[Sca-cooks] 12th-century bread (was Re: Favorite FrugalPennsicMeals)

[Terry Decker]

When I went chasing simnels, I found that the Greeks had used sealed 
terracotta pots in boiling water to induce internal steaming.  You break the 
pot to get the cooked bread out.  It is obviously a precursor to the 
Victorian pudding tin.  I wonder if a similar method may not have been used 
in period.

Markham used pigs intestine to encase puddings to be steamed in boiling 
water and the pudding cloth, which turns up late in period is used to cook 
food both in the boiling water and hanging in the steam.  I think wrapping 
up dough and dropping it in boiling water may have been more common than 
trying to cook with direct steam.  It is an interesting experiment, so 
thanks for sharing.

Bear

> In a metal basket over boiling water. In poeriod they'd more probably have
> used a cloth or basket, but this one came with my pot set.
>
> I also forgot to check that the moisture runs off - it collected at one 
> point
> and drip-drip-dripped a 'hole' into the loaf.
>
> Giano