The historic bread receipts that I’ve shared with you thusfar have all been
for “white bread.” So I thought now I’d offer one or two for French Bread,
so you can see the differences between them. Remember, adding
ingredients such as eggs or milk, makes for a more enriched, and
hence, more French, bread. In addition, it’s important to note
that these next receipts are from cookbooks that were originally
published in England (including Martha Washington’s), and so they
have a decidely British bent. Therefore, what those living in the British
Isles and colonies thought of as “French Bread” may not necessarily
have been what the French actually ate. The English loved their ale,
as well, and so bread bakers almost always used brewer’s yeast
for leavening, whereas the wine-drinking French most likely
used sourdough.
Here, from Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery, as transcribed
by Karen Hess:
TO MAKE FRENCH BREAD
Take a gallon of flowre & put to it a little salt,
a pinte of ale yeast, a quart of new milke heated,
but not too hot. poure these into the flowre, & mix
them with one hand, you must not knead it at all.
then heat a woollen cloth & poure your paste on it,
flower the cloth, & lap it up. then make it into a dosin
of loves & set them on a peele, flowred, & lay a warm
wollen cloth on them. your oven must be allmoste hot
when you mix your bread. heat your oven pritty hot,
& chip your bread when it comes out.
More to come.
