I am working through the Thomas Cogan (1545?-1607) bread and grain sections from his influential work, Haven of Health (1584). Like the author of health manuals today, Cogan declares himself academically qualified to write on medical matters. He had two Oxford degrees, a Master of Arts, and a Batcheler of Physicke. He was a working…
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Maison Rustique 1619 Markham Edition
I want to start our entry into this astonishingly amazing text with the following paragraph. As you see, it is not the first paragraph of this chapter. It is the most all encompassing poetically written description of what bread meant in Early Modern European culture that I have come across. Amongst many of us, the…
The Coarse Cheat, Maison Rustique, 1619, Gervase Markham, ed.
(Notes for my talk on the Markham edition of Maison Rustique March 31, 2022) ” the next to this is course cheate bread, the which is made of the coursest meale as being boulted as cleane from the branne as it can possibly be got, and the boulter which is for this purpose must bee a…
Markham on Manchet, 1616
Gevas16e Markahm is well known in the world of culinary history for the bread recipes he published in his English Housewife, 1614. An insightful summary of his manchet recipe was published by Markham in his 1616 edition of Maison Rustique. “Besides these breads made of these seuerall cornes, you shall vnderstand that generally the breads…
A Taste of Insights from the 1616 Edition of Maison Rustique
This is is an exact transliteration of the text for the 1616 edition of Maison Rustique, which was revised and edited by Gervase Markham. As a exact transliteration, some words like wet are written vvet. In this period, if the typesetter ran out of the w letters, they could improvise by using vv instead. All…
Bread Recipes to Practice Working out the Recipe in Bakers Math.
I am posting these recipes to be used as part of my talk on recipes, March 17, 2022. However, anyone coming across this page at any time are encouraged to take a stab at converting these recipes to bakers math. In bakers math, flour is always 100%. The other ingredients are expresses as a percentage…
Hannah Glasse French Bread
Hannah Glasse wrote her brilliant The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy in the 1740s. She is the first author to make the promise we know so well—I will show you how easy it is to make good food! Her 1740s work remained in print well into the following century. Through multiple editions, and…
Seminar #28 The Fabulous Breads of John Cochrane, 1797
John Cochrane’s portrait dating to the 1780s doesn’t suggest suggest someone who was passionate about bread. He kind of looks like a stuffed shirt sitting there with his wig and frilly collar and cuffs. He is a good one to apply the adage, Don’t judge a book by its over. Cochrane’s Seaman’s Guide was published…
Dozens of Bread Shapes from Ancient Greece!
This paper documents and reproduces images of dozens of terracotta bread figurines excavated from a Sanctuary of Demeter and Kora on Acrocorinth. I think that most of these would have been maza, barley cakes. This is reference material for my November 22, 2021 talk on the breads of ancient Greece. Whenever you find this page…
Greek Breads Part 1
These are the recipes for my Bread History Seminar #27, Introduction to the breads of Ancient Greece, November 11, 2021. This week we are making easy breads and are not stressing authenticity in baking method or getting too finicky with the flour. We will get more focused on detail in the next talk on Greek…
William Rubel 