[Sca-cooks] OOP: 17th century French breadmaking

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Stanifer <jugglethis at yahoo.com>

--- Robin Carroll-Mann <rcmann4 at earthlink.net> wrote:

> The Fons Grewe website has an interesting text for those who read French.  The 1661 edition of
> "Les delices de la campagne" by Nicholas de Bonnefons has an entire chapter on making various
> kinds of bread.  All of them begin with the mixing of a starter the night before, containing
> leaven 

'leaven'?  That wouldn't be referring to an addition of non-wild yeast, would it??  :)

William de Grandfort
_______________________________________________

I have no idea.  The French word is "levain".  I didn't see any mention of how the leaven is produced.

::pause to re-read chapter::  He says that the smallest and lightest breads are made from a levain that contains one-sixth of the total flour, plus very fresh ale barm ("leveure de biere").  In context, it seems that this was not the leavening used for most breads.  This assumption is strengthened by the definition of "levuere" in the 1694 dictionary of the Academie Francaise: a foam produced by beer, which is used to raise dough for a certain kind of bread.



Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom