[Trials and Errors with Bread moulding]
Name: Tenzin Dongchung
Date and Time: September 24, 2017, 10:30pm - 1:30am September 25, 2017
Location: Astoria, NY
Subject: Attempts at finding bread recipe contemporary to the author-practitioner's timeI decided to use our (FA17) reconstruction template before starting the project. From last week's mustard reconstruction process, I felt that if I spent more time researching the materials, it might have offered us more options/details on processes as well as ingredients. So, I started with the annotation reading on Sulfur and additives. That alerted me to the chemical components of both bread making and bread as a final product. Another point highlighted in the assignment prompt was to look across time and space for similar bread recipes. Thus, I started browsing through several archival and manuscript collections (which is in retrospect is like a rabbit hole) to search for different bread recipes that would come as close to the one used by author-practitioner in 16th century Toulouse. I found some promising titles but all three were 19th-century English recipes.
After spending quite some time without finding a recipe ( there was one closer to the time of author-practitioner but it turned out to be about bread pudding), I narrowed few recipe books of 16th century that were available via EBBO. However, for some strange reason, there was some technical problem that wouldn't let me log in to the EBBO site. I turned to FAST OCLC and used the authorized keyword search for 'bread." That took me to a worldcat page where I found that the earliest books on bread were grouped together with ale. This made me realize that in this project, perhaps, it is important to think of bread's chemical features as being a criteria for why it was used for moulding purposes.
Finally, I looked at John Evelyn's recipe but it was not transcribed and I was too lazy to decipher through his writing. At that time, I thought that since I have made roti or chapati which is the Indian flat/round bread. However, for that, I would use baking soda so using sourdough was new to me. I looked up Sauyi Fong's field notes and was relieved to see that she had similar concerns when starting. Since she looked up modern recipes, I followed suit and
found this link. realized it was a form of active yeast but apparently better!
Improvising Breadmaking
At that point, I did not understand the instructions properly that we were supposed to feed the sourdough. I assumed we have to bake so this is what I did.
My sourdough had a layer of brown liquid at the top so I shook the bottle before opening.
Since I use whole wheat flour bought from the Indian store, I used 1 cup of the flour, 1 cup of water and 1/4th of the sourdough which weighed 64.7g (after subtracting the weight of the cup).
Then I mixed all of it in a steel or steel alloy container that I usually use to knead dough. I am not sure what it is made of. At this point, my goal was to knead it so the consistency was not solid-y enough. So I added flour twice. First was 1/2 a cup and second time was a full cup.
By 12:14pm, this is what I ended up with.
Name: Tenzin Dongchung
Date and Time: September 26, 2017 at 6pm
Location: Astoria, NY
Subject: Baking bread
Before going to class, I checked my dough and it didn't rise. I came back in the evening and baked it. The color looked nice but when I tasted it, it was not cooked inside.
I found my lens case and used that to see how the mould might look.
Then, having learned about feeding sourdough, I decided to try this method. I added 1 cup of water, 3/4th flour to 1/4th of the sourdough.
When I checked at 7:12, this is what I found. So I added some more flour. Then, I put a cover on it and left it outside (which is not pictured here).
Name: Tenzin Dongchung
Date and Time: September 29, 2017 to September 30, 2017, 9pm to 12:30am
Location: Astoria, NY
Subject: Bread Rabbit-hole
My sourdough feeding did not work out. There was no bubble so I threw it. My weekend goal is to look up a bread recipe and make it, followed by bread-molding instructions from the manuscript.
I decided by looking at the books that I have mentioned above and found out how little I know of bread. Succumbing to force of habit, instead of looking for a recipe and making it, I ended up doing some more readings.
By the end of 19th century, it appears that discussion of bread in public sphere came with concerns related to public health. In the two books that I looked at, Bread, Bakehouses and Bacteria (1895) and The Theory and Art of Bread-making, a new process without the use of ferment (1861), the first was written by physicians from London school of Hygiene and Tropical medicine whereas the latter was written by a Harvard Professor. The first book concerned itself with the sanitary conditions of bake-houses which were in ‘cellar-rooms’ lacking proper ventilation. The second book narrated the chemical processes that occurs during bread-making to suggest an alternative of baking using what we now call baking soda.
[1]
The book that I ended up spending more time was the second one. To describe bread, Horsford gave a cellular diagram explaining that there are three layers to bread. First is the brown part, which is usually sifted and then becomes what is called bran. The second is a white part which contains phosphates and nitrogenous gluten and the third is a mass of starch (P5). Thus, it seems that white bread was considered to be of superior quality.
Horsford wrote described the fermentation process of bread as follows.
- Conversion of starch into dextrine
- Dextrine into sugar
- Sugar into carbonic acid
- Production of lactic, acetic, butynic, succinic and formic acids.[3]
Fermentation gives the porosity that makes the bread rise.[4]
Surprisingly, I found several references to France that gave me some idea of what ingredients to use in my bread recipe.
On P11, he wrote, "Fungus that appears on rye, and its ill-effects, are well-known. The wheat bread distributed among the troops in Paris in 1841 was found to contain in all its crevices a minute red lichen."
Does this give any clue on the kind of bread consumed in mid-19th century France?
On P14, " Process of Rollan which attracted considerable attention in France, and the ingenious processes of Berdan, apply only to the mechanical arrangements connections with kneading and baking."
What is a process of Rollan and Berdan?
Finally, there was an interesting passage reflective of social and political thinking of the time.
" Pioneers and early settlers owe the prominence to the abundant phosphates supplied by the virgin soil to the cereal and meats that constitute their food. This suggestion derives strength from the circumstance that the effeminacy of many Oriental nationals is the concomitant of a diet which is relatively deficient in Phosphates. (P9).
Lastly, I came across this passage in the appendix on how bread was common made in Paris.
To look up: https://www.grainchain.com/all-resources
History of bread: https://www.fob.uk.com/about-the-bread-industry/history-of-bread-antiquity/
John Burrell, new book of Cookerie: http://www.staff.uni-giessen.de/gloning/tx/1615murr.htm
Queen like closet: http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/14377/pg14377-images.html
John Evelyn: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15517/15517-h/15517-h.htm
[1] Eben Norton Horsford and YA Pamphlet Collection (Library of Congress), The Theory and Art of Bread-Making. A New Process without the Use of Ferment. (Cambridge, Welch, Bigelow, and Company, Printers, 1861).
[2] http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodbreads.html#breadhistory Accessed September 29, 2017
[3] Horsford and YA Pamphlet Collection (Library of Congress), The Theory and Art of Bread-Making. A New Process without the Use of Ferment, 5.
[4] Ibid, 9.
Name: Tenzin Dongchung
Date and Time: September 30, 2017 11:02am
Location: Astoria, NY
Subject: Bread recipe
Since the above recipe's amounts are too big, I decided to adapt the time and ratio to a smaller batch.
Given that ratio of water to flour is 1: 2
4kg of water = x
8kg of flour = y
Step 1
Add 1x +1y
Leave for 10 hours.
Step 2
Add 1x + 1y to step 1 mixture.
Leave for 6 hours
Step 3:
Add 2x + 2y to step 2 mixture.
Leave for 3 hours
Step 4:
Add 12x + 12:54y to step 3
Leave for 3 hours
Step 5:
Add 17x + 16:25y to step 4 as well as 0.5x of salt.
After checking the dough mixture after 10 hours, it didn't look too promising. Thinking I won't have enough time, I contacted a friend of mine who went to Culinary school and she sent me a bread recipe.
Name: Tenzin Dongchung
Date and Time: October 1 2017 12am, 12pm to 2pm
Location: Astoria, NY
Subject: Baking bread
Last night, I made the dough using an instruction that my friend sent me.
This morning, I checked and the dough looks ready.
So I baked it.
Then, for molding in bread, this is the recipe I found.
p140v_2
Molding and shrinking a large shape
Mold it with the pith of bread just out of the oven, or like that aforementioned, & in drying out it will shrink & consequently so will the medal that you will cast. By these means - lengthening out or enlarging the imprinted bread - you can vary the shape & from one face make several different ones. The bread straight from the oven is best. And the one which has been heated twice contracts more. You can cast sulfur without letting the imprint on the bread dry, if you want to cast it as large as it is. But, if you want to let it shrink, let it dry to a greater or lesser extent.
1. After taking the bread out of the oven, slice it open from the middle. (be careful as the bread would be hot.)
2. Place your item to the pith of the bread by applying consistent pressure.
3. Leave it for several hours.
Name: Tenzin Dongchung
Date and Time: October 2, 2017, 11am to 11.40pm, 1:30pm to 2:30pm
Location: Chandler Lab, Columbia University
Subject: Casting Sulphur and Bee wax into the bread mould
As we began heating the Sulphur in the fume hood, Pamela suggested to use some oil in the bread mould to avoid having the bread sticking to the cast later. I used some linseed oil which I brushed generously on the mould.
There were several of us sharing the melted Sulphur. We kept the heat at 1.5 and it took us less than 5 minutes to melt the powdered Sulphur into its liquid form. I then poured some into the mould and left it in the fume hood.
Later, when I took it out after an hour and a half, there was some white coloring that appeared on the cast. I am not sure what it is. This is my Sulphur cast. Some of the bread stuck to the original object and therefore, that part of casting is not clear.
With the bee wax, we heated the wax outside since it doesn't release any harmful gas. Then, I poured it into another mould. After it dried, I was surprised that the cast was pretty accurate.
Since I dipped the cast in water to soak the bread, I have left the castings in the fume hood at the moment.
ASPECTS TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN MAKING FIELD NOTES
- note time
- note (changing) conditions in the room
- note temperature of ingredients to be processed (e.g. cold from fridge, room temperature etc.)
- document materials, equipment, and processes in writing and with photographs
- notes on ingredients and equipment (where did you get them? issues of authenticity)
- note precisely the scales and temperatures you used (please indicate how you interpreted imprecise recipe instruction)
- see also our informal template for recipe reconstructions