Pass the Bread
My memories of bread in Boston consist of Wonder bread sandwich bread, French loaves, and Italian loaves. Apart from the specialty breads, such as English muffins or bagels. But most were commercially made and indistinguishable from one another. If you had the luck to find an awesome bakery you could taste the difference. Otherwise, the difference was mostly in the shape and in the price. But bread wasn't really a daily part of life in Boston. It was mostly for sandwiches and special recipes. A meal was a meal even if there wasn't bread on the table.
Not so here. Many people consider a meal incomplete if there isn't a piece of bread by their plate. It's as if a fork or glass were missing. It forms an intrinsic part of almost every meal. Even in the mornings it is common to eat bread dipped in cocoa milk for breakfast. Many houses have bread delivered every morning. Those that don't, go and buy a loaf. There are good bakers and routine bakers. An excellent baker was one in my cousin's village thirty years ago. Since then there have been retirements and they have closed, unfortunately. I remember a year I came on vacation I would sometimes go with my younger cousin on Wednesday evenings to the bakery to buy a special loaf they only made on that day. They used a local flour to bake round loaves that wasn't white. It was a beige flour that made beige loaves. As my cousin and I walked home I remember we would break off pieces and eat them as we slowly meandered back to my grandmother's house. The loaf would always be missing an important piece when we got back. I remember thinking then that I had never eaten bread that had so much taste! Compared to those loaves, bread in Boston tasted like baked paper.
Each baker has his own specialty. Some are great at round loaves, others at long loaves. Some use secret mixes of flours to create unique breads. There are loaves made commercially, mixed, cut, and baked by machines with barely a human hand. Others, called artesanas, have more human intervention and are made on a smaller scale. They tend to taste better, too. You can choose from commercial loaves, artesanas, whole wheat, seeded, seeded whole wheat, oat, rye, local flours, corn, and unsalted white or whole wheat. There are more, but I can't remember at the moment. The only problem if you're a fan, you won't find English muffins. Commercial bagels have begun to appear in supermarkets, though.
We have long since graduated to all kinds of breads, but the most common bread, at least until just after I was born, was corn bread. But this corn bread isn't like southern corn bread in the U.S. Every house used to make a round loaf of corn bread every week. The housewife would mix corn flour she had grown herself with rye flour, water, salt, and some leavening left over from the previous baking. (I have never made it and at this moment I can't ask my mother-in-law for the exact ingredients, so I am not too sure of them.) This creates a sticky mass that doesn't stretch because it barely has gluten. She would line a large round pot with collard leaves to be able to pull out the loaf afterwards, and pour in the mixture. Then it would be placed in a (preferably) beehive oven fueled by a wood fire. If there was no beehive oven a wood stove oven would do. The resultant bread would be medium brown and very compact with a strong, almost acid flavor. I remember I was nine when I first tasted it and didn't like it. But I've since acquired a taste for it. You can buy portions of cornflour bread now. But it's quite expensive. Because most people don't plant corn like they used to, and because there's a loaf of white bread every day now, most households don't make these loaves anymore. I know my mother-in-law hasn't made one these past few years.
But if you're a fan of good bread, Spain is the place to visit. Partake of some of the local bakings and you'll never again go back to baked paper.
Not so here. Many people consider a meal incomplete if there isn't a piece of bread by their plate. It's as if a fork or glass were missing. It forms an intrinsic part of almost every meal. Even in the mornings it is common to eat bread dipped in cocoa milk for breakfast. Many houses have bread delivered every morning. Those that don't, go and buy a loaf. There are good bakers and routine bakers. An excellent baker was one in my cousin's village thirty years ago. Since then there have been retirements and they have closed, unfortunately. I remember a year I came on vacation I would sometimes go with my younger cousin on Wednesday evenings to the bakery to buy a special loaf they only made on that day. They used a local flour to bake round loaves that wasn't white. It was a beige flour that made beige loaves. As my cousin and I walked home I remember we would break off pieces and eat them as we slowly meandered back to my grandmother's house. The loaf would always be missing an important piece when we got back. I remember thinking then that I had never eaten bread that had so much taste! Compared to those loaves, bread in Boston tasted like baked paper.
Each baker has his own specialty. Some are great at round loaves, others at long loaves. Some use secret mixes of flours to create unique breads. There are loaves made commercially, mixed, cut, and baked by machines with barely a human hand. Others, called artesanas, have more human intervention and are made on a smaller scale. They tend to taste better, too. You can choose from commercial loaves, artesanas, whole wheat, seeded, seeded whole wheat, oat, rye, local flours, corn, and unsalted white or whole wheat. There are more, but I can't remember at the moment. The only problem if you're a fan, you won't find English muffins. Commercial bagels have begun to appear in supermarkets, though.
We have long since graduated to all kinds of breads, but the most common bread, at least until just after I was born, was corn bread. But this corn bread isn't like southern corn bread in the U.S. Every house used to make a round loaf of corn bread every week. The housewife would mix corn flour she had grown herself with rye flour, water, salt, and some leavening left over from the previous baking. (I have never made it and at this moment I can't ask my mother-in-law for the exact ingredients, so I am not too sure of them.) This creates a sticky mass that doesn't stretch because it barely has gluten. She would line a large round pot with collard leaves to be able to pull out the loaf afterwards, and pour in the mixture. Then it would be placed in a (preferably) beehive oven fueled by a wood fire. If there was no beehive oven a wood stove oven would do. The resultant bread would be medium brown and very compact with a strong, almost acid flavor. I remember I was nine when I first tasted it and didn't like it. But I've since acquired a taste for it. You can buy portions of cornflour bread now. But it's quite expensive. Because most people don't plant corn like they used to, and because there's a loaf of white bread every day now, most households don't make these loaves anymore. I know my mother-in-law hasn't made one these past few years.
But if you're a fan of good bread, Spain is the place to visit. Partake of some of the local bakings and you'll never again go back to baked paper.
Comments
Post a Comment