[Sca-cooks] beer in food

[Stefan li Rous]

Julie commented:

> I don't have any period recipes for this, but.....  my husband and I brew
> and we always use the residue for making bread  Now it makes sense to me
> that this would have happenned, as I can't see the cook allowing anything to
> go to waste.

Yes, this was definitely done.
Here is a message from the breads-msg file in the FOOD-BREADS section of
the Florilegium that gives a rough overview. Since this was sent to this
list by Bear a couple of years ago, he may have some additional info
to add now. I suspect there is also more information on this in the several
files on yeasts and breads that can be found in this section.

> Date: Mon, 13 Oct 1997 10:58:26 -0500
> From: "Decker, Terry D." <TerryD at Health.State.OK.US>
> Subject: RE: Re[2]: SC - beer bread recipe (was re:  small feasts)
>
>> have a quetion about using homerew in cooking.  One of the men in our shire
>>makes a fairly good home brew (so I 'm told).  His beer generally has a layer
>>of stuff in the bottom of the bottle.  When drinking they just pour the beer
>>off gently and then dispose of the sediment.  Would you want to keep that
>>sediment when using it to cook with?  Or is it just nasty stuff that should be
>>disposed of?
>>
>>Mercedes
>>rudin at okway.okstate.edu
>
> The sediment is the residue of the fermentation process and is usually
> pretty bitter and nasty.  I personally would not add it to what I'm
> cooking.
>
> For the beer bread, there should be enough yeast left in the brew to get
> a rise, although it may take longer than the original chemical aeration.
>  I would use the beer at room temperature or even warm it to 90 to 100
> degrees F to improve the action.  If you are still worried about the
> rise, add about a 1/4 teaspoon of dry active yeast to the beer.  Actual
> rise time will depend on temperature, quantity of ingredients, etc.
>
> Medieval baking was primarily done with ale barm.  This is the scum off
> the top of the ale pot, where, since ale is top fermenting, much of the
> yeast dwells.  Beer is bottom fermenting.  In baking, it produces a more
> bitter taste than ale.  In making a medieval style beer bread, ale would
> probably be the liquor of choice.  Don't let this stop you from running
> up a batch of beer bread if what you have is bottom fermented beer, I've
> got a quart of porter left from my wife's birthday party, half of which
> is going in a black and tan and half into a batch of beer bread as an
> experiment.
>
<snip>
>
> Bear

Stefan

--
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris            Austin, Texas         StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****