[Mid] Re: waybread

> My good Lords and Ladies,
> I bring to you a question put to me by my Lord Husband that I could not
> answer. Does anyone have a recipe for something called waybread or
> journeybread. It's basically a loaf of bread with cheese and meat
baked
> inside. This would be used at events, going to and from events,
Pennsic
> etc.

Historically, there are a number of solutions to this question.
The following out take from the sca-cooks list comments on the possible
solutions; both comments from Elizabeth, Cariadoc's wife. If you want to
do further research, the various names for such 'experiments' in period
are noted. Try this address:
http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/recipe_toc.html
Ian
.............................................
At 10:46 PM -0800 11/10/98, Laura C Minnick wrote:
>... In one area, there is
>two men and a woman looking over a crenellated edge at the scene below,
>and one of the men is holding in his hand what I can only describe as a
>Hostess Fruit Pie- you know, the half-moon shape, filled, and crimped
>along the rounded edge. Given the particular contortions his face is in,
>it looks as though he's eating, so I would gather he's nibbling on his
>pie. What might be in the pie, I don't know.

Maybe this?

Ryschewys Closed and Fried
Book: Two Fifteenth Century p. 45/97

Take figs, and grind them small in a mortar with a little oil, and grind
with them cloves and maces; and then take it up into a vessel, and cast
thereto pines, saunders and raisons of corinth and minced dates, powdered
pepper, canel, salt, saffron; then take fine paste of flour and water,
sugar, saffron and salt, and make fair cakes thereof; then roll thine
stuff
in thine hand and couch it in the cakes and cut it, and fold them in
ryshews, and fry them up in oil; and serve forth hot. [end of original,
spelling modernized]

25 black mission figs
2 t oil
1 t cloves
1 t mace
1/4 c pine nuts
1/4 t saunders
1/3 c currants
5 1/2 oz dates
1/8 t pepper
1 t cinnamon
1/4 t salt
4 threads saffron
pastry: 2 c flour, 1/2 c water, 1 T sugar, 1/8 t salt, 1 thread saffron
more oil for frying

Chop dates. Grind figs with oil cloves, and mace, then mix with rest of
filling ingredients. Mix pastry ingredients; take a lump of dough and
roll
out into a flat circle about 4"-5" across. Put some filling on, fold the
circle in half and seal the edges. Fry them in oil, flipping them over
when
the first side is done.

I think some versions of this recipe call them "rischews is lent" which
implies that there is a meat-day version as well, though I don't have a
recipe.

Elizabeth/Betty Cook

>Now, Elizabeth and Bear have brought up rastons recently. This was a
bread
>with stuff stuffed inside it, but it appears to be only buttered bread.
>Is there evidence of anything else being stuffed or cooked inside bread
>which would then fit into the same niche as modern sandwiches?
>
Here is an Islamic recipe for precisely that.

Recipe for the Barmakiyya
Andalusian p. A-9

It is made with hens, pigeons, ring doves, small birds, or lamb. Take
what
you have of it, then clean it and cut it and put it in a pot with salt
and
onion, pepper, coriander and lavender or cinnamon, some murri naqi, and
oil. Put it over a gentle fire until it is nearly done and the sauce is
dried. Take it out and fry it with mild oil without overdoing it, and
leave
it aside. Then take fine flour and semolina, make a well-made dough with
yeast, and if it has some oil it will be more flavorful. Then stretch
this
out into a thin loaf and inside this put the fried and cooked meat of
these
birds, cover it with another thin loaf, press the ends together and place
it in the oven, and when the bread is done, take it out. It is very good
for journeying; make it with fish and that can be used for journeying
too.
[end of original]

Note: The Barmecides were a family of Persian viziers who served some of
the early Abbasid Caliphs, in particular Haroun al-Rashid, and were famed
for their generosity.

1/2 c sourdough 3 T olive oil for dough 1 1/2 t (lavender or) cinnamon
3/4 c water 1 lb boned chicken or lamb 1 t salt
1 1/2 c white flour 10 oz chopped onion 1 T murri (see the
_Miscellany_)
1 1/2 c semolina 1/2 t pepper 3 T olive oil
(1 t salt in dough) 1 t coriander 3 T more olive oil for frying

Cut the meat fairly fine (approximately 1/4" slices, then cut them up),
combine in a 3 quart pot with chopped onion, 1 t salt, spices, murri, and
3
T oil. Cook over a medium low to medium heat about an hour. Cover it at
the
beginning so it all gets hot, at which point the onion and meat release
their juices; remove the cover and cook until the liquid is gone, about
30
minutes. Then heat 3 T oil in a large frying pan on a medium high burner,
add the contents of the pot, fry over medium high heat about five
minutes.

Stir together flour, semolina, 1 t salt. Gradually stir in 3 T oil.
Combine
3/4 c water, 1/2 c sourdough. Stir this into the flour mixture and knead
to
a smooth dough (which should only take a few minutes). If you do not have
sourdough, omit it; since the recipes does not give the dough much time
to
rise, the sourdough probably does not have a large effect on the
consistency of the dough.

Divide the dough in four equal parts. Take two parts, turn them out on a
floured board, squeeze and stretch each (or use a rolling pin) until it
is
at least 12" by 5". Put half the filling on one, put the other on top,
squeeze the edges together to seal. Repeat with the other two parts of
the
dough and the rest of the filling. Bake on a cookie sheet at 350° for 40
minutes.

For the fish version, start with 1 1/4 lb of fish (we used salmon). If it
is boneless, proceed as above, shortening the cooking time to about 35
minutes; it is not necessary to cut up the fish fine, since it will
crumble
easily once it is cooked. If your fish has bones, put it on top of the
oil,
onions, spices etc., in the largest pieces that will fit in the pot,
cover
the pot, and cook for about 10-15 minutes, until the fish is almost ready
to fall apart; in effect, it is being steamed by the liquid produced from
the onions and by its own liquid. Take out the fish, bone it, return to
the
pot, and cook uncovered about 30 minutes until the liquid is mostly gone.
Continue as above.
- Elizabeth/Betty Cook
.................................................
Ian Gourdon of Glen Awe
OP, Midrealm Forester
"Well done is better than well said"
From: agincort@juno.com
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Received on Sun Jan 13 19:06:32 2002