[Sca-cooks] masa
Terry Decker
t.d.decker at worldnet.att.net
Mon Nov 12 13:09:39 PST 2007
>
> I'm behind on my reading so apologies if this was already answered:
>
> This could be a totally mistaken impression, but here's my understanding
> of
> "massa".
>
> Since the ladies baked their bread each day, they would prepare the dough
> and
> before baking (not sure if it would be before the first or second rise) a
> lump of the dough would be pinched off and saved. The next day, that bit
> of
> dough would be added into the new dough. Since it has the yeast or other
> leavening agents from the previous day's bread, it would help with the
> rising of the
> next dough. A bit of the new dough is then saved for tomorrow's baking.
> And
> the process goes on.
"Massa" means dough, but in this case it is dough retained for leavening as
you state. For home baking, the "pinch" of dough is a lump about the size
of your fist, approximately a cup. For a commercial baker, it is likely a
ten pound football of dough.
Rather than being simply added to the new dough, the massa should be broken
apart in the liquor for the new batch, then mixed into the flour. This
ensures that the spread of the yeast and lactobacilli through the dough. In
commercial baking, this step would be used to create a sponge from which the
starter would be recovered, then the sponge would be broken apart in liquor
and added to the dry ingredients to form the actual dough, preventing
contamination of the starter by any of the other ingredients of the bread.
Whether or not this procedure was used by the commercial or home bakers
within SCA period is unknown.
A second rise is not necessary to producing bread and I have found no direct
evidence as to whether the second rise was a baking technique used in
period. The appearance of a dough box in a 16th Century woodcut of a
baker's shop suggests, but does not confirm the use of two rises. Second
rise was well established by the mid-19th Century and I'm still in the
process of tracing its use.
>
> Again, from my understanding *only*, ale barm is not a common leavening
> agent
> in Spain, but they do have yeast. As Giano mentioned, they do have
> sourdoughs, too. (As a side note, I've found information on winemaking in
> "Spain", but
> nothing so far on beers/ales.)
>
My research suggests that northern Europe with its beers and ales more
commonly used ale barm while the Mediterranean countries tended to use
sourdough starters until modern manufacture and refrigeration made yeast
commonly available. The use of ale barm as leavening was introduced into
Italy in the 2nd Century BCE by Gallic bakers, but apparently fell into
disuse as the empire declined.
> One thing I haven't yet found, that maybe another Spaniard or a Spanish
> expert could answer: Did the Spanish use "dough troughs" like in some
> other parts
> of Europe?
>
> -- Constanza Marina de Huelva
Almost certainly. Dough troughs appear in the household inventories of
Spainsh Jews and, IIRC, there are some Moorish examples to be found in
Malaga.
More information about the Sca-cooks
mailing list