There was quite a wide range of bread eaten in medieval times. It was the main staple food in the diet of people both rich and poor. However, it is hard to find a 100% definitive recipe that has been passed down directly from that period.
History sources such as Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” act as some of our best guides and references on medieval food. Chaucer’s miller, for example, made reference to a variety of bread names and how they were eaten.If we could go back in time and witness some of the popular medieval bread recipes, we would notice some key things:
The most popular way of baking bread was done by the poor. Peasants would take their usually meagre amount of grain and grind it by hand in a wooden mortar or a stone trough. They would then mix it with water and bake what was known as unleavened bread (or oatcakes).
Medieval Daily Bread Made Of Rye
The baking was done by placing the dough under an upturned pot placed on the ‘down-hearth’ – this was the flat stone in the centre of the floor of their one room hut on which the fire was built. The embers would keep the stone hot for some time so it was ideal for baking in this way.
In some towns and village the bakers would bake bread to supply the local people as well as baking for their own families. A medieval baker’s oven was usually housed in a dedicated building and often outside a town or city’s walls because of the risk of fire. The rich and powerful who had their own lands and often a medieval castle, had ovens housed in buildings within the castle walls.
If a baker had a good reputation, they might find themselves baking in a medieval castle kitchen exclusively for a rich noble, his family, guests and servants. The image (right) gives an idea of how a baker might have been seen working in a castle kitchen. Notice the method being used to remove the baked bread from the hot oven – a long stick with a flat round end. Made of clay or wood this was called a peel. Peels are still used today, although they tend to be made of metal. The most common place to see them is in pizza parlours for removing freshly cooked pizzas from the oven.
Country (maslin Style) Brown Bread
It may be surprising to some to discover that by the mid 13th century ingredients for baking bread and the actual size of loaves that could be baked was regulated. The Assize of Bread and Ale came into force in 1267 by order of King Henry III of England. Both medieval bakers and brewers were obliged to fees varying in scale in order to do their work and often had to face inspections of weights and measures by order of this Assize. An early instance of ‘Quality Control’ in the commercial food and beverage industry!
The profession of being a baker gained respect and recognition by virtue of this and by the mid 15th century (first charter dated 1486) the Worshipful Company of Bakers was formed. Today it is still in existence although mainly for the purpose of charitable and ceremonial purposes.
If you enjoy baking and have yet to try making anything with an old fashioned recipe, you could consider baking a medieval style bread using today’s ingredients.
Medieval Crispy, Freshly Baked Bread
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Bread Recipes From The Assize Of Bread, Late Medieval England For The Thursday, October 8, Bread History Seminar
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Medieval Food: What Did People In England Eat During The Middle Ages?
This is traditional medieval bread made in Elizabethian times, made with beer and wholemeal bread flour. Great rustic bread perfect with soups, stews or made into sandwiches.
I love visiting medieval and historical fairs and have always loved researching historic recipes. Today I wanted to share with you a simple bread made with beer, which was popular in Elizabethan times in England.
It’s based on a medieval ale bread recipe found in ‘Daily life in Elizabethan England’ by Jeffery Singman and I’ve adapted it slightly to suit modern times (and taste!).
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White flour was expensive and only used in wealthy houses in medieval times. Most people had only access to whole meal bread flour (made from wheat) and rye flour. Wholemeal flour was a lot less expensive than white bread flour in Elizabethian times as it was considered to be a ‘wastage’ from making white flour.
These days, you can make this recipe from any bread flour you like, but wholemeal bread flour (or brown bread flour) works great with this recipe and compliments the flavour of the beer well (plus you’ll be keeping this medieval bread recipe authentic).
Another option is to use 50% wholemeal bread flour and 50% white bread flour, which will make the bread nice and light, but still add great flavour.
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Don’t worry about making your bread alcoholic, it won’t be! Any alcohol still remaining in the bread will be destroyed by the oven temperature when you bake your bread.
Beer was used in the olden times because it was the only way to leaven (rise) the bread. Brewers yeast, which can be found in beer, works very similarly to bakers yeast.
The only difference is that you would need larger volume of beer to contain the same yeast content like a teaspoon of concentrated dry bakers yeast, so it’s not really practical.
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Because the yeast levels in beer are much lower than in regular yeast, raising your bread by beer on it’s own would take a considerably longer period of time. It’s not impossible and you could certainly use beer to revive sourdough starter or to add to sourdough bread, which does use natural yeast.
Adding beer into bread is not coincidental, when you understand how commercial bakers yeast was invented – I always find this story fascinating:
In medieval times, the brewery was often located next to the bread kitchen with hot ovens as the beer needed warm environment to develop. The story goes, that somebody added (or probably knocked over…) a bit of beer mixture to the bread mixture, by mistake and after a while, they noticed that the bread was rising a lot quicker than usual.
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From that moment, the bakers have experimented with adding beer or the beer yeast to the bread dough to make it rise faster.
Depending on what beer you use, you might end up with a slightly different bread flavour, but that’s part of the fun!
Start with 320 ml (or about 1 1/2 cup) of the beer and add more if the dough feels tight as you knead it. Wholemeal flour soaks up more water, so bear that in mind.
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The traditional yeast as we know it wasn’t invented until mid 19 century, so the original recipe relies only on the brewers yeast from the beer to rise your bread.
If you want to do this, I’d recommend that you use about 1 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and
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