Lactuca serriola. Close relative of the domesticated lettuce, Lactuca sativa. What is a weed? Most people define a weed as a plant that is out of place. This is what everyone I have asked has responded. And this is generally what one finds online. When thinking about weeds and gardens it is helpful to think … Continue reading Rethinking Weeds
Author: William Rubel
I am an author who writes about traditional food and foodways. My book, The Magic of Fire (2002) is about hearth cooking. I have written an introductory history of bread, Bread, a global history (2011) and am currently writing a history of bread for the University of California Press. Other areas of interest include wild mushrooms, and specifically the treatment of Amanita muscaria in the historic record. I also write about Early Modern British Gardens, and for a more general audience, I write for Mother Earth News on bread, gardening, and more. I have an ongoing research project into the smoke-cured fermented milk of the Kenyan Samburu tribe. I am a co-director of the Samburu Lowlands Research Station, Lengusaka. I am the founding editor (1972) of Stone Soup, the magazine of writing and art by young people.
Recipes for Seminar #23 — An English Bread Manuscript from the 1550s.
Recipes for Bread History Seminar #23 Recipes from the Manuscript by T. (only name we have so far), circa 1550 I am posting this Tuesday evening, April 20. I will be revising this text prior to the workshop, but this will give you enough to get started. I would like to acknowledge Jeff Pavlik. He … Continue reading Recipes for Seminar #23 — An English Bread Manuscript from the 1550s.
Recipes for the Introduction to Egyptian Bread Seminar #22 & Revised for #24
The ancient Egyptian bread that is most often the focus of recreation is the molded conical loaf. Working out how to bake conical loaves in clay molds on an open fire is not a challenge that fits into my interest in historic breads. For me, it is a too specialized product. Emmer and barely are … Continue reading Recipes for the Introduction to Egyptian Bread Seminar #22 & Revised for #24
The Quartern Loaf : Recipe for William Rubel Bread History Seminar #21, March 25, 2021
The thing about the Quartern Loaf is that as far as I can tell, it is the one of the most important British breads. But, but be honest, before focusing on the bread for this talk, I had thought of it as a super minor bread. One of n real importance. I was wrong. This … Continue reading The Quartern Loaf : Recipe for William Rubel Bread History Seminar #21, March 25, 2021
The Quartern Loaf Seminar, Thursday, March 25, 2021
The first story in the anonymously written, "History of Things." London 1860 "Just bread." That is how to think of the Quartern Loaf. It was “just bread.” A workaday loaf. Nothing to write home about. Nothing special. Like the American peanut butter and jelly sandwich, its importance cannot be found by surveying cookbooks. The Quarern … Continue reading The Quartern Loaf Seminar, Thursday, March 25, 2021
More fruit trees
More fruit trees in bloom along California Interstate 5 that runs up the state’s Central Valley. On one side of the valley is the Pacific Range — the low mountains that hug the Pacific Ocean from Mexico up into Canada — and on the other, the Sierra Nevada, rising beyond 4,000 meters and marking the … Continue reading More fruit trees
Fruit trees in bloom
California. I passed mile upon mile upon mile of fruit trees in bloom driving back to Santa Cruz from Los Angeles. I had gone to LA to be part of a TV program. This is the first time I have seen the orchards in bloom. This is orchards on a vast scale. This bloom is … Continue reading Fruit trees in bloom
Gluten!
Gluten! Gluten, the protein structure in wheat flour that makes it possible for a pizzaiolo to toss pizza dough into the air in order to stretch it; the fine balloon-like network of bubbles that makes white wheat bread the bread with the biggest potential air bubbles baked into a finished loaf. Gluten can be developed … Continue reading Gluten!
References for Mrs. Malinda Russell
This is a developing reference sheet for the Malinda Russell cookbook project. If you are working on the project, then add references to the comments, below, and Tayleigh and I will get them incorporated into this page. Miss Leslie's Directions for Cookery, 1851, is a good reference for methods. At the beginning of the chapter … Continue reading References for Mrs. Malinda Russell
Stencil on Bread
I am interested in the surfaces of breads. When we think back on the history of bread, how often is surface decoration part of one’s vision? I bought this stencil at a stationary store. This is an experiment I made when writing an article for Mother Earth News about stencilling breads. Shouldn’t we imagine stencilled … Continue reading Stencil on Bread
