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A period dish

Manchet Bread

A fine white loaf of sieved wheat flour, the bread of the well-to-do table.

Makes 2 loaves

Manchet was the whitest bread a household could make, from flour sifted again and again to remove the bran. It was a mark of status and was served to guests while coarser loaves fed the servants.

Ingredients

Dairy & Eggs

  • 1/2 cup milk

Bakery

  • 4 cup bread flour

Spices & Seasoning

  • 1 tbsp salt

Other

  • 1 oz yeast
  • 1 1/4 cup water

Method

  1. Warm the water and milk, then crumble in the yeast and let it stand until frothy.

  2. Mix the fine flour and salt, pour in the yeast liquid, and knead to a smooth, firm dough.

  3. Let the dough rise in a warm place until roughly doubled.

  4. Knock it back, shape it into round loaves, and set them on a floured board to prove.

  5. Bake in a hot oven until the loaves are risen and sound hollow when tapped, then cool on a rack.

Served at

The first citizen's table · Florence, Italy

A solitary supper at Frombork · Frombork, Royal Prussia

A supper for the new philosophy · London, England

The method in Paris · Paris, France

An essay and two treatises · London, England