Daily bread inspired by the Shakers
ANOTHER LUCKY DIP I ALMOST DIDN'T FOLLOW
I've been a bit uninspired of late so I took another lucky dip and yet again I almost reneged on my technique. The book was an old old one called The American Heritage Cookbook and it's a compilation of recipes from an old magazine I think.
Now I'm sure there are all sorts of interesting recipes in there and maybe interesting anecdotes too - and I have made some things from it in the past. It's my authority on American food - if you want one that is. So my heart sank a little at the choice of book and then I opened it to a page with three different bread recipes, one of which was Shaker daily loaf and my heart sank even lower.
But I resisted my impulse to return it to the shelf and researched Shakers a bit. Marginally interesting and I will tell you briefly the salient points. Began in North west England in the eighteenth century as an offshoot of the Quakers, who didn't like the weirder things that these people did - they got their name from the dancing and shaking that they did when receiving their messages from God. They moved to America (home of weird Christian cults) but gradually over the centuries declined in numbers - today there are only three actual Shakers left somewhere in Maine. This is mostly because one of their strictures was that they should be celibate - not likely to lead to an expansion of the religion - unlike the Catholics, Muslims and some Jews who take the opposite approach - 'go forth and multiply!'
The Shakers are famous for their furniture which is simple and home-made. The rocking chair at right gives you the idea. The only other thing of interest about the sect is their one-time belief that Jesus' second Coming would be as a woman. Which led to them being led by women at various times.
But this is a food blog. Which is another reason I nearly declined to follow my serendipitous pick. Then as I thought about it I thought how appropriate in some ways that I should pick this book and this recipe. Today is the day of the US Presidential election and there is a distinct danger that the outcome will mean a madman in the White House and potentially Armageddon - in which the Shakers fervently believed. Well that's probably a bit extreme but you know what I mean. I don't think he is particularly religious - but America is, in a very weird way - they also honour the gun which I don't think would have pleased Jesus over much. It's all part and parcel of the nation that is America. As we say 'only in America!'
And then on the food front - our daily bread. It's such a staple of life the world over is it not? I won't bother to give the actual recipe here for the Shaker bread, which they used to cook in communal kitchens (they lived a communal kind of life). Suffice to say that it looks extremely basic. It's brushed with melted butter and uses milk as liquid but other than that it is just flour and water and yeast really. Basic. Like bread itself.
I wonder how long we have been making bread? I would guess since we have been growing wheat - which takes us back to Mesopotamia does it not? I imagine the first breads were unleavened - like a lot of the bread that is still produced around the world. I don't know when they discovered yeast - probably an accident. Grinding the grain to flour has been going on in much the same way for thousands of years - well until the industrial revolution anyway. I'm guessing that early bread was coarser than what we have today, so it is interesting that there is a movement back to old methods of production and coarser bread that includes the grain itself. And sourdough too - which must surely be an ancient way of getting bread to rise. I should be researching all of this, but I know that there will be masses of stuff on the net which says it all much better than I could.
Bread comes in just about every shape and size - even in the small geographical area that is Europe - don't even think about the rest of the world. The Chinese and the Japanese do not historically do bread though. The Chinese have steamed soft buns, but I don't think the Japanese had bread at all until the West finally got a foothold in the nineteenth century. I think this is because rice was dominant and possibly easier. But for the rest of the world bread is a basic - when you have nothing else you have bread. Which means that bread equates to food and to life itself. So much so that it also has religious significance and is used in rituals all over the world.
Here are some common sayings that illustrate this:
Give us this day our daily bread - the first request made of God in the Lord's Prayer. It's a bit demanding isn't it? No Please or Thank You.
Man shall not live by bread alone - Jesus said this, meaning that we needed God too, but it has been changed and misquoted to Man cannot live by bread alone, which is true both in a literal and a figurative sense.
The best thing since sliced bread - not sure who said this, but it's interesting is it not that the invention of bread slicing machines should be seen as so significant. I'm sure it has saved many a busy mother time and effort in the morning - but it's pretty horrible - goes stale so much quicker. Still if you are making those elegant club sandwiches I guess it's essential - so much neater than any hand slicing can manage.
bread and circuses - as in keeping the masses happy by providing them with bread (something to eat- not always literally, sometimes simple the means to get something to eat), and entertainment. The Romans apparently distributed bread to all Roman citizens, and, of course, kept them entertained with gladiatorial spectacles. Keeping them entertained distracts them from other problems - perhaps that's what Donald Trump is doing.
to know which side one's bread is buttered - meaning to know where one's advantage lies - not with Donald Trump - I do hope the Americans realise this.
bread and water - given as a punishment diet in prisons. The poorest food you can have before starvation.
Here with a Loaf of Bread beneath the Bough, A Flask of Wine, a Book of Verse - and Thou Beside me singing in the Wilderness - And Wilderness is Paradise enow.” ― Omar Ahayyám This is often misquoted as 'a loaf of bread, a glass of wine, and thou' What more can you want is the sentiment. Food, sex and alcohol. No drugs but poetry instead of rock and roll.
Well you need a whole lot of other things, because bread is really not that nourishing. Yes it's filling but it's the things you put on it or beside it that make it so ultimately satisfying.
"There he got out the luncheon-basket and packed a simple meal, in which, remembering the stranger's origin and preferences, he took care to include a yard of long French bread, a sausage out of which the garlic sang, some cheese which lay down and cried, and a long-necked straw-covered flask wherein lay bottled sunshine shed and garnered on far Southern slopes.” ― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows
Which is beautifully said and nostalgically glowing. French bread - perhaps the most perfect of bread. As I have mentioned before Coles do a pretty good imitation, but it really isn't the same thing as French bread in France. But we live in a golden age of bread here in the affluent developed world. Bread is fashionable and everyone is trying to outdo everyone else. And it's not just the Western style breads that we grew up with - there are endless middle-eastern and eastern varieties too - African ones are also beginning to appear I think. It's all a bit obscene really isn't it, when we quibble over what kind of bread we should have today, when most of the world has only a small piece of daily bread to eat.
Because I was thinking about all of this this morning, by the time it came to lunchtime I really fancied a slice of bread with some cheese. So I did. And then I had another slice with banana - I suspect this is an English thing. If I had had a tomato too, which I should have done - I might have covered most of the food bases. Sadly though we don't have any of David's home-made variety at the moment. Maybe tomorrow if Im lucky.
I will end with a small gallery of paintings by the famous that feature bread. Interestingly, often with a glass of wine. It's that Omar Khayam poem raising it's head. From left to right and top to bottom - Picasso, Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, Picasso
