[Sca-cooks] Bread Puzzles

[Johnna Holloway]

In your blog  http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2015/09/french-bread-history-making.html

"This is not surprising; no medieval bread recipes survive at all for most of Europe* nor do many details on how it was made. Still scattered data does exist, at least for the French side, allowing the committed historical baker to narrow the parameters of what they make as “medieval bread”."

But below you state "But by the seventeenth century there were already published  recipes for bread…"

So there are no medieval bread recipes but by 1600 we have published bread recipes???? How many? Where?

I am sure those of us interested in the subject would like to know where those recipes appear,  books,
authors, details, etc.

Johnnae


On Feb 1, 2016, at 11:52 AM, JIMCHEVAL at aol.com wrote:

> Yes, the actual test is later in the text. Anyone who tries to work their  
> way through it will probably be grateful that I paraphrased it rather than  
> translating it word for word.
> 
> I don't know where this idea comes from  that bakers (in France at least) 
> did not discuss their mysteries with the  public. I've never seen any 
> reference to this idea in reading a broad range of  period sources. If there are no 
> recipes for bread early on, it is simply because  mainly professional 
> bakers made it and they learned their trades (as most did)  by apprenticeship. 
> But by the seventeenth century there were already published  recipes for bread 
> and in the eighteenth century (when the guilds/corporations  were at the 
> height of their strength) whole works appeared on how to make bread.  
> 
> Bread trials, which were done all over France, were public and often  
> documented. The problem is that most have not been transcribed from the local  
> records. Françoise Desportes seems to be the only one who has actually taken 
> the  trouble to travel about and consult them; unfortunately her work on 
> medieval  bread is not readily available in the States.
> 
> It may well be that more detailed accounts exist for Paris in this  
> collection:
> 
> Recueil d'ordonnances et de cris concernant le blé et le pain à  Paris ; 
> essais de farines, taxes du pain. 1396-1478  
> 
> http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b90604930.r=essais%20de%20pain
> 
> But honestly I am just not that expert at deciphering old municipal  
> scripts.
> 
> As for the measure, the applicable statutes were municipal, not national.  
> Anyone who wants an overview of how many differed can read my blog post on 
> the  subject:
> 
> FRENCH BREAD HISTORY: Late medieval bread outside Paris
> http://leslefts.blogspot.com/2015/07/french-bread-history-late-medieval.html
> 
> jC
> 
>