These berries are growing on the path to “Panther Beach” a few miles north of Santa Cruz, California where I collect mussels. The photograph was taken January 10th. While spring does come early to the North-Central California Coast, this is early for the berries to start blooming. Also, near this plant, the nettles are beginning…
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.
Bread in Japan
I have only been to Japan once. Fall 2019. I fell in love. My plan had been to return one week per month for a while, starting Spring 2020. I live in California forty minutes from an airport with direct flights to Tokyo so this was a practical concept. Week blocks are practical for me….
Roasting duck!
Atavistic reverie. The land’s fat raining into the lèchefrite. I add water, onions, carrot, garlic, etc. to the lèchefrite so that the fat won’t burn. This also creates the basis for a lovely natural sauce.
Wamba, Kenya Camel
Near Wamba, Kenya August, 2020 Photo by Augustine, head of the blacksmith clan This was sent to me by my blacksmith friend, Augustine. He is his own story. Not today. Tall, handsome, a Paul Robeson baritone; voice so mellifluent that were he not a tribal blacksmith, he could have made a career for himself as…
Bat Boy!
Luang Probang, Laos, January, 2001 Mekong. Languid air. Languid river. Languid landscape. The captain replied, “Not bird,” while flapping his arms. Concise explanation for the steamed lunch’s outer wrapping not understood until his young son picks up what was set-aside, unfolds a wing, and starts sucking to retrieve every possible bit of flavor. Happy boy!…
Royal Icing
When you want an icing to dry hard, like on a British Christmas Cake, or to use it as a glue piecing together sugar sculptures, like those for the Mexican Day of the Dead, or for a gingerbread house, then Royal Icing is what you need. My mother and I made a gingerbread house every…
Manchet! The Long-time “Best Bread”
There is no question about this. Manchet was the “best bread” in most of Early Modern England, with a comparable bread considered “best” in Continental Europe, as well. This will have been the case for hundreds of years. Precision is not possible, as documentation is so scarce, but there is no reason to suppose the…
English Muffins circa 1750s
The muffin that the English understood as a muffin — the muffin of the “muffin man”, the widely recognized itinerant muffin seller on the streets of English cities, especially London, from the mid-19th century well into the 20th — is known internationally as the “English muffin.” This differentiates from the American muffin, which is single-serving…
Bread History Workshop #17: Making Historic Breads for the Holidays
There is no lecture associated with this week’s event. The week, what is usually a Bread History Seminar and Workshop will just be a workshop. Also, this week, it is on WEDNESDAY, December 23, (NOT THE USUAL THURSDAY) at 9am Pacific. This is 11 am in Columbia, noon in the East Coast, 6pm in Belgium,…
A Fabulous Horse Bread by Gervase Markham, 1607
The big author for horse breads was Gervase Markham (ca 1568-1637 ). Markham is the horse trainer who perfected the type of breads fed to race horses as part of a structured exercise program for race horses, thus establishing horse training on a modern basis. The custom at the time was for men to agree amongst themselves to a cross country race three months in advance and then to begin a training regime.
William Rubel 