PLAIN SWEET CAKE.

It is convenient, when making bread, to appropriate a portion of the dough for a sweet cake. After fully kneading the dough, set aside enough for the desired cake, and as soon as the bread is baking, add to the reserved dough a liberal quantity of good moist sugar currants, raisins free from stones, caraway seeds, spices, all or any to taste, the sugar being the only essential. Thoroughly knead the whole into the dough until a complete mixture is effected, and leave the whole to rise afresh, which it will soon do very freely. If there is a tin at liberty it is best to let the cake rise in the tin, and then to bake in a moderate oven for an hour or 1 1/2 hour according to size.

Wild dandelions in a bucket.

I have been growing dandelions in my garden for many years. Where I live in Northern California they are green all year. When they are watered and cared for the plants produce big luscious leaves. I rarely include them in salads. My most common use is as a cooked green. Yes, the wild dandelion can be a little bitter. However, when you take care of them in the garden, and particularly if you grown them in the shade the leaves will be broader and more tender than their full-sun wild cousins. You can also further blanch the leaves by covering the plant with a box for a week or two before harvesting. I don’t blanch as I like the full flavor of the wild plant.

I dug up the wild plants you see in the bucket here from a waste patch in the allotment garden where I grow vegetables. Each plant is actually a cluster of plants growing off the mother plant — the oldest plant with the big tap root.

This cluster of dandelions are attached near where you see the small roots. The next step is to separate out the dandelions and then trim off the leaves before transplanting. Dandelions have deep tap roots so their roots don’t compete with neighboring plants. However, they are low growing and so are best either planted in rows by themselves or interplanted with plants that grow tall.  In my vegetable garden I have them planted around artichokes as the artichokes provide shade. Both the artichokes and the dandelions are perennials. When interplanting I’d plant them either with perennials or at least an annual that is long lived, like tomatoes, so they can be in the ground from spring through the fall.

Separated wild dandelion crowns with their leaves.

Trimmed wild dandelion crowns ready for transplant

So as the sun was setting I baked a cake, and put it over the embers.

Except for roasting very large animals, like goats, pigs, and oxen, spit roasting takes place just in front of embers, not over them. I would thus not take the over ember description as literally true — at least if Barbara Macurdo is burning wood.
But what also makes this passage incredibly rich in historic detail is the fairy’s attraction to the “new-meal” bread, a rare literary reference to the period preference for fresh flour. Fresh flour, particularly if it still has some bran in it, is much sweeter tasting than flour that has been stored and has oxidized.

And kindly loved I our goodman; never thought of another,though I was in my prime when lost him;—and I made it a point to have a kind look, and something comfortable and warm for him when he came home at even. So as the sun was setting I baked a cake, and put it over the embers,—for weel he loved a kneaded cake, and aue brander’d brown ;—I never knead a cake now but I think of him. So the cake was on the embers, and’ a sweet smell it made;—for the meal was white and warm from, the millee, and I sat beside it to watch and turn it. As I sat I thought I heard a foot on the floor, and looking o’er my shoulder who saw I but a wee wee womanie! A wee wee womanie, and snodly was she clad, ami fair was her face; ami without halt or cure hoc close came, she to my side. I think I see her yet. and hear her words, ‘Barbara Macmurdo,’ said the wee wee womanie, using my maiden name, ‘I live nigh thy house, —I live on the same bread, and drink of the same water. But water waxes scant, and bread is far from sure; and those who gather earth’s sweetest fruits for me are now in Guiana and Araby, seeking spice, and cloves, and myrrh, and will not be with me; sooner than morning. The smell of thy new-meal cake is sweet, and we felt it underground, and my little babes love it. Therefore give me some, and when the next meller is ground in Croga mill I will repay thee. Give and prosper– refuse and pine.’

You can find the entire store here: http://books.google.com/books?id=aewRAAAAYAAJ

“Bread: A Global History” with William Rubel

Bread was the most important food for thousands of years—and arguably the food that built the civilization that we enjoy today. Bread has been a food for humans, a food for gods, and a manufactured object carrying multiple layers of cultural meaning. While it is no longer a staple in Europe and North America, bread continues to be very important to us, as the care with which we select the loaf for dinner attests. William Rubel will talk about issues of crust and crumb, of white versus whole-wheat flour, of yeast versus levain, offering historical context for current debates. What is good bread? What bread is best for us? A history of bread is largely a history of attitudes regarding what constitutes the best loaf.

William Rubel is the author of “Bread: A Global History.” It offers a wide ranging revision of what—up to now—have been the accepted facts about the history of bread, as well as a fresh view of bread culture today. In this talk, William Rubel will discuss what he has uncovered about the history of bread from 10,000 years before the invention of agriculture through to the twenty-first century bread revolution currently underway. Using a combination of different research methods, including traditional archival searches, online databases, agricultural records, paintings, contemporary descriptions and other sources, as well as extensive milling and baking experiments in his own kitchen, Rubel has delved deep into the history and culture of this staple food. He will share some insights into his methods as well as some of the historical recipes he has discovered. Moderated by Andrew F. Smith.

Location: Roger Smith Hotel
501 Lexington at 47th Street
New York, NY 10017

Time: 6:30-9:00 pm
Fee: $50, which includes a copy of Bread: A Global History, a four course tasting dinner inspired by the book, and a beverage

Advance registration required. Please note different time and cost. To register: http://bread.eventbrite.com/

This is one of the earliest bread recipes known to be written in English and this is its first publication.

The  recipe is found in a manuscript book mostly written by Sir Hugh Plat but as Malcom Thick points out in his book, Sir Hugh Plat: The Search for Useful Knowledge in Early Modern London, many of the food recipes, including this one, were written by an unknown author with the initials TT. Malcolm Thick believes that this recipe probably dates to the 1550s or 1560s. I am preparing these early manuscript bread recipes for publication. If you would like to be notified when this book will be available for publication please sign up for my mailing list.

Here is a first look at the first recipe in this important collection. The handwriting is  difficult to read. The transcription is by Malcom Thick who, through years of work with the manuscripts of Sir Hugh Plat, has acquired an enviable ability to read what to the rest of us largely looks like scribbles.

The paragraphs are numbered. This is paragraph 1.

1 Take 3 quart of a pound of fine searced flowr: 2 spoonefulls of new barme worke this together wth hotte licore and cover yt close and let it stand and rest one houre & yt wilbe risen enough, then worke yt & breake yt well make small loaves & sett into the hotte oven the space of halfe an hour or lesse

The colon following “flowr” in the first line means “in a ratio of.” In other words, for each 3/4 pounds of flour use so much barm, etc. A clearer transcription.

1 Take [for each] 3 quart of a pound of fine searced flowr: [use] 2 spoonefulls of new barme worke this together wth hotte licore and cover yt close and let it stand and rest one houre & yt wilbe risen enough, then worke yt & breake yt well make small loaves & sett into the hotte oven the space of halfe an hour or lesse

This is a recipe for rolls with a soft white interior, a close crumb, a neutral taste and a crispy crust. I emphasize that these are white rolls — white flour both being assumed for rolls and also implied by the instruction to refine what would have been freshly ground meal to the finest level possible by first sifting out the larger impurities with sieves and then when the flour was already reasonably refined, to sift it through a searce which was the class of sifters that included the finest screens, like those used to sift medicines and gunpowder for fireworks. While cheap flour refined to a whiteness that can be likened to the whiteness of snow was not available to bakers until the 19th century, this is an elite bread made in small quantities and could have been made with very white flour. It is a style of bread that is now out of favor but I think you will find that it is refreshing.

This core recipe makes “small loaves.” It was intended to be scaled up from the 1 pound of dough (4 4-ounce rolls) as needed. The amount of water is not specified but there was a general assumption that bread was made with roughly 50% water (including the yeast) by weight of flour. Thus, in this recipe, 12 ounces of flour is mixed with 6 ounces water, including the 2 spoonfuls of barm. In my most recent batch I needed to use 6 oz of water plus a tablespoon as the 6 oz didn’t quite let me incorporate all the flour.

What does TT mean by “small loaves?” There is reference in a later recipe to choosing between pieces of dough sized 5 ounces or 4 ounces. Thus,  I think that dividing the dough into thirds or quarters is the most likely interpretation for small loaves.

Conceptually, this should be understood as a master recipe. The baker is told how many people are coming to dinner, decides on a roll size, and scales the recipe to fit. I do think, though, that the very small size of this core recipe (1 pound of dough) suggests that it was often used for very small parties. As many of the early bread recipes — meaning recipes published well into the 18th century — call for pecks and even bushels of flour this early very small household-scale recipe offers a healthy reminder that people have always sat down to family-sized meals, or eaten as couples, and been served (if they could afford it)  freshly baked rolls prepared by their staff.

The weight of the spoonful of barm (the yeasty foam that rises to the surface in ale brewing) is given as 12 pennyweight in recipe number 2. There are 1.5 grams in each pennyweight which lets us calculate how much yeast is in the recipe. No mention is made of scoring the rolls before baking but scoring is probably assumed. The warm dough, lack of salt, and plentiful yeast produces a soft sweet tasting bread. Given the date for this recipe, assume that the barm is the yeasty sediment from unhopped ale barm.

This recipe produces a terrific roll. Period diners may have let the rolls sit a day before eating them (they let bread sit) and they may  have chipped off the crispy crust (they to-us insanely thought that bread crust was hard for the stomachs of refined people to eat). This said, this bread has a distinctive character and I hope yo make it.

As these are working papers what I am offering here is a bit of my working out how to present old recipes. For myself, I hate reading redactions that don’t explain where they come from. What I am playing with here is the idea of offering the same recipe with increasingly modern-style revisions — always true to the underlying text — but with increasing levels of the type of recipe detail that we have come to expect.

Here is the recipe offered again but this time written with standard spellings and minor changes in language

For each 3/4 pound of finely sifted flour: 2 spoonfulls or 24 pennyweight of new barm, work this together with hot water and cover it close and let it stand and rest one hour and it will be risen enough, then work it and break it well, make small loaves and set into a hot oven the space of half an hour or less.

Here is a version that sticks close to the original, but is written in a more modern language and includes information that TT assumed his readers knew but is still close enough to the original that it might make more sense to someone familiar with historic practice than to a modern baker.

For  four 4-ounce rolls, place 3/4 pound (12 oz) of unbleached all purpose white flour in a bowl, work together with 38g of new barm together with enough water that is 90F to 110F to a stiff but supple dough with a temperature of around 78F, cover and let stand for one hour, which is enough time for it to rise, and then knead it by hand and further work the dough under a brake or with your feet until it is very smooth and elastic, make into rolls and immediately without proofing set into a hot oven to bake for at most thirty minutes.

And again, but with yet more detail for the modern baker.

Put 12 ounces of freshly ground wheat sifted and bolted to produce white flour into a bowl or use 12 ounces unbleached white flour, preferably purchased in bulk.  Add 2 spoonfuls (38g or a little over 1oz) fresh unhopped ale barm or 7g dried ale yeast (or 7g bread yeast if you can’t buy ale yeast) mixed with 1oz water and 5 oz warm (90F) to hot (100F) water to produce a supple yet stiff dough with a dough temperature of around 78F. Mix, adding small amounts of water if needed. Cover, let stand one hour, which is enough time for it to rise. Work well by hand and then use a brake or a rolling pin to work the dough until it is supple, elastic, and even a little whitened by the working. Let rest for a few minutes and then form into rolls. No mention is made of how to score the rolls so score as you like, or match to a period print or painting, if you know of one. Immediately, without giving the bread time to proof,  put into a hot oven (425 to 500F) and bake for no more than 30 minutes.

Here is the original recipe in baker’s math:

Freshly ground and sifted white flour: 100%
Fresh unhopped ale barm: 10%
Water 90F to 110F: 40%

Here is the recipe with modern ingredients:

Unbleached white flour: 100%
Dried ale yeast: 2%
110F water to hydrate yeast: 20%
Water 90F to 110F: 30%

Angelica candied.

Gather your Angelica in April, cut in lengths, and boil it in water till it becomes tender. Having put it on a sieve to drain, peel it, and dry it in a clean cloth, and to every pound of stalks take a pound of double-refined sugar finely pounded Put your stalks into an earthen pan, and strew the sugar over them. Cover them close, and let them stand two days. Then put it into a preserving-pan, and boil it till it is clear. Then put it into a cullender to drain, strew it pretty thick over with fine powder sugar, lay it on plates, and dry it in a cool oven, or before the fire. The accomplished housekeeper, and universal cook by T Williams, printed for J. Scatcherd, London 1717

Angelica candied.

TAKE it in April, cut it in lengths, and boil it in water till it is tender, then put it on a sieve to drain, then peel it and dry it in a clean cloth, and to every pound of stalks take a pound of doublerefined sugar finely pounded, put your stalks into an earthen pan, and strew the sugar over them; cover them close, and let them stand for two days ; then put it into a preserving-pan, and boil it till it is clear ; then put it into a cullender to drain, strew it pretty thick over with fine powder sugar, lay it on plates, and dry it in a cool oven. The English art of cookery, according to the present practice: being a complete guide to all housekeepers, on a plan entirely new; consisting of thirty-eight chapters, by Richard Briggs. Printed for G. G. J. and J. Robinson, 1788

This photograph, taken by Reaktion Books publisher Michael Leaman in Tiblisi, Georgia, very clearly shows that the top of the oven is angled so that breads stuck to its side will receive direct radiant heat from the embers or fire at the bottom of the oven. If you build a tandoor oven I would use this photograph as a model.