Lammas, Cross Quarter Day

Today, August 1st, a cross-quarter day known also as Lammas, carts wheel past my house loaded with grain for the granary. Since the grain is being harvested, now is the perfect time for bread baking. Flour ground today shouldn’t have to be sifted to remove weevils before adding to the sponge or levain to create loaves.

Bread: it is prepared in every village, that is to say wheat, or rye, or of a mixture of both, [into a] tiny well in the flour, one kneads in a little hot water, also putting in a little salt & the leaven, to cause it to rise by fermentation, a kind of homemade bread, lighter and skillfully made, artisanal without their [professional baker’s] help. It is the food of the common man, wholesome, very nutritious, & that which is appropriate for him, in all the states which one can suppose.

Dictionnaire Portatif de Cuisine, d'Office, et de Distillation. Chez Vincent, Paris 1767, p. 113.

Pain: c’est une preparation du bled, soit froment, ou seigle, ou d’un mélange des deux, réduit en farine, qu’on pétrit avec de l’eau un peu chaude, en y mettant un peu de sel & du levain, pour lui donner, par la fermentation que ces substances excitant, une sorte de cuisson anticipée, & plus de legérete qu’il n’en adroit sans leur secours. C’est d’aliment ordinaire de l’homme, le plus sain, le plus nourrissant, & celui qui lui convient le mieux, dans tous les états qu’on puisse supposer.