[Sca-cooks] 12th-century bread (was Re: Favorite Frugal Pennsic Meals)

[Volker Bach]

Am Dienstag, 6. Juni 2006 15:38 schrieb Terry Decker:
> I haven't come across this before, but I can think of three possible
> explanations of the term and I have empirical knowledge of each.
>
> My first thought is this could be "peggy tubby" bread, where the dough is
> allowed to rise immersed in water.  The technique is believed to date to
> the 1st Century BCE, but the evidence is fairly murky.
>
> Otherwise, this may be a loaf cooked in a manner similar to simnel where a
> yeast bread is cooked by boiling or parboiling and baking (think water
> bagel).  This is not likely to actually be simnel which is an enriched (and
> sometimes filled) bread seated in a hard dough pie shell, as it would not
> likely be in the regular diet of a strict monastic order.

The actual term is panis qui coquitur in aqua. That indicates that a part of 
the cooking process took place in or under water rather than just the 
raising, but I am not able to say whether we are talking boiled, parboiled or 
steamed bread. I've tried all three with your basic sourdough wholemeal spelt 
loaf and they worked. My personal favourite was the parboiled one because it 
developed a lovely crunchy crust and soft interior, but given the medieval 
love for soft foods, it may well have been the others. Both turned out soft 
and chewy, the steamed one being fluffier and spongier than the boiled one.

Giano


		
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