[Sca-cooks] Grains

[Stanza693 at wmconnect.com]

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Quoting from SCA-Cooks digest v.11 #84.  Message from Aldyth at aol.com....

I am looking for good documentation for various grains during our  period.  
My A&S paper is  going to be about bread, the  fermentation process and the 
grains used. What I am really hoping to find  is something along the lines of 
bread from x was made with x flour.   Because x grain grew there.

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Some of the info that I used in a curent A&S Redaction project (Bunuelos from 
the Manual de Mugeres, so this is more Spanish oriented)...

"Spanish Society: 1400 - 1600" by Teofilo F. Ruiz has a section on foods that 
quotes a woman's will where she leaves funds to serve white (wheat) bread to 
the poor each year.  He states this is a luxury since the poor generally ate 
coarser, less refined breads.  Wheat being eaten by the upper classes.

"Ancient Agriculture:  Roots and Applications of Sustainable Farming" by 
Gabriel Alonso de Herrera is the first English translation (2006) of his 
1539edition of Obra de Agricultura.  It is mainly a treatise on farming, but it has 
loads of good info that can be extracted.  It even has a whole chapter on 
vineyards and vintning.  Translator was Rosa Lopez-Gaston.  Compiler was Juan Estevan 
Arellano.  (He's on the Medieval Gardening list, btw.)

Not a primary source, but Barbara Santich's "The Original Mediterranean 
Cuisine" discusses how wheat bread is a staple in the Mediterranean kitchen.

There was also a webbed book (that I don't have on hand right now, but I 
think it was on LIBRO) that talks about the women of the Castillian towns going 
daily to have the wheat ground at the mill.

If you come down (up?) in June for Dragonsspine Champions, I would welcome 
your comments on my project.  I'm pretty much a rank beginner so I'll take all 
the constructive criticism I can get!!

A sus ordenes,
Constanza Marina de Huelva
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