[Sca-cooks] Spanish flatbread in period

Susanne Mayer susanne.mayer5 at chello.at
Mon Mar 21 11:58:13 PDT 2011


What about Pane Carasau (or carta de musica) not spanish but italian 
(Sardinian to be exact) but unfortunately I have no idea how old, it's 
referenced  as to be *very anncient, baked by the sheperds in brick ovens*

The Saracens  raided Sardinia in the 9th cent and the Spanish (Catalan) 
occupied southern Sardenia in the 14th cent, this could be old enough to 
qualify and have been made elsewhere also.

there is a nice video, and it does look like a version of  flat bread still 
baked by the Beduines

http://www.sardegnadigitallibrary.it/index.php?xsl=626&id=190962

in my (modern) sardinian Cookbook I have two recipes for Panae carasau 
(dough with yeast), one for a flat bread from chickpea flour just with olive 
oil, salt and pepper and one with only durum wheat semolina with water and 
salt.

If anybody wants them just ask, and I'll typ the stuff in.

I just found THAT in the Academia Barrillia pages:

http://www.academiabarilla.com/italian-culinary-tradition/bread-pasta-starchy-foods/pane-carasau.aspx
THE HISTORY

Pane carasau is ancient flat bread also known as "carta musica" (sheet 
music) due to its resemblance to the parchment paper that sacred music was 
written on. Traces of the bread were found in the nuraghi (traditional 
Sardinian stone buildings) and it was therefore already in existence before 
1000 BC.

PANE CARASAU

Pane carasau, from the Sardinian "carasare", which refers to the crush of 
bread, is without a doubt the most famous Sardinian bread in the world. Made 
from hard wheat bran (or semola di grano duro in Italian), salt, yeast and 
water, it was originally made using a labor intensive process that require 
the work of three women.

After having prepared the dough, it had to be rolled out into very thin 
sheets that were baked in a very hot oven (840°-930°F) until it puffed up 
like a ball.

Still today, these disks of bread have to be removed from the oven, and with 
great skill, cut along their circumference and divided into sheets. The 
sheets are then stacked one on top of another with the pourous side facing 
the outside. The bread is then baked another time to obtain its crispiness 
and characteristic color, or carasatura.

In the past, having been prepared for the sheepherders that had to attend 
their herds, the bread was folded in half during cooking, when the bread was 
still flexible, to reduce its size and allowing for it to fit in a knap 
sack.



Katharina


> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2011 14:47:46 -0500
> From: "Terry Decker" <t.d.decker at att.net>
> To: "Cooks within the SCA" <sca-cooks at lists.ansteorra.org>
> Subject: Re: [Sca-cooks] Spanish flatbread in period
> Message-ID: <8CE2D022BABE4BDE88AD295B9E9831C8 at TerryPC>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1";
> reply-type=original
>
>> Can someone point me in the direction of documentation?  I am going to
>> guess
>> it is not pita, but more like focaccia or na'an.  The only pics I find 
>> are
>> modern, as are the recipes.  Can I just go with the Moorish Spain
>> influence?
>>
>>
>> Aldyth
>
> There are only a handful of European bread recipes prior to 1600 and I 
> know
> of none from Spain.  The reason for this is fairly simple, bakers were
> distinct from cooks and bakers did not write down their recipes, 
> preferring
> to keep their "mysteries" to themselves.
>
> The Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook does have a number of bread recipes, but
> the style of baking is different.  I think the closest recipe to what you
> want may be muqawwara, but it is a fried bread rather than a baked bread.
>
> Bear
>




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