Breadrecipes from the distant past are rare. The recipe on
this page was inspired on the description in the Nyeuwen
cooc boeck (New Cook Book) by Gheeraert Vorselman (Cockx-Indestege 1971 p.105).
Actually this is a description of a kind of flat, unleavened bread, but I added
yeast to it. This addition is supported by the fact that Vorselman had derived
his description from De Honeste Voluptate (1468) by Bartolomeo Scappi,
also known as Platina (book I, recipe 15, "De Placentis"). Vorselman
has omitted Platina's mentioniof long buns made with leavened dough, and the
variation in which the buns are filled with figpeckers and small birds, or fresh
cheese.
The Nyeuwen cooc boeck was published in 1560, but many sources Vorselman
used for his cookbook date from much earlier, the fifteenth century. So you can
serve this bread without qualms at medieval meals.
The lard in the recipe is not melted, but chopped. I have used streaked bacon,
chopped in small chunks and fried.
On the picture on the left you see a man in a field with fennel-plants. In
the Middle Ages the seeds were often sugar-coated and served with other
sweets at the end of a meal, together with
hippocras (spiced
wine). Fennel seeds were also used in pies, and the leafy part as herb in
for example a summer stew with fish. The stalks were prepared as a
vegetable, and there are even recipes for fennel blossom. The white bulbous
finocchio was developed in Italy in the 17th century.
Van coeck te backen:
Neemt tarwenmeel oft bloemen met warmen watere also vele als ghi behoeft,
ende wercket een luttel samen, dan neemt venckelsaet ende spec ghesneden
terlincxwijse ende doeget int deech ende wercket wel tsamen tot tay deech
ende maect eenen ronden coec ende bacten in den oven metten brode oft op
den heert, &c. Inde plaetse vanden spec moech dy nemen boter oft
olijfoly. Men bact ooc coec onder de asschencolen, mer sonder spec, met
sout, venckel ende olie.
To bake cake. Take
wheat meal or flour with warm water, as much as you need, and blend it a
little. Then take fennel seed and diced lard. Add it to the dough and
knead together into a tough (elastic?) dough. Make a round cake and bake
that in the oven [together] with the bread or on the hearth, etc. You can
also use butter or olive oil instead of lard. One also bakes cake under
the ashes of the coals, but without lard, with salt, fennel and oil.
Preparation in advance:
Fry the diced bacon on a small flame, drain them on kitchen towels..
If you use fresh yeast, crumble it in a little warm water with a spoonful of
flour and let it stand for fifteen minutes. Then add it to the flour with the
rest of the water.
If you use dry yeast, mix it with the flour together with the salt.
Mix salt, dry yeast when you use that, groats and fennel
seeds through the flour and whole wheat flour. Stir the honey into the warm
water and add it to the flour. If you use fresh yeast, mix the water/flour/yeast
through the rest of the water with the honey and add it to the flour. Knead
until you have a nice supple but firm dough. Put the dough in a large bowl and
cover it with a moist cloth. Let the dough rise in a warm place for 45 minutes.
Then add the fried bacon, knead again shortly, and let the dough rise for
another 30 minutes.
Now give the bread any shape you want and let it rise another 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200ºC/390ºF to 220ºC/425ºF.
Preparation:
Put the bread in the middle of the oven and let it bake for 45 minutes. If you
want to make sure the bread is done, tap it with a wooden spoon. If the bread
sounds hollow, it is done. Take the bread out of the oven and let it cool on a
grid. If you baked it in a form, remove it after five minutes, If you don't, the
breadcrust will become soggy because the excess moisture can't escape.
To serve:
This bread is really hefty. You can serve it with medieval or renaissance meals,
but it also tastes good at breakfeast. Or with pea
soup.
Buckwheat:
This is not a cereal, but a plant from the same family as rhubarb and sorrel.
Buckwheat is native to the Far East, the temperate climate zone. Buckwheat has come to Europe by two ways:
it first reached
Europe by way of Russia, during the fifteenth century the plant was introduced
in Germany.
Later the plant reached Southern Europe through the Middle East (hence the
French name for this plant: Sarassin). Btw, the English name
"buckwheat" is derived from the Dutch "boekweit", litt.
"beech wheat", because of its resemblance to beech nuts.
Since buckwheat contains no gluten, you can't bake bread with it. Famous dishes
with buckwheat are blinis (Russian pancakes) and soba (Japanese noodles).
Because of the use of buckwheat grits this bread can only be served in an
authentic way at meals from the fifteenth century and later. If you use rolled
oats or something like that it can also be served at earlier meals.
Platina,
On Right Pleasure and Good Health.
Critical edition and translation of De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine by
Mary Ella Milham. Med.&Ren. Texts & Studies vol.168, Tempe/Arizona,
1998. Gheeraert
Vorselman, Eenen nyeuwen coock boeck. Edition E.
Cockx-Indestege, Eenen nyeuwen coock boeck. Kookboek samengesteld door
Gheeraert Vorselman en gedrukt te Antwerpen in 1560. Wiesbaden, 1971.
.
Critical edition and translation of De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine by
Mary Ella Milham. Med.&Ren. Texts & Studies vol.168, Tempe/Arizona,
1998.