[Sca-cooks] true medieval bread recipes

[David Friedman]

[I sent this yesterday but it doesn't seem to have gone through, I think 
because it was too long, so I'm splitting it into two messages]

Part II

>> Today, I tried the third recipe in Fadalat for bread.

I assume that you are working from the same published Spanish 
translation of a small subset of the fadalat recipes that I am. So far 
as I can tell, if we use Jim's restrictive definition of "bread" there 
is only one bread recipe in the collection, the one I have already 
discussed. So I assume you are also counting recipes for bread more 
broadly defined, possibly (English names) " Spiral Cake filled with 
Honey" (44), Confection of Puff Pastry, or Buttered Toast and 
Sugar"(60), "Cheese and Flour Cake"(79). That gives four recipes, which 
is what you said /fadalat/ had. The third is then the Puff Pastry one.

Here is that recipe in English translation. Is that the one you are trying?

Mix semolina or flour with water and salt and knead it well.Next melt 
butter, spread a piece of dough on a rolling board as thin as possible, 
fold it after brushing the inside with butter, spread it out again, hit 
it with the palm of your hand and put it into a frying pan or in a 
kettle on the stove, after greasing it with a little butter, so that it 
won’t burn.When it is cooked, take it from the stove and hit it with 
your hand so it breaks and separates one piece from another.Next, put it 
in a bowl and cover it with a handkerchief, and do the same with the 
rest of the dough until you are done.Sprinkle with hot, whipped honey, 
dust with cinnamon and sugar and eat.

>> It stinks. It only ties me to unknown quantities of semolina flour, 
>> yeast and baker's flour. I think tomorrow I will try this again 
>> changing the quantities of dry and liquid ingredients after I run out 
>> and buy more semolina flour. . ..
>>
If I have the right one, it offers you the choice of semolina or flour, 
so if you are out of semolina you might try it with flour. Also, you 
might try using Indian semolina, aka sooji. I think it's less expensive 
than the Italian semolina. I'm not sure which is closest to the /samidh/ 
that is presumably what's being translated as semolina.

Almost all period recipes use unknown quantities, with the notable 
exception of al-Warraq. This one sounds related to "Preparation of 
Musammana [Buttered] Which Is Muwarraqa [Leafy]" from /Manuscrito 
Anonimo/, which is another favorite of ours.

You don't say what the problem was you had with this recipe the first 
time you tried it. There is no yeast--it's not a raised bread, more like 
a pastry. You can tell that because it neither says to add yeast, as the 
earlier recipe does, nor to let it rise.

You get the ratio of semolina to water by seeing what it takes to make 
an elastic dough. For Musammana that's about 3/4 c of water to 2c of 
semolina. You knead it a long time until it is very stretchy, which 
gives you the "as thin as possible." I'm not sure if "separates one 
piece from another" means you are actually splitting it to separate the 
layers produced by folding or just breaking it up. Also, "fold it" might 
mean to fold it over once, giving two layers, or might mean many folds 
giving many layers, which would be more like the Musammana. Aside from 
those questions it sounds pretty straightforward.

>> That is another factor. Julia and Julie don’t tell you what all this 
>> costs. I try to prepare four recipes per week. That can add up as you 
>> can imagine.
>>
I generally end up eating my experiments.

>> Now I seem to be criticized because I do not stick to the original 
>> recipe.
>>
There is nothing wrong with cooking out of period recipes. There is a 
problem with saying a recipe is period when it isn't.

>> In the case of Spanish bread recipes, some state flour but do not 
>> indicate the liquid to be used. So if I follow that, I would be 
>> toasting flour in a frying pan, not making bread . . .
>>
When the recipe tells you knead something or tells you to add yeast and 
let it rise, it is safe to assume liquid is being added, and if it 
doesn't specify probably water. But your recipes are adding lots of 
other ingredients that are not in the original, when you have an 
original, and that are not needed in order to follow the instructions. I 
try to stick to the original recipe when I work things out and, with 
some trial and error for quantities, times, temperatures, and occasional 
mistakes, it usually ends up working.

>> Bottom line, I am doing my best. If you have any helpful suggestions, much appreciated.
>> .
I have tried to provide some.

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