[Sca-cooks] The upper crust

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

Being a bread historian (though more on the French side), I find the whole  
idea loopy. For one thing, when there was a distinction in breads, the 
upper  classes got whole loaves - about a pound in size - and for a long time 
the crust  was grated off anyway. THOSE were the aristocratic distinctions, 
not divisions  of a particular loaf.

Looking around Google Books, I see some texts which  do indeed distinguish 
between an upper and a lower crust, but with no  distinction of quality and 
certainly not in terms of dividing them by class. The  term "upper crust" 
for class at any rate only seems to appear towards the end of  the nineteenth 
century.
 
My own assumption has always been that quite simply the "gratin" (as the  
French called them) were what formed on the top of society, just as cheese 
and  other materials will harden on top of a liquid with proper cooking. 
Nothing to  do even with bread. (There used to be a gourmet's club in Paris 
called "the  gratin dauphinois", punning on the dish to express their superior 
status in that  region.) This would jibe with its making its way into English 
at the end of the  nineteenth century, since the very idea of "gratin" 
doesn't appear until the  eighteenth century and that of cheese in the nineteenth.
 
Jim  Chevallier
_www.chezjim.com_ (http://www.chezjim.com/) 

FRENCH BREAD HISTORY:  Seventeenth century bread
http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2016/02/french-food-history-seventeenth-century
.html









In a message dated 12/12/2016 1:44:34 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
prescotj at telusplanet.net writes:


Not  entirely impossible, though "burnt bottom" shouldn't happen if your 
baker  knows what he is doing.  There is always the possibility of char  
fragments and similar attaching to the bottom of a loaf of bread that is  
cooked directly on the bricks in a baker's oven, even when that oven has  
been swept carefully, so that does remain as a possibility.

The  semi-random selection of mediaeval and renaissance cookbooks that I 
happen  to be familiar with don't make any reference to partitioning the 
bread in  any way.  So either everyone already knew to do it, and so it 
didn't  need to be mentioned, or it wasn't normally  done.


Thorvald



On 2016-12-12, 13:26, Susan Lord  wrote:
> My research goes from 13th century Spain until 1474, the death  of Henry 
IV of Castile.
> Occasionally, I bring English references into  my work such as trenchers 
but I have never heard of this, nor do I have any  references to burned 
bread until the Great Fire of London!
>
>  What is your reading? Are the quotes below valid?
>
>
>>  On Dec 10, 2016, at 08:13, Beverly Walker<peacockwalk at gmail.com>   
wrote:
>>
>>  
Quartz<http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/member.php?s=e8a6ba66e69a2e177132ad16d38e9c0a&u=29546>
>>  Charter Member
>>
>> Join Date: Jan 2003
>>  Location: Home of the haggis
>> Posts: 24,433
>> If recent  programs on UK TV History are to be believed, then it's a 
reference to those  who were served the upper parts of bread loaves, as the 
bottom of the loaf  would have burnt bits. IIRC on the TV show they sliced the 
bottom off and cut  the rest of the loaf in three. The servants got the 
bottom  bit.
>>
>> The bread was divided according to status. The  workers would get the 
burnt bottom of the loaf, the family would get the  middle and guests  would 
get the top, or the "upper crust".
>>  Although an admonition to "Kutt the upper crust [of a loaf of bread] 
for your  soverayne" can be found in a 1460 work, the term 'upper crust' 
didn't come to  be used figuratively to refer to persons of the higher classes 
until the 19th  century. Many have speculated that the phrase "upper crust" 
originated with a  custom of slicing the choice top portion off a loaf and 
presenting it to the  highest-ranking guests at the table, but there is no 
documentary evidence  supporting this as the phrase's actual origin.
>>
>> The  Word  
Detective<http://www.word-detective.com/080401.html#uppercrust>:
>>
>>  Quote:
>> The term "upper crust," referring literally to the upper  portion of a 
loaf of bread, is indeed very old, dating back to at least 1460.  Subsequent 
instances of "upper crust" included its figurative use as a synonym  for the 
surface of the earth (1555) and as slang for, believe it or not, a hat  
(1826).
>>
>> But the metaphorical use of "upper crust" in  its modern sense of "the 
aristocracy or the wealthy class" seems, as Mr.  Bryson says, to have first 
occurred in early 19th century America, and was  widespread enough by 1848 to 
be included by John Bartlett in his seminal  "Dictionary of Americanisms" 
published that year. And the term simply refers  to the "upper layers" of 
society in an economic sense, not to the perceived  superiority of any portion 
of a loaf of  bread.
>>
>>    
<http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?s=e8a6ba66e69a2e177132ad16d38e9c0a&do=newreply&p=6762252>
>>
>>  ~~~
>
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