Did somebody say....fresh-baked BREAD?!

There are few foods so intrinsically tied to the human heart, stomach (and nose, for that matter) than bread. Anyone who has caught the distinctive and alluring smell of bread as it is baking in the oven knows exactly what I mean. Your mouth absolutely waters and addictively, you want MORE. In days gone by, this is a smell that I believe would have solidified what is meant by the word "HOME". If home is a place of safety, love and security then bread is its tummy tickler--the ultimate comfort food. Back in the day, it would have been mama's or grandma's job to bring out the doughbox to mix up a week's worth of dough, fashion it into small loaves for rising (the Pennsylvania Germans used rye coil baskets for this purpose) and ultimately would have baked their precious cargo in a brick bake house oven. Oh my-can't you just smell it!

Standing on guard behind the cast iron oven in Joseph Schneider Haus is the wooden doughbox (or Bokmoi as it was known to the early Pennsylvania German Mennonites). A household tool staple at one time, the doughbox took many forms--sometimes on legs so it could stand independently while the Hausfrau worked her dough, other times it was without legs, as above, so that it could rest on a table or bench. (see a compendium of different doughboxes here) Take note, as well, of the rye coil baskets that are holding the rising bread dough balls. The balls of rye bread dough have been coated generously with none other than lard and are then wrapped loosely in linen as was the fashion in the 19th century (and earlier). Wheat bread dough was risen in a similar fashion but was not coated in lard, rather it was brushed with melted fat and then coated with a light dusting of flour. It was similarly wrapped in linen while it rose. More curious are the redware jugs that are covered with linen and that sit ready on top of the doughbox. Wonder what these contain.....? The answer in a minute...

Something else to consider is--where are you going to bake the dough once it has been risen? In this case, the answer is: the Bakofen or Bakeoven in the outdoor Bake House. These types of ovens, like the doughboxes, differ from culture to culture and from region to region, depending upon such variables as weather and whether or not the bake oven is privately owned or shared by a community. In fact, some bake ovens are (and were) communally owned whereby women would bring their unbaked bread to the oven and someone--the village baker--would bake it for them, most commonly for a price. Such activity would allow women the comfort to converse and visit with one another in public (something that many women did not often do, since many were most commonly engaged with their families and home, only. Men were more likely to venture some distance from home and their farms as they took goods to markets for sale or conducted business in another town). To this end, community bake ovens could provide women with a socially-sanctioned reason to be alone and in public at a point in time that this was a rare occurrence.
    Bake ovens were most commonly made from stone or brick that could be heated up enough to bake all sorts of things like pies, breads, etc., in quantity and all at one time.To begin the process, a nice roaring fire was needed to distribute the heat throughout the bake oven cavity...

Once the wood has burned down to glowing coals, they are broken down with a metal rake (a Kich) and the contents are taken out of the oven. Sometimes this meant that they were scraped onto the floor and swept into a nearby hearth (yes!), other times they were scraped into a waiting metal container. This outdoor oven has a metal chamber door that is visible in the centre of the photo, above. Once the glowing coals are removed, the interior floor of the oven is washed with a rag mop (or my favourite Pennsylvania German word a Huddel Lumpa) and the dampers are closed to hold in the heat. These are the wooden boards that are visible at the top of the photo. Unseen and at the end of them, they have flat metal damper sheets that slide into crevasses in the brick wall and act to close off the oxygen to the oven ensuring the end of any flames (but not the heat, which is effectively held by the hot brickwork floor, walls and ceiling of the beehive cavity inside the oven, itself).

A Pennsylvania German favourite: Zwiebelkuchen or Onion Pie, a popular German flatbread similar to modern pizza that has a cream base but no tomato sauce. 

 Any number of goodies were prepared for the coming week. Yes, this would have meant that the Hausfrau had to have a certain amount of meal planning in mind to prepare everything in advance to feed her family for the next week. Contingency plans would have had to also include entertaining guests so extra food would also be baked in anticipation.

Once the baking was arranged in the hot bake oven, the door was closed for about an hour, depending upon what was being baked and then the door was opened to reveal.....a wonderful display of fresh delicacies for the family and friends who would gather at table.

With the baking done, there was only a moment to enjoy a cup of coffee before getting on with the tasks at hand. A woman's work is definitely never done....especially in the early 19th century!

Ahhhh, but before I forget, remember that redware pitcher that was covered and sitting on top of the doughbox? Well, it contained liquid home made yeast (thanks to airborne 'wild yeast" from the air around us that occurs naturally) and that was fermenting over the course of several days. This is what the average woman would have been using to leaven her bread instead of our modern commercial yeasts. All homes had some form of a yeast crock (Sotzcrok) that would have contained live yeast cultures that were similar to what we know today as sourdough.  Over the centuries, many forms of leavening could have and would have been used such as: brewer's yeast (a by-product from brewing beer), hartshorn, pearlash and the aforementioned wild yeast to name a few. For more information on these substances see this downloadable free e-text from archive.org on leavening agents: Historical Leavening Agents

Last year, I participated in a wonderful day long workshop at the Waterloo Region Museum called the Forgotten Foods Symposium. I enjoyed facilitating the bread-making workshop in the Peter Martin House and would like to share with you some of the recipes I made with the participants.

Flatbread (Onion Pie—German “Zwiebelkuchen”):

Many cultures have produced their own versions of flatbreads. Some of these flatbreads were more sophisticated than others—meaning some were leavened and others were not. Unleavened flatbreads were most commonly made from 3 basic ingredients such as flour, salt and water (without the addition of yeast or sourdough starter). One of the advantages of flatbreads in early pioneer farming communities was that a hearty meal could be made from a simple flatbread and could be carried into the fields for lunch. One such example is the Swabian German Onion Pie (from the south--central area of Germany).  

Crust:

1 cup of warm water

1 tsp of sugar

1 ½ tsp granulated yeast

½ cup of warm water (2^nd amount)

3 ½ cups flour (approx.)

½ tsp salt

¼ cup butter, cut into pea-sized pieces

3 eggs

Mix: 1 cup of warm water with 1 tsp of sugar. Stir. Add 1 ½ tsp yeast to the liquid and let sit in a warm area for about 10 min. or until mixture gets bubbly. Set aside.

In another bowl, sift flour and salt and mix together. Add butter and rub mixture to form fine crumbs. Make a well in the centre. Beat the eggs into yeast mixture and pour into well in the middle of the crumb mixture. Add ½ cup warm water, stir and work into a stiff dough. Knead 5-10 minutes on a well-floured board until dough is no longer sticky. Cover with a clean towel and let rise until doubled in size (about 90 minutes). Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190C) and lightly grease a baking sheet. Press down the raised dough with oiled hands and roll out to about ¼ to ½ inch thick. Spread an even layer of sour cream over the entire surface of the dough in pan. Keep the layer on the thin side (about ¾ inch thick). Toppings may now be added.

Note: If you have a bread machine, you may substitute any bread dough recipe for the crust in this recipe—just set your machine to dough. When it is completed, remove the dough from the case and cut into two halves. One bread dough recipe will make 2 crusts for an onion pie.

Toppings:

Sprinkle the top of the pie with 2 cups of shredded white cheddar cheese (I prefer extra old). Chop about 4 cups of onions and, after frying them in butter, evenly distribute over the top of the pie. At this point, chopped herbs may be sprinkled lightly over the pie, if you wish e.g. parsley, chives, thyme, oregano, etc. Finally, cooked and crumbled bacon may be sprinkled generously over the top (about 1lb of bacon). Bake in oven until crust is golden brown. Cut and enjoy!

Scripture Cake (also called Bible Cake):

The earliest Bible Cake recipes were found in British cookery books published in England during the late 1700’s. Even the war between England and its American colonies in 1776 didn’t dampen the enthusiasm that women had for Bible Cakes. Dolly Madison, wife of US President James Madison, was a prolific hostess and was apparently quite fond of Scripture Cake—so much so that it was a favourite feature on her hostess table! The recipe is always written in the form of a riddle that is meant to be both instructive and practical. One can solve the riddle by looking up the listed Bible passages thereby finding the specific ingredients needed to make the cake. (Use a King James Version.) This forms a dense fruitcake that is similar to a spicy German Königskuchen or Kugelhof that one often sees around Christmas. Recipes for Scripture Cakes differ on amounts of ingredients and occasionally the Bible verses used to find them; this particular recipe is based on a recipe that was found in ‘Key to the Pantry’, published by the ladies of the Church of the Epiphany in Danville, Virginia in 1897.

Note: This cake may be baked in two 9-by 5-inch loaf pans, with a reduction in cooking time of about 15 minutes (as opposed to making it in a bundt pan). Adjust your cooking times accordingly.

Ingredients:
¾ cup Psalms 55:21 (butter)
1 cup Jeremiah 6:2 (sugar)
3 Jeremiah 17:11 (eggs)
¼ cup Judges 4:19 (milk)
1 tbsp. I Samuel 14:25 (honey)
2 ¼ cups Leviticus 6:15 (all-purpose flour)
1/4 tsp. Leviticus 2:13 (salt)
1 tbsp. Amos 4:5 (use baking powder)
1 tsp. II Chronicles 9:9 (pumpkin pie spice blend or can use 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. nutmeg, 1/4 tsp allspice)
1 cup I Samuel 30:12 (raisins)
1 cup Numbers 13:23 (chopped dried figs)
½ cup Numbers 17:8 (chopped, toasted almonds)

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans (or one bundt pan, if desired).

In large mixer bowl, beat Psalms 55:21 until light and creamy. Add Jeremiah 6:2 and beat till fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add Jeremiah 17:11, one at a time, beating well after each. Mix in Judges 4:19 and I Samuel 14:25.

In separate bowl, sift together Leviticus 6: 15, Leviticus 2:14, Amos 4:5 and II Chronicles 9:9. Remove 1/4 cup and set aside. Add half of remaining mixture to mixing bowl and blend thoroughly until well blended to make batter. Remember: Follow Soloman's prescription for the making of a good boy—

Proverbs 23:14 (beat well) and your cake will be both successful and good!

In separate bowl, combine the last 3 ingredients (plus the 1/4 cup that was set aside). Toss to mix. Gently fold this into batter. Fill loaf pans about 3/4 full and bake for about 35 - 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool on rack for 15 minutes and remove from pans. Cool completely and before serving, drizzle with Burnt Jeremiah Syrup.

Burnt Jeremiah Syrup:

1 ½ cups Jeremiah 6:20 (sugar)
½ cup Genesis 24:45 (water)
¼ cup Genesis 18:8 (butter)

In a 2-quart saucepan over low heat, melt sugar, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. After sugar melts, continue cooking, stirring continuously, until it is a deep golden brown. Add water and cook, stirring frequently, until smooth. Remove from the heat, add butter and stir till until it melts; allow cake to cool.

Drizzle over cooled scripture cake and garnish, if desired, with whole Genesis 43:11 (almonds).

Potato Flake Sourdough Bread

Potato flakes make an easy starter for modern sourdough bread. Where the frugal wife would have historically recycled her “potato water” to make sourdough, we will skip this step and use potato flakes to simulate the effect. This recipe is also a variation of what is historically known as “friendship starter” that would have been shared from one woman to another and would have formed the basis for many home-made breads. Sharing one’s starter with a friend would have been a very personal act that tied friendships and communities with food preparation and sustenance. In some cases, starters were passed on from a mother to her daughter upon her marriage. Other accounts tell us that the pioneers carried starters with them from their old homes as they journeyed to set up their new homesteads.

If you pay attention to your starter, you can keep it going for a very long time—there are historical accounts that claim that some starters or “mothers” were reportedly over a hundred years old and still viable for use. This starter recipe will continue to gather wild yeast from the air and will get better over time. Keep in mind, however, as with most yeast breads, you will need to plan ahead for rising time when you use a sourdough starter to bake bread—especially if you need to take it out of the refrigerator before using. And don’t forget to feed your sourdough or it will die.

Ingredients:

Starter (first time):

1 cup warm water

½ cup sugar

2 ¼ teaspoons dry yeast

3 level tbsp instant potato flakes

Starter Feeder Mix (subsequent times):

1 cup warm water

½ cup sugar

3 tbsp potato flakes

(NOTE: the starter feeder mix does not require that you add yeast to it since it is now getting wild yeast from the air). It is a living, fermented product similar to other fermented foods/bacteria found in yogurt or sauerkraut. Yeast is bacteria.

Ingredients To Make Bread:

6 cups bread flour

1 Tablespoon salt

½ cup sugar

½ cup oil

1 ¼ cups warm water

1 cup sourdough starter (See below)

Preparation:

First Time Starter Directions:
Mix water, sugar, yeast and potato flakes. Let ferment on counter for two days. Then feed with starter feeder (below).

Starter Feeder Mix:
Combine water, sugar, and potato flakes. Add to starter. Let stand on countertop eight hours. Refrigerate 3 to 5 days, then make bread. After using 1 cup of the starter for dough, pour one cup back into container and refrigerate. Discard any other starter you didn’t use from what you have taken from original starter. Store your starter in refrigerator when not in use.

When you are ready to make more bread or every 3 to 5 days add starter feeder mix again. Stir well and leave on the counter overnight or all day (about 12 hours).

To Make Bread:
Add flour, salt, sugar, oil, and water to starter. Mix well. Knead on a floured surface for 5 to 10 minutes. Put dough into a greased bowl. Cover with a wet dish towel and let it rise in a warm place overnight or all day (about 12 hours). Punch down. Knead on a floured surface to get any air bubbles out. Spray 3 loaf pans with cooking spray and divide dough approximately equal into the 3 pans (shaping into loaf form). Let rise 6 to 8 hours, covered loosely.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for 25 to 30 minutes.

The process seems complicated but is quite simple: make a starter, use one cup of it at a time to make bread but remember to feed it (replace what you took) with the starter feeder mix before you return your remaining starter to the fridge where it will hibernate until you need to bake bread again.

And with that, next time you are tempted to run to the store to buy your bread, why not make some the old-fashioned way--from scratch! I guarantee that the smells coming from your home will be absolutely enchanting and intoxicating!

Good eating, folks, from my hearth to your home!

Keeping Things Cool in the 19th Century, Pt. 2: Making Butter

It is early spring and just after dawn on the Pennsylvania German farm...

Breakfast is a memory, the cows have been milked and now it is time to get on with the morning chores.Any fresh cream that is not going to be needed immediately will be poured into clean cream crocks, covered with pristine linen cloths and stored in the cool spring house. 

The dairy cattle that were raised locally by the early Pennsylvania German pioneers did not produce the quantity of milk that we see in modern cows. Most often, fresh milk (cream!) was stored/collected for several days and kept cool in spring houses until it would have been churned into butter or made into a soft cheese that had many variations and uses (more on this in the next post). Butter making was very competitive and lucrative. As a commodity, butter was something that a proud farm wife would have been able to sell at a local market for a profit (small, perhaps, by today's standard but an attractive means to make some extra money for a woman who spent a great deal of her time on her family farm and had little opportunity to make money for herself). 

The process of butter making was relatively simple but the process of making your mark in the cottage industry was anything but. At least until the middle of the 19th century (before the advent of the milch haus or milk house, the successor to the spring house that served the purpose of a creamery), butter was often made in the spring house, itself. Meticulously clean, many early spring houses contained two rooms and cream was often strained directly through cloth into earthenware vessels (sometimes small oak tubs that would hold a couple of pails of milk were substituted for the crocks). With the milk set into the crocks, the haus frau (farm wife) would wait at least a day to let the higher fat cream rise to the surface of the vessel. (Dairying was most often the realm of the woman on the farm). Once the cream had separated and risen, floating on top of the milk, a skimmer was used to skim off the precious cream where it would be carefully removed and placed into another earthenware crock where enough could be gathered until there was enough to churn into butter. Additionally, allowing time for the cream to rest for about 3 to 6 days before churning it was believed to produce a better final product=butter!

Ventilation was a crucial element to keep the air flowing and the temperature more or less cool and balanced, even in the summer months. In addition to a water channel through which a small section of  cool spring water flowed freely, windows were opened as needed to ensure good air flow.

Dutch doors that could lock on the bottom but provided upper air flow were also commonly used:

After the ripening period, the cream was transferred to a churn where it would be agitated/churned into butter.

A dasher churn, seen on the left with its wooden "dasher" handle rising out of the metal base. A common design.

 Another popular churn design that was commonly used by the Pennsylvania Germans was the barrel churn that used a hand crank and interior paddle. Cream was placed in the top of the barrel and locked into place before the crank was turned. A relatively cleaner method than the dasher churn, some also believed that the barrel churn was faster, as well.

The process of making butter was very competitive and not always an honest one. Sometimes the cream would spoil and unscrupulous individuals would attempt to churn and then sell the unsavoury product. The wise haus frau (farm wife) who took great pride in her work and investment would take great pains to establish her own brand or mark--often by imprinting her finished product before taking it to be sold. Word would quickly circulate if your reputation had been compromised for selling tainted butter. Wooden butter prints were intricately carved and were often quite beautiful, decorated in various folk motifs. On the table below are various small butter prints displayed beside wooden butter paddles, a heart-shaped cheese mold and a large wooden butter bowl.

Folk motifs like acorns and leaves (above) or tulips (below) are lovely reminders of the great care taken to mark one's butter.

My colleague, Kathleen, carefully cradles the dasher churn between her knees. It is a good idea to place a clean cloth on top of the churn so that splashes of cream will not get on your hands or your apron. Kathleen is focused on the work ahead but the work ahead will take at least a couple of hours. Vigorous, rhythmic up and down motion is needed to agitate the fat molecules in the cream.  Finally, a delicate yellow ball of butter is separated from a clear liquid--the buttermilk. Traditionally, this buttermilk would have been a nutritious addition to a pig's food.

Transferring the finished butter into a separate bowl where it will be pressed with a butter paddle to ensure that all liquid is out of the butter. It is at this point that one can add a light sprinkling of salt to flavour the butter. I have to say, fresh churned butter is absolutely delicious and tastes nothing like the store-bought kind!

Finished butter, ready to be printed...

The only thing missing is the bread (but that's another post)! Until then, why not check out:  http://historyofbread.wordpress.com/


Coming Up: Keeping Things Cool in the 19th Century, Pt. 3: Making Cheese

Spring Houses: Keeping Things Cool in the 19th Century

  There was a time when nearly every Pennsylvania German and Mennonite farm in Waterloo County would have had one. Varying in size, design and construction there was one thing they all would have had in common: cold and fast-flowing spring water. Many of them were banked i.e. built into a hillside where temperatures were easier to control. Some were built directly over active springs whereas others simply channeled off a section of the spring and directed the flow of the water into a stone masonry channel where the water would continue to flow, unimpeded by anything in its path. The purpose of the continuous flow of cold water was eminently clear: to keep a number of things cool at a time before the advent of electricity or refrigerator.

A peek into the spring house at the Joseph Schneider Haus Museum reveals stone shelves for holding buckets, crocks and barrels that would have been needed for the task of dairying.

An excellent view of the spring water channel where crocks or buckets of fresh cream or milk would be kept refreshingly cool when lowered into the water. 

The gentle slope belies the banking technique of constructing a building into a small hill. At one time a rivulet of fresh water would have flowed freely through this channel and would have easily been able to provide a channel of water for inside the spring house. Many Pennsylvania German and Mennonite homes had used this same technique. Even barns were banked.

Another view of the water channel. One can see the 90 degree angle through which the water would pass. The foundation of the spring house is stone as are the floors and inner shelves. Dairying equipment such as the Mennonite cheese press(on the left) and the barrel churn (right) were typical of the types of things one might find in use. Cows were milked twice daily in the barn by the women (dairying was considered to be women's work) and the buckets of milk would be carried to the spring house. Here they would be stored for a day or two before being churned into butter or longer if used for making the soft cheeses that the Pennsylvania Germans enjoyed.

Cream would rise naturally to the top of the pan of milk and would be skimmed off and transferred to a cream crock. Once they had enough, it could be churned into butter which would normally be sold for a profit. Here both windows are open and demonstrate how they would have provided ventilation and air flow to keep the cooled air fresh, not stagnant.

Setting up the spring bench once the milk buckets were washed and rinsed. The cleaned buckets would be stored upside down to dry in the warm sun.

 
"Dutch doors" were doors that were split and held the advantage of being able to be closed at the bottom but open at the top. This would also help with the air flow through the building.

Milk and Cream were not the only things that needed to be kept cool. Barrels of cider could also be kept cool in the spring house.

A wooden butter bowl, butter paddles and cream crocks sit along with tin buckets on the stone shelf above the water channel. In the foreground is the wooden cheese press.

                                                                               

 Close-up view of the barrel churn preferred by the Pennsylvania Germans. The cream was poured into the round door and then locked. The barrel sat on wooden legs yet inside paddles were turned to churn the butter by means of a handle fixed to the side of the barrel. Dasher churns were preferred by the British although the Pennsylvania Germans did use them, as well.




As mentioned, the spring house was usually located near a spring or creek, however, it was often one of the furthest outbuildings from the main house. This distance also caused some frustration when a heavy rain threatened to overturn the crocks that had been lowered into them. Louisa Schneider, daughter of pioneer Joseph E. Schneider, complained about how she and her sisters would often have to run out to clean up the mess following a rainstorm when the water level would rise so quickly that it toppled over the crocks of precious cream.

Unfortunately, few examples of early spring houses remain in the Region of Waterloo. Of those that do, only dilapidated and run-down remnants are what is usually left behind. Visible from Bridge Street (formerly known as Country Squire Drive, Waterloo, Ontario) all that remains of this spring house is its shell. The date on its entrance states 1913 but it is believed that is the date of the renovation for the building when key repairs were completed--one of them being a new roof and a concrete exterior patch job that covered much of the original stone masonry.Originally located on the farm of another Schneider family (the Snyder-Gingrich family), the spring house was a fine example of banked stone construction.

A close-up view of the stone work reveals sturdy and exquisite construction. The building was indeed durable and well-made. I often forget that these men who built these were farmers, not contractors.

A boarded up window

Inside, little of its former glory remain. However, one can still see the water flowing freely and quickly through the channel. It might be abandoned and forgotten but amazingly it still works!

Many spring houses had two stories with the upper chamber being used as living quarters or summer houses.Some even had working hearths. If space allowed, the upper storey could also have been used for cheese and butter making. In this abandoned spring house, the walls have been whitewashed and plastered over the stone exterior walls.

It is sad to see such buildings forgotten in time. My heritage conservation self is committed to preserving the memory of this building--at least in photographs.