[Sca-cooks] upper crust

[JIMCHEVAL at aol.com]

Hmmmm.... First I've seen of this, so thanks for the heads up. It does  
raise some intriguing questions, especially since all the weights we have for  
good white breads hover around a pound (usually less). and period images  
regularly show either small spheres or half-slices, not the kind of "lid"  
suggested here. So, was there a good white bread (since this does NOT seem to  
regard trenchers) that was larger than the usual weights and images  suggest?

As for burning the bread, there are two issues. One is simply  that it is 
hard to regulate a wood oven, and the heat varied by parts of the  oven (some 
instructions actually referred to specific quarters of the oven). But  the 
other is that according to humoral theory, the crust was bad for you, which  
is probably another reason it was grated off. But then, that was probably 
true  of the upper crust as well.
 
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 6:23:35 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
cindy at thousandeggs.com writes:

The  upper crust for the sovereign is only one small portion of a long 
series of  elaborate instructions for laying an elegant table & the service of 
bread.  It's taken out of context. 

I agree that any baker worthy of his  profession wouldn’t have regularly 
burnt his loaves.  Food was  expensive.  However, that doesn’t mean that his 
oven was properly swept  clean and that his crusts were pretty & free of 
ashes. Hence the need to  trim the crusts to set an elegant table.