[Sca-cooks] Period Pretzels, yet again...

[Laura C. Minnick]

On 2/17/2013 10:21 PM, Terry Decker wrote:
> Beer drinking countries tend to use brewer's yeast, wine drinking 
> countries don't.  However, there are places in France (the village of 
> Gonesse for one, supposedly as early as the 13th Century) where 
> brewer's yeast has been used as leavening for centuries.  La Varenne 
> records the use by pastissiers of yeast rather than starter to make 
> lighter pastries.  Parmentier opposed using brewers yeast and was 
> against using salt (obviously not understanding its use in controlling 
> the ferment).  Serious use of brewer's yeast in French bread didn't 
> occur until 1840 when a Prussian officer opened a bakery in Paris with 
> Viennese bakers.
>
> Brewer's yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is a top fermenting ale 
> yeast. The active fermentation, the ale barm, occurs at the top of the 
> brewing vessel where it can be dipped out and used as a combination of 
> yeast and liquor to make and leaven bread.  This is the method the 
> Gauls used that was described by Pliny.  It is precisely the same 
> method of barm fermentation that was used for roughly the next 1700 
> years until commercially processed yeast became available.  Gallic 
> bakers brought the technique into the Roman Empire.
>
> I believe I'm up to seven European bread recipes from between 500 and 
> 1600 CE.  The majority of these are manor recipes prepared by cooks 
> rather than bakers.  There are a number of bread recipes(?) that can 
> be winkled out of Greek and Roman pre-collapse texts and there are 
> quite a few recipes after 1600.
>
> The Romans created professional bakers and the strictures they placed 
> on bakers created the basic guild structure.  Like most guilds of the 
> Middle Ages, the bakers kept their "mysteries" secret transferring 
> them from master to apprentice, then honing their skills as a 
> journeyman (often and itinerant baker's assistant) until being offered 
> the opportunity to present a master work and become a master.  One of 
> the master works I've seen described in a tertiary source was a 
> village, complete with people and animals, consisting of various types 
> of bake goods.
>
> Bear

Bear, this may be a dumb question, but have you baked directly from the 
ale barm? How was it different from, say, the powdered yeast you can buy 
at the grocery? I know when I was brewing small mead, I would skim off 
the foam and wonder if I could scoop it off and use it for bread. Never 
tried because even then I was having serious hand/wrist issues. Haven't 
made bread in about 15 years. I might give it a try if it was part of an 
experiment...

Liutgard
-- 
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