Bakers will only cook a single type of bread.
The quality of this bread will be that resulting from a mix of three quarts of wheat and one quart of rye.
Bakers will cook loaves of 8 pounds, of 4 pounds and of one pound; they will not be allowe to use other divisions.
The price of equality bread is fixed as follows:
The 8 pound loaf, 1 livre.
The 4 pound loaf, 10 sols, 6 deniers
The one pound loaf, 3 sols.
The bread had to be eaten for fear of punishment:
"if a farmer or a burgher had the idea of making better bread for his use, in reserving the equality bread for his valets, he would be denounced, incarcerated, pillaged and probably have his throat cut."
Not surprisingly, he recipe is amazingly simple, two parts wheat flour and one part barley flour. I modify the recipe for pain du commun from Bonnefons that Jim Chevallier has translated:
"And for the Making we will first speak of common Bread, which will be that much better, the more flour there is; nonetheless, if you want to make a good sort of Bread for Valets, you will put in the Mill four minots of rye [or coarse] Wheat and a minot of Barley; (which is about enough for a Batch,) and have it sifted with the large Bolting Cloth.
From this flour, you will take about a Minot at ten o'clock in the Evening, and will put it with leavening, which you will cover well with the same Flour.
To soak it, in Winter, use Water as hot as you can bear on your hand; in Summer, it is enough that it be a little warm, and thus in proportion for the two other temperate seasons.
The next day at the break of day, put the rest of your Flour with leavening, and knead all this, working your Dough for a long time, keeping it rather firm; because the softer it is, the more Bread you will have, but also it will last you less time, as more is eaten when it is light, than when it is firm."
Well, that recipe doesn't really say much except that 18th century bread took forever to make. Perhaps this was a good substitute for tv and movies.
In terms of period ingredients, this recipe calls for:
Normandy or gray salt (too expensive for me)
Fresh milk, or milk/cream mixture (none in this recipe! would have been far too pricey)
Salted butter (nope, too tasty for this recipe)
Ale brewer's yeast or sourdough leaven (too much trouble- see the recipe below)
Stone-ground flour or wheat ground in coffee-grinder (too much trouble- i will use modern flours)
rain or hard water (London tap will do)
I will make the leaven with Joe Pastry's recipe as recommended by Chevallier:
"10 ounces bread flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
6 ounces (or slightly more) water"- ferment one hour at room temp, then refrigerate overnight
Pictures of attempts by Pastry are here, which provide a good visual guideline though the ingredients will differ for equality bread:
http://joepastry.com/index.php?cat=122
The dough should be shaped as today's French baguette, which would have been most typical (next to rounder forms) in the eighteenth century
If modern British breads cannot beat this bread, then there is no hope for British cuisine. I'll hoist sails and head to France (which I intend to do anyway, albeit without the sails).
How will I pick the British bread? I'll pop over to the nearest bakery and buy a loaf of the yummiest looking treat. While this may not seem the most fair, it wasn't really fair to count revolutionary bread that made a better door stop than food as a competitor to today's sweet and buttery concoctions. The pain d'egalite really was the butt of many jokes and symbol of revolutionary misery. Anyone who has read a revolutionary memoire can attest to this.
Pictures and tasting comments later....any proposals for yummy British breads to offset the expected revulsion on eating equality bread would be appreciated.
