Why So Few Historical Bread Recipes? And a Modern Recipe for An Everything-Bagel Loaf
I have been baking bread for seventeen years. In that time, I have baked all sorts of breads, both lean and enriched, plain and flavored, or, as bakers say, with inclusions. I’ve used all sorts of commercial yeasts; did you know there’s more than one type? When people were buying grocery stores out of yeast and flour at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, I didn’t panic; I had a large stash of both. More recently I dove into the world of sourdough after a kind friend gifted me some of her starter because I simply could not get my own going. I’ve managed to keep it alive for over a year.
In that time, I never really thought about the past history of yeasts or why some places have historically used yeast and others sourdough, although, to be sure, the two often existed right alongside each other. It just didn’t occur to me to think about it. Then, one day not long ago, I was reading a book, can’t remember which one, and I came across a grain of information (see what I did there?) that made me go “of course!”