Maslin Bread

Maslin bread was the common bread of the medieval period.  It consists of wheat mixed with rye, barley, or whatever has happened to grow in your field, lightly bolted to remove some of the bran and risen with sourdough.  While there was a clear preference for wheat-only bread, the reality is that many regions in England are not great for growing it, and farmers planted mixtures of grains as insurance that one of them would produce well in any particular year.*

I have tried, and tried, and tried to make a 100% whole wheat sourdough risen bread.  It doesn't work.   My duck flock has enjoyed the results, but no one else.  But by carefully adapting directions from Breadtopia, I finally got this!

The key is some white flour.  Sourdough works a lot better on white flour, so the bolting step is not because they preferred white bread (although they did), it's vital to getting it to rise.  I used all-purpose flour rather than bread flour, as English medieval wheat was low in gluten.


Maslin Bread [Adapted from Breadtopia]

Evening of Day 1:
200 grams (7 oz. or 7/8 cup) water
120g (4 oz. or 1/2 cup) sourdough starter
236 grams (8 1/3 oz or 2 cups) whole wheat flour

Morning of Day 2:
274 grams (9 2/3 oz. or ~1 1/4 cup) water
85 grams (3 oz. or 7/8 cup) rye flour
250 grams (8 3/4 oz or 2 cups) white all-purpose
170 grams (6 oz. or a tad over 1 3/4 cups) barley flour
13 grams (scant tbs.) salt

Instructions

Evening of Day 1:
Mix all ingredients together.  Ferment (let sit out at room temperature covered loosely with plastic) at 69F for 12 hours.

Morning of Day 2:
Add day 2 to day 1 ingredients.  Knead, place in plastic covered bowl and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Morning of Day 3:
Form a boule (round loaf) and ferment (let sit out on counter) 5 hours at 69F.

Bake at 485F for 40-45 minutes.

...

Verdict: Fabulous.  Look at the inside!

Mmmm.  It is pretty darn dense, but not brick-like.  It had a beautiful, crispy crust and a chewy inside.  I scoffed the heels before anyone else could get them... for quality control.  It was enjoyed by all who hadn't recently had dental surgery.


*How To Be a Tudor, by Ruth Goodman

Rys

Time for some more medieval culinary shenanigans! It's a beautiful word, shenanigans. This offering comes from the 1400's, the tail end of the medieval period.

Rys.
Take a porcyoun of Rys, & pyke hem clene, & sethe hem welle, & late hem kele; þen take gode Mylke of Almaundys & do þer-to, & seþe & stere wyl; & do þer-to Sugre an hony, & serue forth.

Rice. [Revised]
Take a portion of rice, and pick them clean, and seeth them well, and let them cool; then take good milk of almonds and do thereto, and seethe and stir well; and do thereto sugar and honey, and serve forth.

Rice. [Further revised]
Make some rice, and let it cool. Add almond milk, and simmer until thickened. Add brown sugar and honey to taste and serve. If it thickens more than you'd like after it cools, stir in some more almond milk until it is the texture you like.


Verdict: Very nice indeed! Surprisingly nice, for how few ingredients there are. The almond milk gives it a lovely, subtle flavor, as does the honey. Lots of recipes using honey overwhelm it so as you can't even taste what variety of honey has been used. Not so here. Consequently, this is an excellent application for your fancypants honeys. If you just drizzle the honey over the top, it soaks down through the mixture and leaves you with the most delicious few honey-syruped bites at the end. I don't think it needs anything added, although I might try a touch of vanilla some time. Husband declared he wouldn't mind if it showed up again.

No, I did not get authentic medieval almond milk. I obtained mine from the refrigerated section, being both blessed with a refrigerator and cursed with laziness as I am. In the medieval period, when there was a serious lack of refrigerators, almond milk is preferred over cow's milk out of necessity. Cow's milk goes off pretty quickly, whereas almonds are shelf-stable. You don't want to risk sending a lovely, expensive sugared dessert such as this to the lord of the manor and have it taste of sour milk, do you? Indeed not.


*Thanks to Gode Cookery*

Venyson Y-bake A-nother manere

This is the final part in my three-part Medieval Venison series. Hurrah and huzzah! This week's recipe is Venyson Y-bake A-nother manere, from somewhere in the 1400's. This is also known as a pie with venison in it. Be sure to visit Gode Cookery, it is a great site for medieval cooking.

Now, there is a great deal of debate as to whether medieval pie crust was simply a hard, inedible container for cooking foods inside, which one would discard or give to poor people after one had scooped out the good stuff, or was delicious and edible as today's pie crusts are. The problem arises from there being no pastry recipes from the time, as it was assumed that cooks already knew how to make it.

However, since I am a time traveler, I can now settle this once and for all. The answer is: it depends. On some occasions it is one, and on some occasions it is the other. There. Done.

For this recipe, I combined two recipes. I also decided to use a non-delicious pie crust recipe that consisted of 1.) flour and 2.) water.



That was after it was baked. Fat is important to browning.




Venyson Y-bake.
Take hoghes of Venyson, & parboyle hem in fayre Water an Salt; & whan þe Fleyssche is fayre y-boylid, make fayre past, & cast þin Venyson þer-on: & caste a-boue an be-neþe, pouder Pepir, Gyngere, & Salt, & þan sette it on þe ouyn, & lat bake, & serue forth.

Venison Bake- Revised
Take hocks of venison and parboil them in fair water and salt; and when the flesh is fair boiled, make fair paste, and cast the venison thereon; and cast above and beneath, powder pepper, ginger, and salt, and then set it on the oven, and let bake, and serve forth.

Venison Bake- Further Revised
Take hocks of venison and parboil them in water and salt, and when it is boiled, make pastry dough, put the venison in it. Sprinkle with pepper, ginger, and salt, cover with more pastry, bake it, and serve it.


A-nother manere.
Take fayre porke y-broylid, & grind it smal with yolks of Eyroun; þan take Pepir, Gyngere, & grynd it smal, & melle it with-al, & a lytel hony, & floryssche þin cofns with-ynne & with-owte, & hele hem with þin ledys, & late hem bake, & serue forth.

Another Manner- Revised
Take fair pork broiled, and grind it small with yolks of eggs; then take pepper, ginger, and grind it small, and mix it withal, and a little honey, and flourish the coffins within and without, and [?] then with the lids, and let them bake, and serve forth.

Another Manner- Further Revised
Take nice pork, broiled, and chop it up with egg yolks, then mix in pepper, ginger, and a little honey and put in a pie crust, cover it with more pie crust, bake it, and serve it.



Verdict:
It was okay. The spices and honey were actually the best thing about it, the meat was incredibly dry and chewy. The crust was not delicious, but the serfs seem happy to have meat-flavored baked library paste rather than non-meat flavored baked library paste. I can't recommend this one. It's just dry and boring.