Skip to main content

Making Bread as a Window in History: The Platypus Reads Part CCLXVI

I don't think historians are at their best when they limit themselves to abstract thinking.  There's something sensible and salubrious when Jim Lacey takes a look at the Battle of Marathon from a quartermaster's perspective (The First Clash) and asks where the Persians put their toilets (the next question is given the sub-prime location for said outhouses, how long could they have stayed on the beaches before having to decamp in the face of the enemy).  Some things only become clear by doing.  I have a great respect for interpreters, the docents at living museums like Plymouth Plantation, Old Sturbridge Village, and Colonial Williamsburg.  By re-creating the old ways of doing things they preserve (and sometimes recover!) knowledge of the past that can't be communicated by mere letters on a page.

Lacking an organic farm or a stone oven limits my undertakings, but I am determined to make some things with my own two hands this summer.  To that end, I have some helpful little friends.  The first is Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  By the power of refrigeration, I now have tasty, tasty loaves on the table everyday via a process that's virtually idiot-proof.  I've enjoyed seeing how much can be done with very little (salt, water, and flour), especially the different forms that bread can take from region to region (the picture above and the two below are Couronnes, a type of loaf my book informs me is native to Lyon).

  Moving back into the past, my next little helper is a collection of antique New England recipes collected in the late 1930s, The New England Yankee Cookbook by Imogene Walcott.  We've tried recipes from this treasure trove in the past with great success (Deerfoot chowder and Indian pudding).  Adapting another recipe led to the creation of this Whole-wheat-maple-honey-walnut loaf.
I've made one foray into the world of cheese already with a simple queso blanco under the tutiledge of making Cheese, Butter and Yogurt by Ricki Carroll.  Cheese-making is a much more involved process and I'm not sure how further efforts will go.  Nonetheless, I am determined to make them and I'll be sure to report any striking successes.

So what am I hoping to learn from all this?  I'm not sure yet.  Whatever happens, I'm certainly not going "Wendell Berry" any time soon (poor health).  I suppose looking at historical recipes and techniques and then comparing them with contemporary methods gives a real idea of how much labor labor-saving devices actually save.  It's also impressed upon me the need for absolute faithfulness to routine and organization in sustaining traditional cooking methods.  I still have a lot to think about and experiment with, but I'll let you know if I come to any firm conclusions.  In the meantime, I have a honey-wheat loaf to enjoy!   
 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Platypus Reads Part XXVII

Thoughts after reading the "Iliad" to prepare a Greece unit for my students: -Hector is a jerk until he's dead. He even advocates the exposure of Achaean corpses and then has the cheek to turn around and ask Achilles to spare his. He rudely ignores Polydamas' prophecies and fights outside the gate to save his pride knowing full well what it will cost his family and city. After he's dead, he becomes a martyr for the cause. -Agamemnon has several moments of true leadership to balance out his pettiness. In this way, he's a haunting foil to Achilles: the two men are more alike than they want to acknowledge. -We see that Achilles is the better man at the funeral games of Patroclos. His lordliness, tact, and generosity there give us a window into Achilles before his fight with Agamemnon and the death of Patroclos consumed him. -Nestor is a boring, rambling, old man who's better days are far behind him, and yet every Achaean treats him with the upmo...
15 comments
Read more

SNES as Money Well Spent: Platypus Nostalgia

I got my Super Nintendo Entertainment System when I was eleven years old.  That's a couple years after it first came out.  The occasion was a little dramatic: to celebrate the end of a two-and-a-half year course of treatment for cancer.  I had no idea that it would be waiting for me at home after the final doctors visit.  It was a nice spring day, the trees were waving gently in the breeze outside the bay windows.  With a cup of tea resting on the coffee table, I set down to play.  What was that first game?  It was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past .  Around twenty years later, my SNES still works as does that Zelda cartridge.  It's been a long way from boyhood in Southern Connecticut to manhood in North Houston, but I'm still playing. Why am I still playing?  There were stretches when I didn't.  Many times, I've just been too busy.  There were also seasons when it felt embarrassing to still be playing video games....
10 comments
Read more

Under the Moon: The Platypus Reads Part LXVI

My wife and I were discussing our favorite books from the Chronicles of Narnia on our way back from lunch.  My wife, true to her sunny personality, is a staunch fan of "The Voyage of the Dawntreader."  I can't argue with that choice but, when push comes to shove, "The Silver Chair" has always been my favorite. I have a bit of a theory.  I think "The Voyage of the Dawntreader" is Lewis' grail legend.  If that's so, then I'd hazard a guess and say that "The Silver Chair" is his "Pilgrim's Progress." -just think about the shape of Puddleglum's hat and the fact that he lives in the Fen Country and you'll see what got me thinking down this line. That brings me to why I like "The Silver Chair" so much.  When I was little, we had a children's version of "Pilgrim's Progress" that my mom used to read to me.  I lived in New England and the Christianity I was raised with had a heavy tin...
7 comments
Read more