to prepare the leaven they made use of. The period at which an allusion
is made to it for the first time, in the Bible, renders this supposition
likely. It is when the people of God were about to escape from the
slavery of the Egyptians, and are preparing to celebrate the Passover,
on the eve of their setting out for the Desert.[IV-14] The Israelites,
therefore, knew how to make bread more digestive and of better taste
than is generally believed--not so good, perhaps, as our delicate fancy
bread, but better than the clumsy lumps of paste baked under the ashes,
in the frying-pan, or on the gridiron.[IV-15] They had also ovens at a
very distant period of their history--some four thousand years
ago.[IV-16] These ovens were made with bricks or clay; afterwards they
used iron and brass;[IV-17] but nothing in the Holy Writings shows us
that any one exercised among them the trade of a baker, at least at this
early period, nor, indeed, very much later.
The chief baker or butler, whose punishment and death Joseph foretold,
when he interpreted that officer’s dream, was an Egyptian, and belonged
to King Pharaoh.[IV-18]
Hitherto an infallible book has been our guide; let us now dive into the
dark and almost boundless regions of fabulous antiquity.
The most frightful god of which the fevered imagination of man could
possibly form an idea--a god with the face and legs of a goat, the
horrible Pan!--according to some credulous writers, taught mortals the
art of making and baking bread. The name even of this food, they say,
furnishes an incontestable proof of this assertion.[IV-19] You are
mistaken, reply more sensible writers; it is in the Greek word _pan_,
signifying _all_, that we must seek the etymology of this nutritious
substance, which accompanies all other aliments, takes their place if
needful, and agrees equally with all mankind.[IV-20]
This, one would think, is conclusive; but the learned, the philologist,
and every Procrustes of literature, protests against a halt with so fair
a field before him. It is from the word _pascere_,[IV-21] proudly
exclaims another interpreter, that the substantive, bread, is
derived.[IV-22] This word has been rather disfigured on its way: think
of the length of time it has been travelling down to us.
Ceres taught the Greeks how to cultivate corn; they learned from
Megalarte and Megalomaze how to knead flour and bake it in ovens.[IV-23]
The gratitude of the Bœotians erected statues and altars to their
memories, and shortly after, Greece could boast of having obtained the
most skilful bakers in the world. The bread of Athens and Megara had a
well deserved reputation: its whiteness dazzled the eye, and its taste
was exquisite.[IV-24] This voluptuous and fickle nation very soon began
to tire of so intelligent and simple a manipulation, and must needs mix
with the paste a host of ingredients which greatly altered its flavour:
and seventy-two different sorts of bread[IV-25] took birth from the
scientific association of milk, oil, honey, cheese, and wine with the
best flour.[IV-26] All these varieties were called by the generic name
of _artos_, bread; to which was added an epithet which prevented the
mistaking of one kind for another.
The bread-market at Athens was very amusing; women (for the fair sex
busied themselves with this trade) waited, seated, by the side of their
baskets until Mercury should send them customers, and woe to those who
came late, or whose evil genius led them to find fault with either the
quality, quantity, or price of the goods. Have you ever heard the ladies
of Billingsgate playing off their pleasant jokes on a timid countryman,
or a foreigner, whose accent had betrayed him? It is a running fire of
puns and crude picturesque expressions which nothing can resist; our
Greek market-women would have been more than a match for them--can we
bestow upon them greater praise?[IV-27]
Some of them sold _azumos_, a delicate sort of biscuit, but rather
tasteless, prepared without leaven;[IV-28] others--irresistible
syrens--invited children to taste of the relishing _artolaganos_, in
which a renowned baker had the talent of introducing wine, pepper, oil,
and milk.[IV-29] Here the sparkling eyes of a rich epicurean were on
the look out for some _escarites_, a very light paste, seasoned with new
sweet wine and honey,[IV-30] and which was relished even by fatigued
appetites at the close of a repast.[IV-31] The poorer people made their
choice among heaps of _dolyres_, or _typhes_: they were coarse compounds
of rye and barley;[IV-32] the ladies of fashion (_petites maitresses_)
preferred the puff cakes called _placites_,[IV-33] or the sweet
_melitutes_, whose exquisite and perfumed flour was delicately kneaded
with the precious honey of Mount Hymettus.[IV-34] Lastly, the robust
workman of the Pyræus bought the _tyrontes_, bread mixed with
cheese,[IV-35] which the higher classes of society in Athens abhorred,
and which even the middling classes excluded from their tables.
Let us add to this imperfect enumeration, that the Greeks baked their
bread in several different manners: some in ovens, others under ashes,
over charcoal, or between two pieces of iron, similar to our _gauffre_
moulds, and under a bell, or cover of some metal with a rim round the
top, and fire over it.[IV-36] For making a batch of bread, they employed
nine pounds six ounces of leaven to twelve bushels of flour.[IV-37] With
regard to their ovens, in the construction of which they excelled, they
always took particular care to place them near a handmill,[IV-38] in
order that the various processes that the wheat had to undergo should
take place with ease and promptitude.
The Romans were for a long time _Pultiphagists_, or eaters of gruel,
&c.;[IV-39] and it would be difficult to ascertain with accuracy the
precise period at which they gave a preference to bread; they no doubt
knew of it before the year 365 of Rome, for, at the siege of the Capitol
by the Gauls, Jupiter, who protected the besieged, thought of nothing
better to get them out of their difficulties than to appear at night to
their general, Manlius, and to give him the following advice: “Make,”
said he, “bread with all the flour you have left in store, and throw it
to the enemy to show them that Rome has no apprehension of being reduced
by famine.” This stratagem, worthy of a Merry Andrew, pleased Manlius so
much, that he immediately put it into execution. The Gauls fled, Master
Jupiter was highly delighted with the trick he had played, and thereby
the Romans got rid of this swarm of barbarians.[IV-40]
Whether this little story be true or not, the people of Romulus had a
decided taste for gruel; it was a national dish, and was only
discontinued to be given to the soldiers, defenders of the republic,
when it was perceived that their laborious duties required more
substantial food.[IV-41] The Romans made their gruel of all kinds of
flour.
King Numa (1715 B.C.), guided by the advice of the nymph, Egeria, taught
his subjects the art of parching corn, of converting it into flour by
means of mortars, and of making that gruel with which he liked to regale
himself.
This good prince was rather fond of interfering in what did not concern
him, and the royal compound was afterwards cooked in the public
bakehouses, which the piety of the sovereign placed under the protection
of the powerful Fornax, a goddess unknown till then, and who soon became
the object of general and fervent worship.[IV-42]
There is but one step from gruel to bread: the Romans perceived it. Thus
this favourite dish lost its reputation, and the worship of Fornax
somewhat cooled. But, on the other hand, there was still the smell of
cakes on all sides; cooking on the hearth, on the coals, in small
bell-stoves, and in large baking pans, until ultimately they became
acquainted with the use of ovens.[IV-43]
At last, Rome began to have them built, under the reign of Tarquinius
Superbus, about 630 years before the Christian era. They were solid
constructions, immoveable, and very like those of the present
day.[IV-44] Men were employed to keep up the necessary degree of heat;
and their useful profession (thanks to the strange caprices which so
tyrannically rule the social hierarchy) became one of the vilest and
most sordid occupations in the capital of the world.[IV-45] These ovens
were ordered to be built far away from all edifices, in order to prevent
accidents by fire;[IV-46] an excellent precaution, where so many
incautious and merry old gossips came daily to bake their bread.
Once there, those worthy plebeians amused themselves by giving full
scope to their noisy fun, slandering their neighbours freely and
charitably, telling each other all the little scandal they had picked up
here and there, among the good souls in their neighbourhood. Hence these
public places of labour and incessant babbling were called the “gossip
bakehouses.”[IV-47]
These joyous meetings continued until the arrival of Greek bakers, 170
years B.C., who followed the victorious armies of the republic on their
return from Macedonia.[IV-48] These new operatives effected a complete
revolution in the art of making bread: they reformed the taste of their
masters, and, by degrees, the proverbial frugality of the conquerors of
the universe gave way to the exquisite researches and wonderful
delicacies of those whom they had subdued.
The Romans perceived the importance of perpetuating the talent of these
strangers, and converting it eventually into a national industry. With
these views, they gave them Roman colleagues, and subsequently they were
formed into a college, or sort of association, which no member could
quit on any pretext whatever. The son followed his father’s profession,
and he who married the daughter of a baker became one himself.[IV-49]
Sometimes one of these privileged artisans was raised to the dignity of
senator, as an honour to his colleagues; but in that case he was
required to abandon his fortune to the person who took his place; he
might, however, decline the dignity, and remain at his
kneading-trough.[IV-50] All alliances with gladiators and comedians were
interdicted them; and the law decreed that the delinquent guilty of such
dishonour should be first scourged, then banished, and that his property
should be confiscated for the benefit of the community.[IV-51] Finally,
the prodigal baker was assimilated with the dishonest bankrupt, and
expelled the college.[IV-52]
The above details on some of the dispositions of the law regarding this
interesting corporation, sufficiently prove the importance that the
Roman government attached to it, and wished it should always maintain.
The bakers of Rome received from the public granaries whatever they
required, at a price fixed by the magistrate. If the officer charged
with the distribution of it gave a bad quality, or exacted a bribe to
supply good corn, that officer was disgraced, and he became forever a
journeyman baker.[IV-53]
Independently of public bakeries, the number of which reached 329 under
the reign of Augustus, there were also, in the houses of the wealthy,
slaves whose sole occupation was the making of bread, and these slaves
brought an exorbitant price when they excelled in their art.[IV-54] They
used portable ovens, made of iron or earthenware, under which they
placed red-hot coals. Sometimes they employed a round brass vessel with
a cover, which was put under the flames. In the houses where the
greatest luxury reigned, they had a kind of silver mould, from which the
bread was taken, and served to the guests.[IV-55]
It is absolutely necessary to dive into the private life of the Roman
people, and not to neglect any of their domestic customs (accounts of
which are scattered here and there, in the writings of the more serious
historians, and among the dangerous frivolities of certain poets), if we
wish to have a correct idea of the excessive refinement which the
opulent classes evinced, even in the most ordinary things.
Modern nations are satisfied with the bread more or less white, and even
bear, without much complaint, certain illicit mixtures, in which various
heterogeneous substances are sometimes strangely amalgamated; but this
was not the case in Rome. The prefect of provisions (_præfectus annonæ_)
was scrupulously careful to see that the supply of bread was abundant;
that it was of exact weight; that the manipulation of it was excellent;
and that it was made of the best flour the public granaries contained.
As we have already observed, that was one of the most serious cares of
the government on behalf of a people who only required two things--bread
and the circus,[IV-56] and whose ferocity, when pressed by hunger, knew
no bounds.[IV-57]
They studied carefully every modification that the art of baking might
seem to require: they examined the leaven in use, and experimented with
new kinds. The following are the compositions Pliny has transmitted to
us:--
The Romans thought much of millet for their leaven; they mixed it with
sweet wine, in which they let it ferment a year.
They employed, also, wheat bran, soaked for three days in sweet white
wine, and dried in the sun. Of this they diluted a certain quantity at
the time of making bread, which was left to ferment in the best wheat
flour, and afterwards mixed with the entire mass.
The leavens just mentioned were made during the vintage; the rest of the
year they were replaced by the following:--A dish containing two pounds
of barley paste was placed on red-hot coals, and heated until ebulition
commenced. It was put into vessels till it became sour.
Very often leaven was procured from dough just made. A piece was taken
from the mass previous to salt being added; it was then left to turn
sour, and might be used the next day.
The celebrated naturalist who supplies these details, tells us that, in
his time, the Gauls and Spaniards, after having made a drink from wheat,
saved the scum to raise the dough, and that their bread was the lightest
of all.[IV-58]
It would be difficult to form an idea of the prodigious luxury which
Rome introduced into an aliment so common, and of such universal use as
bread. Its name, its form, and flavour indicated the various ranks of
society to which it belonged.[IV-59] There was the senator’s bread, that
of the knights, of the citizens, of the people, and that of the
peasants.[IV-60]
Let us go together under the vast galleries supported by those
magnificent arcades.[IV-61] The _ediles_ have preceded us; they are
visiting the shops;[IV-62] it is the _Forum Pistrinum_, or bread-market.
The year is good: a _septier_ (five bushels) of wheat is only
twenty-five shillings,[IV-63] and provisions of all kinds abound in
Rome. Foreigners, also, are here, attracted by curiosity; for Vespasian
is preparing to deposit with solemnity the spoils of Jerusalem in the
temple of Peace.[IV-64]
In the middle of the inclosure you see the statue of Vesta, the goddess
worshipped by bakers.[IV-65] In the front, and round the gallery, those
open stalls are loaded with a number of round loaves of the same form
and weight: they are all five inches in thickness; the top is divided by
eight notches--that is to say, they are first divided across, and the
four parts are again subdivided.[IV-66] These lines are made in the
dough, so that they may be more easily broken.
The Roman gentry and shopkeepers give the preference to this sort of
household bread, simply composed of flour, water, and salt.[IV-67]
You perceive, here and there, several baskets, full of heavy biscuits;
they are called _autopyron_; it is a coarse, black food, composed of
bran mixed with a little flour, and made expressly for the dogs and
slaves.[IV-68]
Do you see that colossal-looking man, with enormous limbs, who is
walking about with an air of stupidity, and whose small head is covered
with scars? The dealers know his profession, and one of them offers him
the _athletæ’s_ bread; it is kneaded, without leaven, with soft, white
curd cheese, and is a coarse, heavy food, which that class of people
seem to partake of with great delight.[IV-69] That stout baker before us
occupies two of the most spacious shops in the market, on the left of
the statue; he is one of the richest members of the corporation, and is
the principal purveyor for the camp and army. Those large sacks, placed
before him with so much symmetry, contain the _buccellatum_ biscuit, or
dried bread for the troops.[IV-70]
His neighbour (called the Greek), was born at Athens; he is the
fashionable purveyor to the princes, senators, and sybarites of Rome. No
one understands so well as himself the art of mixing salt, oil, and
milk with the best wheaten flour; an exquisite combination, which
produces the celebrated bread of Cappadocia, served only on the tables
of the wealthy.[IV-71] With the _artoplites_, a light bread, made with
the best wheaten flour, and baked in a mould, it is the only kind of
which refined persons can partake.[IV-72] If we were not afraid of
tiring you, we could point out many other sorts of bread which abound in
the _Forum Pistrinum_, for there is some for all tastes and classes,
from the _artopticii_, baked in moulds,[IV-73] a most nutritious and
digestive bread, down to the _furfuraceus_, a mass of indigestible bran
that the wildest savages among the Scythians could not have swallowed
with impunity.
We should have spoken to you of the _astrologicus_ bread, the paste of
which is similar to that we use in our days to make fritters, commonly
called batter.
Also of the _cacabaceus_, which is indebted for its agreeable and spicy
flavour to the water, which is previously boiled in a kind of bronzed
stewpan; and the _siligineus_ bread, made of the best flour. Its
manipulation is difficult and tedious; no matter--the epicurean prefers
it, when, by chance, he happens to be hungry.[IV-74]
Neither ought we to forget the _panis madidus_, a species of paste made
of milk and flour, with which the fashionable ladies and effeminate
dandies covered their faces before going to bed, to preserve the
freshness and beauty of their complexion.[IV-75]
But this enumeration may appear to you idle and endless; let us,
therefore, leave the market and assist at the distribution of bread
_civilis_ among the people, of which thirteen ounces is given to each
person;[IV-76] we will then give a rapid glance at the various other
_cereals_ besides wheat, which, in some shape or other, are converted
into food.
DESCRIPTION OF PLATE No. VII.
BREAD.--No. 1. In Herculaneum there were found two entire loaves of
the same dimension, being 13½ inches in diameter, and 3½
inches thick. Each had eight divisions cut on the top, that is to
say,--a cross was first marked, and between each, another division
was made; some had stamps on the top.
No. 2. At Pompeii, in a shop near the Pantheon, were discovered
bronze moulds for pastry and bread.
No. 3. The Cappadocia bread, made in a mould, found at Pompeii.
No. 4. The mould for the above.
The customs of the middle ages cannot be better illustrated than by
adding the following curious notes:
The Norman kings subjected the bakers to very severe laws with
[Illustration: _Pl. 7._]
respect to the weight and price of bread. The first offence was punished
by the confiscation of their bread; the second by a fine; and the third
by the pillory.[IV-77]
Saint Louis made statutes for the bakers of Paris. He forbade them to
bake on Sunday or any festival day, under pain of a fine of eighteen
sous (about eight pence), and a certain quantity of bread. But he gave
them permission to open their shops and _sell_ every day of the year
without exception.[IV-78]
In the 17th century, a new regulation was made concerning bakers; they
were to bake “daily, and have always on sale three kinds of bread, viz.,
that known as _pain de chalis_, of twelve ounces; _pain de chapitre_, of
ten ounces; and brownish household bread, of sixteen ounces. The price
of each to be _douze deniers_ (a halfpenny), marked by the baker with
his own particular mark.” They were also permitted to make “rolls and
other sorts,” but not to expose them for sale “under pain of being fined
four hundred Paris livres (a little more than twelve pounds
sterling).”[IV-79]
Master-bakers were admitted at Paris, in the 14th century, in the
following manner:--
When a young man had been successively winnower, sifter, kneader, and
foreman, he could, by paying a certain amount to the king as legiance
money, become an aspirant-baker, and commence business on his own
account. Four years after, he was received as master by going through
certain formalities. On a given day, he set out from his house, followed
by all the bakers of the town, and repaired to the residence of the
master of the bakers, to whom he presented a new pot filled with nuts,
saying: “Master, I have accomplished my four years; here is my pot of
nuts.” Then the master of the bakers asked the secretary of the trade
whether that were true, and having received a reply in the affirmative,
the master of the bakers returned the pot to the aspirant, who broke it
against the wall, and was at once reckoned amongst the masters.
Let us reckon up the different kinds of bread that were in use at that
epoch:
The bread made simply with flour, water, salt, and yeast--the common
bread; the best was made at Chailly or Gonesse.
The bread cooked in hot water--_pain échaudé_ (in England, we should
call it baked dumpling).
The bread made of the finest flour, beaten a long time with two
sticks--pounded bread.
The bread made of the very finest and purest flour (biscuit flour)
slightly baked--roll bread.
The bread made of fine flour, kneaded with butter, and sprinkled with
whole wheat--sheep bread.
The bread made of fine flour, eggs and milk--Christmas bread.
And lastly, rye bread, kneaded with spice, honey, or
sugar--gingerbread.[IV-80]
V.
FRUMENTA.
Do not be alarmed, fair readers, at the Latin noun which heads this
chapter: tolerate it in consideration of our promise seldom to solicit a
like favour. It meant, among the Latins, all the plants which produce
ears of corn,[V-1] the seeds of which can be converted into flour.[V-2]
Clearly there never was a more innocent expression.
_Barley_ seems to claim the first place among cereals of the second
order; the Greeks looked upon it as the happy symbol of fertility,[V-3]
and the ancient inhabitants of Italy gave it a name (_hordeum_) which,
perhaps, recalled to their mind the use mankind made of it before wheat
was known (_exordium_).[V-4]
The Jews had a great esteem for barley, and sacred history generally
assimilates it to wheat, when the fruits of the earth are mentioned.
Thus a beloved spot produces both these plants:[V-5] Shobi offered to
David wheat and barley;[V-6] and Solomon promises twenty thousand sacks
of wheat and as much barley to the workmen charged with cutting down the
cedars of Lebanon.[V-7]
The Greeks and Romans did not carry their love for this grain so far as
the Hebrews. In Rome it was the food of the flocks and cowards.[V-8] In
Lacedæmon and at Athens the gladiators and common people had no other
aliment;[V-9] they made it into barley-gruel (_alphiton_), the
composition of which was very simple, and would not probably tempt a
modern Lucullus. Here is the recipe of this ancient and national dish:--
Dry, near the fire or in the oven, twenty pounds of barley flour, then
parch it. Add three pounds of linseed meal, half a pound of coriander
seed, two ounces of salt, and the quantity of water necessary.[V-10] To
this mixture of ingredients the Italian epicureans added a little
millet, so as to give the paste more cohesion and delicacy.[V-11]
This culinary preparation must appear rather unworthy of those nations
who so completely eclipsed all the gastronomic glories of the universe;
wherefore let us hasten to reinstate them as men of taste and exquisite
intelligence, by citing a more learned combination, which obtained the
judicious patronage of the Archestrates and Apicii:--