A Medieval Rosh Ha’Shanah Meal



BREAD

.הארץ מן לחם המוציא העולם מלך אלוהינו ה״ אתה ברוך

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech haolam, hamotzi lechem min ha-aretz.

Blessed are You, O’ L-rd our G-d, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.

Lechem and Challah are two words in Hebrew that mean bread.  Lechem is the generic word for bread while the other words refer to specific types or uses of bread. Challah refers to the modernly and commonly known “Jewish egg bread” that is generally associated with the sabbath and holidays.

Handful or measuring cup, pinch or teaspoon - bread is bread across time and geography. It is for this very reason that extant bread recipes from the Middle Ages are few and far between. Recipes were not copied or written down in period cookbooks and where they are found they reveal that bread making has remained relatively unchanged over the centuries.

David Friedman, on The Historical Cookery Page: On Bread (www.godecookery.com) provides the following:  

Original recipe from Platina pp. 13-14 (Book 1):

"... Therefore, I recommend to anyone who is a baker that he use flour from wheat meal, well ground and then passed through a fine seive to sift it; then put it in a bread pan with warm water, to which has been added salt, after the manner of the people of Ferrari in Italy. After adding the right amount of leaven, keep it in a damp place if you can and let it rise.... The bread should be well baked in an oven, and not on the same day; bread from fresh flour is most nourishing of all, and should be baked slowly."

Modern recipe:

    1 1/2 cup sourdough

    1 cup whole wheat

    2 1/4 cup warm water

    5 3/4 cup white flour: 5 1/4 cup at first, 1/2 cup later

    1 T salt

Put sourdough in a bowl. Add warm (not hot!) water and salt, mix. Add whole wheat flour, then white, 1 or 2 cup at a time, first stirring in with a wooden spoon and then kneading it in. Cover with a wet towel, set aside. Let rise overnight (16-20 hours). Turn out on a floured board, shape into two or three round loaves, working in another 1/2 cup or so of flour. Let rise again in a warm place for an hour. Bake at 350° about 50 minutes. Makes 2 loaves, about 8" across, 3"-4" thick, about 1.5 lb, or three smaller loaves.

Le Ménagier de Paris (14th C) includes bread in many of its menus but does not contain a bread recipe.  Hugh Plat’s Delightes for Ladies (1608) contains several specialty “bisket” recipes and requires the use of stale manchets but also does not provide a recipe. 

The Making of Fine Manchet (from The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin, 1594.)

Original recipe: Take halfe a bushell of fine flower twise boulted, and a gallon of faire luke warm water, almost a handful of white salt, and almost a pinte of yest, then temper all these together, without any more liquor, as hard as ye can handle it: then let it lie halfe an hower, then take it vp, and make your Manchetts, and let them stande almost an hower in the ouen. Memorandum, that of euery bushell of meale may be made fiue and twentie caste of bread, and euerie loafe to way a pounde beyside the chesill.

Translation: Take ½ bushel (74.5 cups) of fine flour, sieved twice and 1 gallon (16 cups) of clean luke warm water, about a handful (~1 cup) of white salt, and about a pint of yeast (2 cups of active yeast solution). Mix these all together without adding more liquid as well as you are able the leave it alone for 1½ hours. Form into manchets (loaves) and let stand for about an hour in the oven.  Note that every bushel of grain should make 25 [caste of bread], and every loaf should weigh 1 pound.

Redaction: Take 5 cups of fine flour, sieved twice and a bit more than 1cup of clean luke warm water, 1 tablespoon of white salt, and 1oz of active yeast solution. Knead well and let rise for 1½ hours. Form into loaves and let stand 1hour in the oven.  Note: makes 2 large loaves.

Challah, modernly prepared in plain loaves as a daily bread and sometimes formed in special shapes to honor special holidays (e.g., braided for Shabbat, round for Rosh Ha’hanah, oblong loaves to represent the tablets of the Ten Commandments for Shavuot) is a rich, egg bread and what was initially the intended entry; however, challah, was not to be found in the 13th century. It came from austria and Germany in the late 1400s and was a Jewish adaptation of a non-Jewish Sunday bread. (Cooper) Rabbi Yosef ben Moshe, a student of Rabbi Yisrael Isserlein, a leading rabbinical authority of the 15th century, described as the Shabbat breads as Challah for the first time in his writings, Leket Yosher.  The Encyclopedia of Jewish Food informs us that both Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews of the Middle Ages used flatbread for their Shabbat and Holy Day loaves until the fifteenth century; however, it was customary to use white flour for the Shabbat and Holy Day breads. 

Not everyone in the Middle Ages grew their own wheat, ground it, and baked their own bread.  Communal ovens were fairly common and not just used for bread. Bread was so much a staple food that the Assize of Bread became law in the 13th century to regulate the size and price of bread loaves. (Davis) During the late 12th and early 13th centuries bread was already available commercially for barter or purchase from bakers and bakeries.  Flours were easily obtained from millers. Yeast was not available for purchase in packages but could be obtained as a barm that was skimmed from the fermenting beer or ale at the local brewer. If that was not an option, water was added to a small amount of flour in order to create a leavening agent. Unmilled flour was commonly used to make dark bread for daily use, but beard for the Shabbat or for a Yom Tov (a holiday) was made with finest white flour affordable. Even the poorest Jew would use the milled flour to make their bread fit for the “Sabbath Queen.” (Wasserman)

The bread recipe used was retrieved from an article by Leah Hada on the JewishFoodExperience.com website. It is a recipe for a hearth bread that is basic and easily baked in a home oven or at a home hearth and seeks to create a traditional rather than a modern bread. It also contains no butter or milk and can therefore be served with a meal containing meat which is one of several requirements for a kosher bread.

BREAD RECIPE

Ingredients

    5½ cups unbleached, unbromated all-purpose flour*

    1 tablespoon salt 1 tablespoon sugar

    1 packet active dry yeast 2 cups warm water (110 degrees)

    Drizzle of oil (to grease bowl) 2 cups boiling water

*Unbleached, unbromated flour results in better texture and taste. Two choices easily available are Bob's Red Mill Organic Unbromated Unbleached White Flour [certified kosher] and King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour.

Preparation  

Mix flour and salt in a large mixing bowl and create a well in the center. Place sugar and yeast in a small bowl, cover with warm water and let stand for five minutes to activate the yeast. Pour yeast mixture into the well in the bowl with the flour and knead with a wooden spoon or by hand for about 5 minutes until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.  Dust your board with flour and knead the dough, sprinkling just enough flour on the board as necessary to avoid sticking. Let rest for 5 minutes. In the meantime, scrape off any dough that is stuck on the sides of the mixing bowl, then grease the bowl. Knead dough again for five minutes. Return the dough to the bowl smooth side down and turn over once so that some of the oil from the bowl gets on the top of the dough. Cover the bowl with a damp towel and let rise in warm area until the dough doubles, 1 to 2 hours. When risen, punch the dough down with your fist to inflate pockets of air, then take the dough out of the bowl and knead for 2 to 3 minutes. Cut the dough in half and shape into 2 loaves. Alternatively, shape one half of the dough into a loaf and use the rest to make flatbreads.

To bake hearth bread: Sprinkle a baking sheet with cornmeal or semolina and place the loaf on top. Let dough rise for 45 minutes. Pour 2 cups of boiling water in a roasting pan placed on the bottom rack of a cold oven. Set another rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 500 degrees. Brush the top of the loaf with water and, with a sharp knife, score the top of the loaf, but do not cut through. Transfer dough to baking sheet, place sheet on the middle rack and bake for 15 minutes. Lower the temperature to 400 degrees and bake for 10 more minutes. Remove from the oven and place on cooling rack. Wait at least 10 minutes before breaking off a bite.

To bake flatbreads: Shape the dough into 6 even balls and let rise for 20 minutes. Place a baking stone or iron skillet in the cold oven and preheat to 500 degrees. Take out hot stone or skillet and sprinkle with flour or cornmeal. Place dough ball in the center and with wet hands press to stretch, being careful of the hot stone.  Return to oven and bake for 15 minutes. Cool on a rack. 

My Adapted Bread Recipe

After making bread from the recipe as written above (which did yield two beautiful loaves of white bread) it was adapted as follows to produce a protein and gluten base closer to those used in period. It produced a fuller, richer, “flatter” bread:

Ingredients

    3½ cups unbleached, unbromated all-purpose flour

    2 cups white whole wheat flour

    1 tablespoon salt 1 tablespoon sugar

    1½ tsp active dry yeast 2 cups warm water (110 degrees)

    Drizzle of oil (to grease bowl) 2 cups boiling water

Sprinkle a baking sheet with flour and place the loaf on top. Let dough rise for 45 minutes. Pour 2 cups of boiling water in a roasting pan placed on the bottom rack of a cold oven. Set another rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 500 degrees. Brush the top of the loaf with water and, with a sharp knife, score the top of the loaf, but do not cut through. Transfer dough to baking sheet, place sheet on the middle rack and bake for 15 minutes. Lower the temperature to 400 degrees and bake for 10 more minutes. Remove from the oven cool before serving.