[Sca-cooks] Was bread served warm?

[Stefan li Rous]

> > Lonnie D. Harvel wrote:>
> > Oh, and also, I think warm bread recently from the oven is  
> magnificent.
> > Would that have occured in any of the SCA periods? I get the  
> impression
> > the bread arrived sometime during the morning (or afternoon for  
> large
> > feasts) from the bakery or bake house.

That's a very good question. If you are going to open it to any of  
the SCA periods and all classes of society, then I imagine the answer  
is yes. However, apparently not in some areas. I seem to remember  
comments about bread in some French villages only being baked one day  
each week because of the cost of firing up the oven. So, most bread  
in that case would have been eaten multiple days old.

A while back we had a discussion here on how hot *any* of the food  
really was once it got to the folks in the feasthall, considering  
that it was cooked in an outside kitchen which often wasn't close,  
hauled up one or more sets of stairs, etc.
> Yeah warm from the oven is great, but was it not a common  
> perception that
> bread freshly baked was unhealthy?  Bad for the humors?

Oh? I don't remember anyone mentioning this before. References?

> Poilâne insists that the peak flavor comes forth on the third day.

Who was "Poilâne" and when and where did he live?

We do have mentions that trenchers were supposed to me made from  
bread that age. They weren't meant to be eaten by the guests, though  
and they were probably of a poorer quality of bread anyway. And  
texture might have been the reason for this. It seems to me though,  
that "peak flavor" and "texture needed for good trenchers" would be  
opposing characteristics.

>  Simon Hondy

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas           
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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