[Sca-cooks] 13th century bread

[kylie walker]

Does anyone else on the list subscribe to Slow magazine (the quarterly
magazine of the International Slow Food Movement)? In the most recent issue,
in an article on "Famine in the Islamic World", the author talks about the
writings of Ibn al Awwam, a 13th century agronomist. Among the things al
Awwam apparently discussed in his Livre de l'agriculture were various ways
to make bread, using, among other things, the ground seeds of grapes and
cistus seeds.

This is the first I have heard of either of these used as bread ingredients,
but then, I have read basically nothing of the non-European period sources.
I went for a hunt in that wonderful storehouse of knowledge and opinions,
the Florilegium, and found a surprisingly small amoung of references to the
non-European bread making literature. There is a posting from Lord Ras,
pointing to numerous 13th-century recipes for bread in al-baghdadi.

So, folks far more knowledgable than I, what's the story? Is the al-baghdadi
another name for the writings of al awwam, or something completely
different? And has anyone ever tried making bread with ground grape seeds or
cistus seeds? (If it helps, cistus is apparently also known as a rock rose.
Yes, I had to look it up ...)

Kylie (who could get hold of grape seeds in large quantities during vintage,
and feels a project stirring ...)
_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.