Memories of Miss Memory

sofie’s romano cheese bread

It’s rare that I get the opportunity to blog about such domestic things like baking bread but times are-a-changing. For me the change is about self-reliance, whole-food cooking, cutting out food additives, drinking clean water and sourcing local product rather than mass produced or imported goods. Starting with bread, if it’s the fabulous organic sourdough sort that we love, it is generally extraordinarily expensive, and the kind from the supermarket is sort of like eating marshmallow that tastes like bread. A quick glance at the ingredients list of most mass produced bread reveals long lists of unnecessary additives. So I prefer to make my own. It’s not as time consuming as you think and the results are just so rewarding.

sofie’s wholemeal loaf straight out of the oven

This is a tried and tested recipe and in the true spirit of a hand-me-down, it was originally sourced from my dear friend Kirsten, who got it from someone else, who in turn adapted it from a recipe from the illustrious Sullivan St Bakery in NYC.

Recipe: No-Knead Bread
November 8, 2006

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery NYC

Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Either put a lid/plate on the bowl or put the mix into of the thing you’lll bake it in. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 20 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface (baking tray is good or use the lid/plate of the bowl if you don’t want to make a mess) and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball.

Cover with cotton towel and let rise for about 2-4 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 230 degrees centigrade. Put a heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 45 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

I have also put this dough into a normal loaf tin, (grease the tin using butter or oil before putting the dough in) reduced the temperature to 210 and cooked for about 45 mins. The results are still great, and you get a more loafy shape than the pot version.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

kirsten’s notes: we do 1.5 loaves (ie 1.5 x ingedients) and its yay…. all measures of time, apart from baking, are approximate and the loaf will forgive you if you forget about it for an extra hour or two here and there…

sofie’s notes: I have found that weather plays a big part in the process, so keep in mind the temperature of the room in relation to rising time. If you are adventurous you can add extra things like romano cheese or dried fruit and cinnamon.

Ever wanted a recipe for lard? No? Not your thing? Well how about an artichoke pie? Ever wanted to know the recipe for plague water ? Well these and many more brilliant recipe’s from mediaeval cookbooks with names like “the Good Huswifes Jewell” and “The Widowes Treasure” are available from the British Library Online Cookery section to peruse when deciding on the menu for your next dinner party.

I am particularly fond of the notion of “Fish” days and “Flesh” days (they certainly had a way with words in the 16th Century) ‘the order howe all maner of meates should be served to the table, with their proper sawces both for flesh and fish.’

Some of the recipe’s seem to defy the concept of food for enjoyment - for example - why on earth would one serve live birds in a pie?

I was also delighted to find a recipe for A Quaking Pudding, which is described as a wobbly blancmange flavoured with rose water! This is critical reading for foodies!

So for your delight, I have transcribed the recipe for “A cake for a Princess” which i will one day make for someone’s birthday and hope that it doesnt taste strange. (the yeast bit worries me slightly)

Take half a peck of Flower (flower=flour, whats a peck?)
Half a pint of Rose Water
A pint of Ale yeast
A pint of cream.
Boil it.
A pound and a half of butter (no wonder they didn’t live long)
Six eggs (leave out the whites)
Four pounds of currants
One half pound of sugar
One nutmeg
a little salt

Work it very well, and let it stand half an hour by the fire, and then work it again, and then make it up (cryptic?), and let it stand an hour and a half in the Oven; let not your Oven be too hot.

I wonder why you boil the cream and yeast? this is a bit of a mystery…
and what does “make it up” mean?
i think my princess cake will need a little experimentation

These texts are not only filled with culinary delights, but also tidbits of classic mediaeval home science that every “huswife” should know, for example, recipes for confectionery, syrups, dyes and iprocras, and black ink, as well as concoctions to make beards grow, or to provoke sleep.

I see now, this was the “gentlewoman’s” way of becoming immortal, ‘which by these singuler practices hath obtained such fame, that her name shalbe remembred for ever to the posterities.’

sigh, if only making good apple pie could have the same effect today….but instead, we have sara lee.