[Sca-cooks] Types of Wheat for Bread

[Elise Fleming]

Johnnae wrote:

 >Have you looked at the print editions of C. Anne Wilson or Peter
 >Brear's All the Kings Cooks?
 >How about Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery?

Yes.  I looked through those and got some information.

 >Otherwise
 >http://historicalfoods.com/5098/medieval-and-tudor-flour/

I have a problem with this site - and would appreciate being corrected. 
  The site says: "...follow the steps below which calls for an 80% Plain 
(unbleached) stoneground flour with a 20% addition of Wholemeal 
(wholewheat) stoneground flour. What we are doing is adding back in the 
20% bran that modern milling and boulting methods removes but the 
Medieval and Tudor miller could not."

 From Elizabeth David as well as Karen Hess, they state that manchet 
bread (which the questioner is considering attempting) was made from the 
finest, whitest flour.  David particularly mentions using a lava-type 
millstone which, with the grooves cut into it, could be set to grind 
exceedingly fine and, with bolting, produce a very white flour.

It's been my impression that statements such as historicalfoods makes, 
are another of the fallacies and old-wives'-tales about the past.  "They 
were too primitive to get things as good as _we_ can get them."  Am I 
off base or are they?

Alys

-- 
Elise Fleming
alysk at ix.netcom.com
alyskatharine at gmail.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8311418@N08/sets/