* In Tyndale's ' Sardinia,' p. 191, we read: ' The acorn-bread, which
forms the general food of the people of Cagliari, is thus prepared. The
acorns when shelled are put into a large seething-pot with water which
has been strained through the ashes of burnt vegetable matter and clay.
This lye extracts the bitterness of the acorn, and gives a consistency to
the mixture, which is boiled down till it assumes a reddish-brown colour,
when it is taken out, dried in the sun, and cut into cakes. '
t The ordinary food of the Russian peasant consists of black rye
bread and cabbage broth thickened with oatmeal, but the famine has
lately deprived them of even this meagre fare, and they have been
compelled to eat bread largely composed of bark of trees, unwholesome
herbs, earth, and sometimes a handful of rye.
32 OUR VIANDS
household, at least in the country, made its own bread ; very
delicious bread it was, too, sweet and wholesome, brown,
without a lot of indigestible bran, and leavened with barm
from home-made beer, sometimes rather difficult to procure,
so that the family baking had to be put off till the yeast was
forthcoming, and then it was necessary to borrow loaves of
the neighbours, or to make unleavened cakes upon the
hearth, using soda and tartaric acid or buttermilk by way of
rising. Then, too, there was a friendly interchange among
neighbours of newly-baked loaves, and not only so but of
the use of the oven, Mrs. M. heating her oven one week and
Mrs. N. the next ; or sometimes the dough would be sent to
a bakehouse, the tidy servant carrying it wrapped up in a
blanket and sundry cloths, and making it up at the baker's,
putting her mistress's name on it, according to the old
nursery rhyme —
' Prick it, and dawk it, and mark it with D,
And pop it in the oven for baby and me,'
and paying a small sum for the accommodation. The
baker's toll was regulated by law in the days of King John,
and according to the ' Book of Days ' was to be * for his
own labour, three pence and such bran as might be sifted
from the meal,' whilst he was allowed to add 'to the
prime cost of the wheat for fuel and wear of the oven
the price of two loaves ; for the services of three men, he
was to add to the price of the bread three halfpence;
and for two boys, one farthing ; for the expenses attending
the seal, one halfpenny; for yeast, one halfpenny; for
candle, one halfpenny ; for wood, threepence ; and for wear
and tear of the bolting-sieve, one halfpenny.' *
* See Chambers's 'Book of Days,' p. 119, etc.
BREAD . 33
There would seem to have been a great many regulations
as to the making and selling of bread, and adulteration
was common then as now, for sometimes the bakers
would put fine bread on the outside and coarse inside,
till an enactment was made forbidding the practice, and
also the sale of bran loaves or of flour mixed with bran,
whilst the bakers of brown bread were forbidden to sell
white, and every loaf had to be sealed so as to certify
to the buyer its quality.
CHAPTER II
MAIZE AND MILLET
Our viands
1893Page 13
Presented as published in 1893. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
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* In Tyndale's ' Sardinia,' p. 191, we read: ' The acorn-bread, which
forms the general food of the people of Cagliari, is thus prepared. The
acorns when shelled are put into a large seething-pot with water which
has been strained through the ashes of burnt vegetable matter and clay.
This lye extracts the bitterness of the acorn, and gives a consistency to
the mixture, which is boiled down till it assumes a reddish-brown colour,
when it is taken out, dried in the sun, and cut into cakes. '
t The ordinary food of the Russian peasant consists of black rye
bread and cabbage broth thickened with oatmeal, but the famine has
lately deprived them of even this meagre fare, and they have been
compelled to eat bread largely composed of bark of trees, unwholesome
herbs, earth, and sometimes a handful of rye.
32 OUR VIANDS
household, at least in the country, made its own bread ; very
delicious bread it was, too, sweet and wholesome, brown,
without a lot of indigestible bran, and leavened with barm
from home-made beer, sometimes rather difficult to procure,
so that the family baking had to be put off till the yeast was
forthcoming, and then it was necessary to borrow loaves of
the neighbours, or to make unleavened cakes upon the
hearth, using soda and tartaric acid or buttermilk by way of
rising. Then, too, there was a friendly interchange among
neighbours of newly-baked loaves, and not only so but of
the use of the oven, Mrs. M. heating her oven one week and
Mrs. N. the next ; or sometimes the dough would be sent to
a bakehouse, the tidy servant carrying it wrapped up in a
blanket and sundry cloths, and making it up at the baker's,
putting her mistress's name on it, according to the old
nursery rhyme —
' Prick it, and dawk it, and mark it with D,
And pop it in the oven for baby and me,'
and paying a small sum for the accommodation. The
baker's toll was regulated by law in the days of King John,
and according to the ' Book of Days ' was to be * for his
own labour, three pence and such bran as might be sifted
from the meal,' whilst he was allowed to add 'to the
prime cost of the wheat for fuel and wear of the oven
the price of two loaves ; for the services of three men, he
was to add to the price of the bread three halfpence;
and for two boys, one farthing ; for the expenses attending
the seal, one halfpenny; for yeast, one halfpenny; for
candle, one halfpenny ; for wood, threepence ; and for wear
and tear of the bolting-sieve, one halfpenny.' *
* See Chambers's 'Book of Days,' p. 119, etc.
BREAD . 33
There would seem to have been a great many regulations
as to the making and selling of bread, and adulteration
was common then as now, for sometimes the bakers
would put fine bread on the outside and coarse inside,
till an enactment was made forbidding the practice, and
also the sale of bran loaves or of flour mixed with bran,
whilst the bakers of brown bread were forbidden to sell
white, and every loaf had to be sealed so as to certify
to the buyer its quality.
CHAPTER II
MAIZE AND MILLET