[Sca-cooks] true medieval bread recipes

[David Friedman]

On 9/22/16 11:33 AM, Susan Lord wrote:
> The blog titled "molletes" is a thermomix recipe, which is shown as such but the ingredients, except for soy lecithin (optional) - perhaps - I don’t know this ingredient - are all used in the Middle Ages. I don’t see why there is suddenly an objection to the use of a thermomix. Aren’t food processors used today when preparing medieval dishes?
The point some of us are making is not that there is something wrong 
with using a thermomix but that there is a distinction between something 
from a period recipe and something that for all you know could have been 
made in period.

The discussion was of true medieval bread recipes. You responded:

"If you search for "bread" in the Medieval Spanish Chef’s blog you will 
find plenty of adapted recipes by me using a variety of flours."

I searched. I found one recipe, "mijo with a recipe for millet flat 
bread," cited to a secondary source with no cite to a period recipe. I 
found one, "mollete," cited to a web page with no suggestion that it was 
period. I found one, "sour dough rye," with no suggestion it was period.

The first one which cited a period recipe was /Masador. /Your recipe had 
lots of manipulations not described in the text and two ingredients, 
eggs and goat milk powder, not in the original. It may have produced 
tasty rolls but it wasn't consistent with the original.

Those were the first four. Looking further, one said it was " FROM THE 
ARCHIVES OF BARONESS OF ALMISERAT" but the footnote took me to " Your 
current account (daviddfriedman at gmail.com) does not have access to view 
this page" so I have no idea whether that's a period source. The page 
did not quote a period recipe. I eventually got to "ACORN BREAD A 
VARIATION OF /FADALAT'S/ #1 /PAN COCIDO EN EL HORNO/ p 18" which was 
again claiming a period source.

(actually page 19 of Fernando de la Granjia Santamaria's Spanish 
translation of the /Fadalat/)

Here is an English translation someone did for me long ago–I don't read 
Spanish:

/Take semolina, soak it, throw in salt, allow it to soften and then 
knead it well.  Add yeast and knead it with water, bit by bit, until the 
dough is firm and appears well worked.  Take a little fine flour and dip 
the dough in it, and make loaves as you wish.  Arrange them in folded 
linen or wool, and cover them with a lambskin or something similar, and 
leave it to leaven.  The sign that it has leavened is that the dough has 
risen, and when tapped it produces a sound.  Next, carefully put them in 
an oven.  Once cooked, clean them, put them in a container and eat when 
you have the need./

Here is your recipe:

/Ingredients//
////
//2 c acorn flour//
//2 c semolina flour//
//1 tsp salt//
//3 tbsp fat or oil//
//3 tsp yeast//
//1/3 c honey or sugar//
//½ c hot milk or water//
//1 egg beaten//
////
//PREPARATION//
////
//PREHEAT OVEN TO 400º F / 200º C //
////
//Combine the flours with salt and yeast. Add water or milk and the egg. 
Knead well. Divide the dough into desired shapes for loaves. Sprinkle 
flour over them. Place the loaves in a piece of linen or woolen cloth. 
Cover this with lamb skin or something similar and let the masses rise. 
When they have risen sufficiently, they will emit a noise when struck. 
Bake them immediately in the oven for about 30 minutes. Once baked put 
them in a breadbasket for consumption. /

No acorns in the original, so when you describe it as "a variation of" 
you mean that you have changed the main ingredient. You also add fat or 
oil and honey or sugar and an egg, none of which are in the original.

I eventually got to "Horno de Ladrillo with Mughal Flat Bread Recipe." 
The recipe was mine and credited to me, from the /Ain i Akbari/, which 
is a Mughal source so not a European bread recipe. The footnote link, 
like all of your footnote links I tried, didn't work. You might want to 
do something about that.

Going a little farther, you had a second recipe described as adapted 
from /Pan Cocido en el Horno/. It was closer to the original than your 
acorn bread but included oil, which is not in the original.

Out of the first sixteen recipe I found by searching your blog for 
"bread," that's the only one that comes close to being a period bread 
recipe--and you don't give the original, so the reader doesn't know what 
you have changed.

In your other message, you write:

"As far as other medieval “European” bread recipes are concerned, I recommend consulting Curye on English, which uses the French derivation of pain to mean bread."

Unfortunately, none of the references to "payne" in/Curye/  is a bread recipe.

You also write:

"I value your comments and criticisms. For that I have section in my blog titled "comments"  in my blog. Please use it:http://www.medievalspanishchef.com  <http://www.medievalspanishchef.com/>  "

I made a comment on one of your recipes more than a year ago, pointing out that you didn't say where the recipe was from. No response.

-- 
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com
http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/