Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, BOOK XVIII. THE NATURAL HISTORY OF GRAIN., CHAP. 27.—THE METHOD OF MAKING BREAD: ORIGIN OF THE ART.

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CHAP. 27.—THE METHOD OF MAKING BREAD: ORIGIN OF THE ART.

It seems to me quite unnecessary to enter into an account of the various kinds of bread that are made. Some kinds, we find, receive their names from the dishes with which they are eaten, the oyster-bread,¹ for instance: others, again, from their peculiar delicacy, the artolaganus,² or cake-bread, for example; and others from the expedition with which they are prepared, such as the "speusticus,"³ or "hurry-bread." Other varieties receive their names from the peculiar method of baking them, such as oven-bread,⁴ tin-bread,⁵ and mould-bread.⁶ It is not so very long since that we had a bread introduced from Parthia, known as water-bread,⁷ from a method in kneading it, of drawing out the dough by the aid of water, a process which renders it remarkably light, and full of holes. like a sponge: some call this Parthian bread. The excellence of the finest kinds of bread depends principally on the goodness of the wheat, and the fineness of the bolter. Some persons knead the dough with eggs or milk, and butter even has been employed for the purpose by nations that have had leisure to cultivate the arts of peace, and to give their attention to the art of making pastry. Picenum still maintains its ancient reputation for making the bread which it was the first to invent, alica⁸ being the grain employed. The flour is kept in soak for nine days, and is kneaded on the tenth with raisin juice, in the shape of long rolls; after which it is baked in an oven in earthen pots, till they break. This bread, however, is never eaten till it has been well⁹ soaked, which is mostly done in milk mixed with honey.

1 Ostrearius.

2 From ἄρτος and λάγανον, bread and cake.

3 From σπεύδω, to hasten. A sort of crumpet, probably.

4 Furnaceus.

5 Artopticcus.

6 "Clibanis." The clibanus was a portable oven or mould, broader at the bottom than the top.

7 Aquaticus.

8 See cc. 10 and 29 of this Book.

9 It would appear to be somewhat similar to our rusks.

The Natural History. Pliny the Elder. John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S. H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A. London. Taylor and Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street. 1855.

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Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 27.—THE METHOD OF MAKING BREAD: ORIGIN OF THE ART.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.

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CHAP. 27.—THE METHOD OF MAKING BREAD: ORIGIN OF THE ART.

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History
John Bostock, M.D., F.R.S., H.T. Riley, Esq., B.A., Ed.