[Sca-cooks] Pretzels, take two

[Stephanie Ross]

Stupid Gmail, I wasn't done yet! I guess it timed out. Anyway...

"A round pretzel identical in shape to the bagel was known in classical
antiquity and is even illustrated in a Roman codex in the Vatican Library.
It is generally assumed that the oberzanky came to Poland with the large
migration of Jews from Germany during the period of Casamir the Great
(1333-1370). However, these pretzels may have appeared even earlier,
perhaps two or three hundred years, since they were already well known to
the German bakers who operated in many of the large towns. "

This is for Bear -

"Remains of bread peels, such as nearly intact one from the eleventh
century discovered at Gniezno, have provided vivid details about baking
tools only alluded to in medieval documents. A ceramic tray for roasting
grain and a wooden grain chest  from the same period was excavated at
Brodno State in Warsaw. This accumulation of data has helped Polish food
historians to better imagine what the loaves were like based on existing
technologies, and in some cases to reconstruct old bread recipes.

Breads that resembled types known since the Neolithic era were being made
in Poland at the same time. Called *podplomyki* in Polish (a term also
applied to middling breads), and equated to breads baked *sub
cinarus*(under ash) in medieval Latin texts, these were the Polish
version of the
common ashcake. They were baked in hot coals (usually in some kind of
vessel buried in the coals) or between two hot stones. It is possible that
no leavening was used, and if made with millet meal, they would have
resembled, in appearance at least, the American cornmeal Johnnycakes.
During periods of famine, the peasantry made ashcakes from knotgrass
(Polygonum aviculare). The seeds were gathered and ground to flour, while
the greens were used in pottages.

On the other hand, the early use of yeast was widespread in Poland, as
confrimed liguistically in the old Slavic word *zakwas* (yeast or yeasty
ferment). The modern Polish term for yeast, *drozdze*, can lay similar
claim to great age and probably evolved from "thick" beer made from barley
and wheat. We know that in the 14th and 15th centuries thick beer was added
to dough by bakers to enhance sponginess. This dual use is why both beer
and bread were often produced at grist and flour mills".

*Thick beer or sourdough starter*
*Thick beer was made one of two ways. Hulled spelt and barley were sprouted
then fermented in spring water with hops and Labrador tea (Ledum palustre)
or, for home use, a beery batter was made with flour.*
**
20 dry hops blossoms
2 c. wheat beer
1 c. barley flour
1 c. spelt or whole wheat flour
Pour 2 cups of boiling water over the hops and infuse 20 minutes. When tea
is lukewarm, combine this with the beer and spelt flours in a large,
wide-mouth jar. Stir to form a slurry. Let this stanf uncovered fpr 3 tp 5
days or until foamy (this will depend on the weather and room temperature).
It should smell like sour milk. Once active, use as needed. The starter can
be revived and continued by added more flour and liquid as the old is used
up.

The author cites Dembinska's original work for this information. The ovens
uncovered in the dig were beehive shaped.

I was just idly leafing through this book when this info jumped out at me.
I am consulting with a Pelican on her next Russian feast, and this is not a
book I would use for that, so it's just serendipity that I found the info
on pretzels. Russian food and Polish food are NOT the same, although I've
seen a few so-called Russian feasts that use recipes from this book. Poland
had a lot of Western contact that Russia wasn't privy to until late in
period, so the cuisines are really not that similar. Why not call it a
Polish or Slavic feast, and only a Russian one if the sources used are
Russian? The same thing applies to Russian food that also applies to
Russian costume - villages were isolated and things changed very little for
centuries/generations due to little or no outside contact. Many traditional
Russian recipes can be traced back to the Middle Ages if you dig to find
the info (pelmeni and kulebiaka come immediately to mind). Knowing when the
stove came into prominence and when the French influenced Russian cuisine
makes it much easier to extrapolate what they would have eaten back then,
and which recipes used today come close.

AEschwynne