands, you've broken down the gluten.

Bear

> I've been looking at some recipes for baked goods in Granado,
> and there's
> some terminology that I'm not sure of.  He directs the cook
> to mix a certain
> dough and "hervirla muy bien, que rompan la massa".  This translates
> literally as "boil it very well, so that they break the dough."
>
> Normally "hervir" means to cause a liquid to boil.  It is
> *not* used to refer to
> cooking something in boiling liquid.  I suspect that this is
> a secondary,
> archaic meaning, perhaps along the lines of "to agitate".  As
> for "breaking
> the dough", I wonder if this might mean kneading or beating
> the dough until
> the gluten breaks down.  The dough in this particular recipe
> is a sweet
> dough made of beaten eggs, sugar, and flour.  It is very
> rubbery, and I find it
> almost impossible to roll it out very thin, as directed.
>
> I would like to ask the Spanish-speakers on the list what
> they think of the
> vocabulary issue, and to ask the bakers on the list what they
> think of the
> dough issue.  How do I know when the gluten is broken down?  How many
> minutes kneading in my trusty KitchenAid are likely to be necessary?
>
> The dough proportions, btw, are:
> 12 eggs
> 1/2 pound sugar
> enough flour to make a firm dough
>
>
> Brighid ni Chiarain
> Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
> mka Robin Carroll-Mann  ***  rcmann4 at earthlink.net