[Sca-cooks] Yeast and Bread in Norway

[Johnna Holloway]

Thank you Bear and Thank you Chimene and Gerekr. 

Johnna

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> On Aug 24, 2017, at 3:24 AM, Patricia Dunham <chimene at ravensgard.org> wrote:
> 
> My Old Norse specialist does remember having seen reference to ICELAND being too cold for yeast in very "olden times".
> 
> However the words for yeast exist from a LONG time before the 16thC. For example, the burned buns from Helgo (pre-Viking age!) definitely look raised, about the size of a modern hamburger bun?  These Helgo pic refs are from Excavations of Helgo: Foundation IV, pp. 141-143, all analyzed as barley and oats. Oats should provide enough oat-gluten to allow for rising, in our opinion.
> 
> No term for anything will be earlier than 12thC, unless you have a runic example! If so, DO let us know!
> 
> There are lots of different terms for different types of yeast!
> 
> for brewing yeast (gerdh ("stuff that makes"), probably 12thC)
> 
> for bread yeast (jastr or jast) - before 1300. word first seen in some Saints' life, one of the manuals for converting Island. …right after Thorlaks-saga… Thorlak  d.1193.
> 
> Bread baked on a grid-iron, grindabraudh, traces back to Diplomaterium Islandicum, pre-1300.   
> 
> kveykur (ferment of ale, possibly as made into cakes of yeast? — early 14thC. ) 
> 
> a slice of bread (in an early 1500's saga) - braudhskifa
> 
> if lefse is made with potatoes, that would be post 1500, at least! would require the import of potatoes from South America!
> 
> the term lefse does not occur in ON at all; the original word for "bread" (generic) was hleifr, at least as early as 10thC
> 
> by 1200. when helifr shifted to "loaf of bread", braudh became the word for generic bread
> 
> There is an article on bread in one of the Helgo summary sections, we'll keep looking for that  if anyone is interested?
> 
> There is VERY little specific info on food, bread, minutiae of everyday life in any the sagas(!)
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Chimene & Gerekr
> 
> 
> 
>> On Aug 21, 2017, at 4:04 PM, Johnna Holloway <johnnae at mac.com> wrote:
>> 
>> MEM (Mary Morman) is off exploring Scandinavia. She came across this demo at the Open Air Folk Museum. Snipped
>>