[Sca-cooks] Challah/braided bread

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

I'm intrigued right off by the idea that Christians were already making  
braided bread that early:
 
" In the 1400s in the Jews in southern Germany_1_ 
(aoldb://mail/write/template.htm#sdfootnote1sym)  began adopting the  braided bread the Christian 
Germans were making for Sunday and using it as their  special Sabbath bread. 
This bread was called “berches” or “barches.” 
According to written  descriptions of these long braided loaves, they were 
made with sourdough  starter, white flour, no eggs (except as a wash on 
top), very little shortening,  and only a small amount of sugar. "
 
I'm guessing  this was what the French call "pain benit"; that is, a 
special bread made by a  congregant to then be distributed during the service. In 
France in later  centuries this became like brioche, then brioche was simply 
substituted. The  above description is a credible idea of what it might 
have been like before eggs  and milk were later added.
 
I also find it curious that sourdough was being used in Germany, especially 
 for a fine bread. But then I don't know the German side of this period 
very  well.
 
Certainly an interesting paper. Thank you for posting the link.
 
Jim  Chevallier
www.chezjim.com

Newly translated from Pierre Jean-Baptiste  Le Grand d'Aussy:
Eggs, Cheese and Butter in Old Regime France 
 
 
In a message dated 2/25/2013 7:16:11 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
galefridus at optimum.net writes:

here is  the dropbox link to my wife's challah documentation.