It was the Year 1837 of Our Lord in the outer realms of the Lordship of Bourgogne. I had left Mediolanum roughly a Moon prior seeking apprenticeship under the Magister’s Guild of Gaul. The Kingship of Gaul is a land of great adversity, the wealthy nobility dined upon the most lavish of dishes and exotic plates while their serfs tilled the lands with barely a rusk or porridge to feed themselves.
While serfdom had been eliminated throughout much of western Efenland, the crown of Gaul had managed to hold onto this archaic practice through the Sorciers de la Cour. Magical bastards, the lot of them, the Sorciers are an order of sycophantic mages who pledged loyalty to anyone with enough ducats to their name and delighted in tormenting the Gaulish peasantry.
As my donkey, Eyzl, was fatigued after days of travel along the River Rhône, I made haste towards the village of Riverain roughly ten leagues south of Lugdunum. Spotting the glow of fires and chimney smokes emerging from the cozy cottages of the local peasantry, I tethered Eyzl to a nearby hitch. Inside I met a married couple of villeins, Ysabeau and Onfroi and their young daughter whose name I could not remember. Ysabeau and Onfroi were indebted to the Manor of Lord Barnabé, a local nobleman (and a glutton at that). In exchange for a couple cuprum, the couple provided me with a bed of a straw to sleep, water for Eyzl and food and drink. They presented me with a grainy bread not dissimilar to Horsebread, they called this bread Pain Renaître or Reborn Bread in Anglish.
Ysabeau explained to be that Pain Renaître was a specialty of the local Gaulish serfs. It was created using the scraps and crumbs of bread, flour and seeds often sweeping the flours to scavenge what little they could during times of hardship. As such the bread was reborn from discarded scraps. In exchange for a couple more cuprum she offered to provide me the recipe for inclusion in the Liber Gustum. Since the composition of Pain Renaître differed based on what was available, this recipe will simply provide a standard example for the bread. The recipe is as follows:
Ingredients:
• 50 Grams of Barley Flour
• 50 Grams of Wheat Flour
• 50 Grams of Millet Flour
• 50 Grams of Rye Flour
• 250 Grams of Breadcrumbs
• 200 Grams of Dried Peas
• 200 Grams of Brewer’s Barm
• 350 Milliliters of Water
Instructions:
Grind your Breadcrumbs and 100 grams of your Dried Peas into a fine powder with a mortar and pestle. Mix together your Barley, Wheat, Millet, and Rye flours. Add the powdered Breadcrumbs and Dried Peas to the flours and slowly add in the Brewer’s Barm and Water. Mix until a thick dough is formed then leave covered for 4 hours. Roughly chop the remaining 100 grams of Dried Peas and knead them into the dough. Form the dough into a ball then wrap in a cloth and place in a covered basket for one day and one night. Score your loaf with a knife and place in a hot oven and bake for half an hour. If one desires a longer shelf life, let the loaf cool for a night then bake once again for half an hour.
Author’s Notes:
This grainy bread is a personal favorite of mine, whilst the nobility preferred the milled white flours, I much prefer the earthy flavor and texture of peasant breads. Ysabeau provided me with two loaves for the road and I savored them greatly, using them to sop up a stew I prepared and later toasting and slathering with lard and honey. I should consider some way to rebrand this simple dish to the gourmands at the Guild.
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