Baking & Bread

Wulfric of Creigull&# 39;s collection of cookery books.

This article intends to clear up the misconcept ion that there are no known medieval recipes for bread.

Most medieval bread was baked in large wood-fired brick ovens and was the province of profession al bakers. For smaller or remote households or travelers there were other less cumbersome alternativ es. The bakestone or griddle could be used for flatcakes and other small breads and with the addition of a baking cloche or cover could produce a lighter raised loaf. So a baking cloche seemed a viable alternativ e for a demo.

Article describing the reconstruction of a 9-12th century oven based on the evidence from Salaspils Laukskola, Latvia.

A short list of the most frequently -asked questions about bread and medieval baking.

Includes: Sources for Recipes, Sources for Ingredient s, Cariadoc and Elizabeth& #39;s Recipes, Bread, Vegetables , Islamic Dishes I: Meat with Sauce or Stew, Islamic Dishes II: Fried, Islamic Dishes III: with Legumes, Islamic Dishes IV: with Grains, Bread, or Pasta, Islamic Dishes V: Oven Dishes and Roasting, Islamic Dishes VI: Relishes and Dips, Chinese Dishes, Seafood, Soups, Poultry, Meat Dishes, Meat, Cheese and Egg Pies, Desserts, Appetisers , Etc., Drinks, Sauces, Pasta, Rice, etc., Additional Material on Period Cooking, Cooking from Primary Sources, Late Period and Out of Period Foodstuffs , Scottish Oat Cakes, Hildegard von Bingen&#39 ;s Small Cakes, How to Make Arrack.

Subjects covered in this issue: medieval lanterns; and biscuit.

The illustrati ons from the Mendel and Landauer Housebooks , indexed by profession and with lists of items found in each illustrati on.

Photos of loaves of bread used as "grave gifts" from Viking-age finds at Birka.

A class handout with a practical guide to firepit baking at SCA events; it is as period as possible, but not 100% period.

What was the bread of the early English like? Our research hasn't yet reached the point where we can give the last word about the bread of the Anglo-Saxo ns, but the basic facts are fairly clear. It's predictabl e that early English bread differed in innumerabl e ways from the fluffy loaves of sliced white bread you find in plastic wrappers in the supermarke t.

A redacted version of a recipe dated to 1596 ("To make Jumbils a hundred&#3 4.

read was absolutely the staple food in medieval England. Up to 80 percent of a harvest-wo rker’s calories came from grains; for a soldier, 78 percent, and for the lay nobility, 65-70 percent. As an avid baker, I wanted try to recreate medieval bread; the more I read about it, the more I realized that medieval bread was wildly different from modern bread.

Mistress Christianna MacGrain describes grains consumed in the Middle Ages which are less frequently prepared today.

Scattered details on bread-maki ng do exist, at least for the French, allowing the committed historical baker to narrow the parameters of what they make as "medieval bread." The purpose of this post is to gather all such items together.

On bakers and their trade in Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

Miscelin Bread is a a mixed bread of barley, rye and wheat. that might have been eaten by servants or the middle class in 15th century Europe.

An authentic bread recipe from Platina, redacted by Cariadoc.

Paindemain is a wheat bread, described as being served at the highest tables of the nobility of France and England during the Hundred Years’ War. Fine and white, baked in small, round loaves, it was prized for a delicate texture, and considered indulgent enough to be forbidden during Lent in 1417 by Henry V. This is one interpreta tion of how it might be baked.

This is very much a 20th century recipe; however, very few recipes for bread survive from the Medieval period, and what informatio n we do have tells us that, except for difference s in the leavening agent and the types of ingredient s used, basic bread-maki ng has remained essentiall y the same throughout the ages. This recipe will provide you with an excellent white bread that would have been considered very fine fare in the Middle Ages.

Images of pretzels from the 14th-17th centuries, and recipes for pretzels.

How accurate is this medieval picture of bread baking? A food historian does some delicious research

Bread was the staple food in the early medieval diet.

According to one source on medieval Polish cuisine, bread was leavened with a yeasty substance known as 'thick beer,' which also was used to make beer. This article asserts that this leavening agent is actually what is called in English 'beer barm,' and provides a recipe for such a bread.

For bakers of all ages and skill, to gather and discuss baking techniques from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. This includes any manner of breads, cakes, or pies baked in an oven or over a fire, and the items that would have been used for baking (pots, pans, ovens, kneading troughs, rotary kerns, etc.). Our discussion need not be limited to European recipes, and can include recipes and techniques from Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

A collection of files on various aspects relating to breads and breadmaking.

The Assize of Bread and Beer (including the Lucrum Pistoris), only takes the form found in the printed Statutes of the Realm in 6% of all Common Law English statute books written up to 1350. More often the three component parts, the Assize of Bread, the Assize of Beer, and the Lucrum Pistoris, appear alone in the statute books as separate instruments.

Includes an article on Elizabethan English bread.

The Worshipful Company of Bakers has a long and noble heritage going back over 800 years. The importance of bread and baking however goes back thousands of years before that. As a guide to the Bakers Company, please enjoy this brief introducti on to the history, responsibi lities and traditions for one of the oldest of the City of London Liveries.

A recipe from the 13th century.

A conjectural recipe for a medieval Polish bread.