"Bruschetta. The now ubituitous garlic bread is a lineal if somewhat debased version of the Italian bruschetta. This is a slice of bread toasted brown on each side and then moistened with a generous dribble of olive oil (it can also be rugged with garlic, but this is optional). Its name reflects its original cooking method: it is a derivative of the Italian verb bruscare, roast over coals'."

---An A to Z of Food and Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2003 (p. 44)

"Bruschetta. Toasted bread, often rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil. Also schiena d'asino, soma d'aj in the south, and fettunta in Tuscany. Bruschetta has always been a way to salvage bread that was going stale by adding oil and seasonings. Sometimes the bread is entirely immersed in oil, but usually the oil is poured on the top after the bread is rubbed with a garlic clove. In recent years adding toppings, particularly chopped onions and tomatoes, has become popular in restaurants."

---The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New York] 1998 (p. 45)

American-style garlic bread

Garlic bread, as most Americans know it today, descends from ancient Mediterranean bruschetta. The Americanized version typically substitutes butter for oil, garlic powder/salt for fresh product and commercial oregano. It may, or may not, also include some kind of "Italian" cheese (Romano, Parmesean) in either fresh grated or commercial powdered form. American-style garlic bread is prepared with long crusty loaves ("Italian" or "French" bread). Bread is sliced vertical or horizontal; butter/spice/cheese mixture is spread, then wrapped in foil and warmed in the oven. Frozen and pre-made garlic bread products may be found in most supermarkets. Garlic knots first surface in the 1980s.

"The relationship between bruschetta and "garlic bread" is a peculiar one. In principle, bruschetta is the honest, poor man's original -nothing but charred, oil-soaked bread rubbed with garlic-while "garlic bread" is the embellished pretender. But somehow things have got mixed up. British democracy has confused them. Garlic bread became genuinely democratised, sold in dispiriting packs of two, or even four, for 99p in the brightest freezer cabinets. Meanwhile, the monied torchbearers of democracy - in fact, the elite - went crazy for bruschetta, paying a small fortune for pane covered in broad beans or anchovies at the River Cafe. And so, bizarrely, buttery indigestible garlic bread has come to seem unpretentious "people's food", while bruschetta is the poncy snack of the People's Party. This is an unfortunate state of affairs. Everything that is best about bruschetta -- its power to bestow well-being in one crisp bite -- is betrayed by garlic bread. To begin with, as Marcella Hazan points out: "The most important ingredient in bruschetta is not garlic but olive oil." The garlic on bruschetta is rubbed on, so that you inhale the fresh garlic perfume as a backdrop to the olive oil, rather than eating great lumps of it. The origin of bruschetta was probably the ancient Roman practice of tasting newly pressed olive oil on a piece of bread, with or without garlic -- a practice that has continued in the oil-producing areas of Tuscany, Umbria and Lazio. The name derives from bruscare, meaning "to roast over coals". Alice Waters's version of bruschetta involves frying country bread in large amounts of oil, until thoroughly impregnated, and Elizabeth David recommends baking slices of white bread in the oven."

---"Toast of the Tiber," Bee Wilson and Frances Stonor Saunders, New Statesman, April 24, 2004 (p. 50)

[1940]

"Garlic Bread

Slice French bread idagonally almost through loaf. Soften 1/2 cup butter, add 1 clove garlic, and let stand 15 minutes. Remove garlic, spread butter betwqeen slices, and bake in moderately hot oven (400 degrees F.) about 5 minutes, until loaf is thoroughly heated. Serve hot with cheese platter or with salad course."

---Edith Barber's Book Book, Edith M. Barber, eitor of Fod Column, New York Sun [G.P. Putnam's Sons:New York](p. 103)

Garlic knots

These tasty morsels combine the flavor classic bruschetta with the convenience of modern garlic bread. While the product is simple, and could have been enjoyed for thousands of years, print references first surface in the late 1980s.

"SIMPLE ingredients - flour, water, yeast. It's how the cook treats these elements that determines whether French baguettes or pita bread will make an appearance on the dinner table. But if your name is Frank Zitoli, rest assured that the bread basket will include garlic knots, tiny morsels of bread tossed with olive oil, lots of fresh garlic and grated Romano cheese. In a word - irresistible. "My Uncle Mike first introduced me to them,"said Zitoli, referring to Michael Prudente, co-owner of Prudente's restaurant in Island Park. Prudente's garlic knots were a slightly different shape, said Zitoli "but when he asked me what I thought of them, I told him they were great." Zitoli loved garlic knots, but would the public? At the time, he owned Pizza Delight in Plainview. "I put a bowl of them on the counter and offered them free to customers. I waited for their reaction. As soon as a person would pop one into his mouth, his eyes would light up and a smile would come to his face." That was 10 years ago, and he sold thousands at 10 cents a piece. But Zitoli didn't stop there. He splits garlic knots and stuffs them with provolone, prosciutto or sausage. He stuffs the dough with slivers of cheese before baking, adds whole-wheat flour, substitutes semolina. For champagne parties at his restaurant, Franina, in Syosset, Zitoli tucks in smoked tuna and smoked salmon. He has gone as far as presenting filled garlic knots in the shape of wreaths and Christmas trees. "I feel they are a success because I fuss with the details," he said. "I hire part-time people who do nothing but peel garlic, and the cheese is grated here." Why Romano cheese? "It brings out the flavor of the garlic," he said. Will garlic knots catch on? Are they the garlic bread of tomorrow? Danny Horton, owner of Victor's Pizza Delight in South Huntington, learned to make garlic knots from the former owners, Zitoli's sister and brother-in-law. At Victor's you can still buy them for a dime apiece or eat them with the daily specials - lasagna, chicken parmesan, ziti. "During a busy day, we can make as many as 1,500 garlic knots," said Horton. Across Route 110 and down the road at Francesco's Pizzeria, owner Michael Macchia said he believes they're popular because "People love garlic." A regular customer who was waiting for two pizzas to come out of the oven said she picks up garlic knots when she buys pizza and leaves them in the refrigerator as snacks for her children after school. "A few seconds in the microwave makes them taste freshly baked," she said, "and it makes a good alternative to a sugar snack." Macchia charges 15 cents each for garlic knots. "They take a lot of time to make because they're formed by hand," he said.

---"Irresistible Garlic Knots Twists of garlic are cheap and popular munchies in the bread baskets at several local restaurants," Marie Bianco, Newsday 6 July 6, 1988 (p. 3)

"Garlic knots, addictive, tempting morsels, have been drawing raves recently in casual Italian dining spots all across the Island. I first encountered them at Franina's, 58 West Jericho Turnpike, Syosset (496 9770). It was love at first bite."

---"A La Carte: Bread," Joanne Starkey, New York Times, March 5, 1989 (p. A19)

"Call them pizza knots, garlic knots or warm rolls. Those tiny twists of baked pizza dough, glistening with garlic butter, were love at first bite when I tasted them at Franina in Syosset more than a decade ago. They are still there, piping hot, peeking out from the impressive bread baskets. And, they are just as compelling and addictive as ever. Bread may be a constant here, but there have been changes. Years ago, Franina, a modest storefront in a strip shopping center that includes a doughnut shop and a cleaners, was a casual cafe. Today it is plush inside, despite its still simple exterior."

---"Garlic Knots Excel in Now-Plush Decor," Joanne Starkey, New York Times, April 28, 1996 (p. LI15 )

"Papa Ciro's Handmade Knots, new to the bread category, bring convenience, flavor, and variety to any meal, according to Joseph Vetrano, company president. "We offer the only garlic knot for retail sale," he says. Other flavors include cinnamon knots and jalapeno garlic knots. The family-owned Roslyn Heights, N.Y., company makes its bread knots by hand using a family recipe. "Our family has created these handmade knots for three generations," Ventrano says. The tradition continues today at Papa Ciro's restaurant in New York. "You can find my father in the restaurant making these knots. His photo is on the back of our package." Four years of trial and error were required to successfully manufacture the bread knots for retail, he notes. Papa Ciro's Handmade Knot Company is owned by Ventrano and his brother, Pasquale Vetrano Jr., company vice president."

---"Bread Category's New Twist: Papa Ciro's Handmade Knots," Gai D. Fleenor, Frozen Food Age, April 2007 (p.17)

Challah

"Challa...Pronounce Khal-leh, with a rattling kh. Thyme with "a doll a." Hebrew: challah. A braided loaf of white bread, glazed with egg white, very soft, delicate in flavor...Challa is a Sabbath and holiday delicacy. For Shabbes it is always made in a braided form. On holidays it may be kneaded into other shapes: circular, ladderlike, etc...Two challas, uncut, are on the table of observing Jews on Sabbath eve; thy are not cut until after the broche (blessing). This practice perpetuates the memory of the Temple, where two rows of bread were lined up before the altar. The home, which is of limitless importance in Jewish life, is in fact called in Hebrew "migdash mehad"--or "a small temple." When a challah (or any Sabbath bread) is baked, a small piece of dough is, by tradition, tossed into the oven or fire--as a token of sacrifice. Why? Because challa is a Hebrew term used in Numbers 15:20 and Ezekiel 44:30, where it means "the priest's share" of the baking dough."

---The Joys of Yiddish, Leo Rosten [McGraw Hill:New York] 1968 (p. 68-9)

"Hallah. A form of bread (II Sam. 6:19). The term also applies to the portion of dough set aside and given to the priest (Num. 15:19-20). The etymology of the word is traced either to the Hebrew root for "hollow" and "pierce"...suggesting a perforated and/or rounded loaf, of to the Akkadian "ellu" ("oure"), referring to the bread's sacral use. Until new evidence allows more precision...hallah must be rendered "loaf" (parallel to the Hebrew word kikkar). In the Bible, hallah is a bread offering subsumed under minhah, the grain sacrifice. Commonly used in an unleavened form, and only rarely in a leavened form (Lev. 7:13; probably Num. 15:20), the bread is made with or without oil (Ex. 29:2, 23...)... Post Bibilical. According to the rabbis, the precept of setting aside hallah applies to dough kneaded from one of the five species og grain (Hal. 1:1), since only from them can the bread (referred to in Num. 15:19) "when you eat of the bread of the land" etc.) be made, although Philo ...limits to wheat and barley alone....The quantity of dough from which hallah must be taken is not explicitly stated in the Bible, and Shammai and Hillel already differed on the quantity...In later generations...the quanitity was fixed, based on the worlds "Of the first of your dough," which was taken to mean "as much as your dough was," viz, "the dough of the wilderness." How much was this? It is written (Ex. 16:36)...Hallah is one of the 24 perquesites of the priest (cf Ezek. 44:30)...Hallah must be eaten by priests in a state of ritual purity; the commoner who eats it deliberately is liable to the penalty of "keret"...The word "hallah" is popularly employed for the special Sabbath loaves."

---Encyclopedia Judaica, volume 7 [Keter Publishing House:Jerusalem] 1971 (p. 1194-5)

[NOTE: this source contains much more information than can be paraphrased, esp. with regards to ancient ingredients and proportions.]

Cheese straws

We do know the southern states of America have a special love for all things cheese. Chess Pie, cheese straws, cheddar biscuits &c. are traditional fare. Straws/sticks/biscuits must be served hot! hot! hot! or not at all.

About cheese straws (aka cheese sticks)

The general consensus regarding traditional Southern cheese straws is that the recipe originated in England. It was introduced to the colonies by British cooks. Early recipes indicate this might have been a popular way to use up extra puff-paste dough. Food historians trace the origin of puff-paste to Renaissance times. A survey of early cheese straw-type recipes reveals these tasty items were know though time by different names. Likewise, there are several recipe variations. One common thread connecting these recipes is they were to be sent hot as possible to the table. This holds true today.

About Southern USA cheese straws

"Cheese straws are made by every good cook throughout the Southern states. They are a staple of the cocktail table...and they are superb morsels to nibble upon with bourbon and sherry...The straw originally referred to the shape--long and narrow. Most Cheese Straws in the South are now round like little biscuits. Cheese Straws came from England and, despite the superb true cheddar, often were made solely from Parmesan, which has been imported into England for centuries."

---Biscuits, Spoonbread, and Sweet Potato Pie: 300 Recipes that Celebrate the Glories of Southern Baking-With a Generous Accompaniment of Historical Lore, Bill Neal [Alfred A. Knopf:New York] 1996 (p. 54)

"It's hard to say how, when, or where these favorites came to prominence in the South, but noted cooks as widely scattered as Henrietta Dull, the Atlanta author of Southern Cooking, and Pauline Goddard Dedman, hostess of the Beaumont Inn in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, were making them forty years or more ago."

---Southern Food: at home, on the road, in history, John Egerton [Univeresity of North Carolina Press:Chapel Hill NC] 1993 (p. 198)[NOTE: Mrs. Dull's recipe included below.]

Cheese straw recipes through time

[1769:London]

"To make a Ramequin of Cheese.

Take some old Cheshire cheese, a lump of bUtter and the yolk of a hard boiled egg, and beat it very well together in a marble mortar. Spread it on some slices of bread toasted and uottered. Hold a salamandar over them and send them up."

---The Experienced English Housekeeper, Elizabeth Raffald, with an introduction by Roy Shipperbottom [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1997 (p. 148) [1828:Paris]

"Ramequins a la Sefton.

After you have made the pastry for the first and second course, take the remains of the puff-paste, handle it lightly, spread it out on the dresser, and sprinkle over it some rasped Parmesan cheese; then fold the paste in three, spread it again, and sprinkle more cheese over it: give what we call two turns and a half, and sprinkle it each time with the cheese: cut about eighteen ramequins with a plain round cutter, and put them into the oven when you send up the second course; dish them the same as the petits pates, and serve very hot on a napkin."

---The French Cook, Louis Eustache Ude, photoreprint of 1828 English edition, [Arco Publishing:New York] 1978 (p. 398) [1845:London]

"Ramekins a L'Ude, or Sefton Fancies.

Roll out, rather thin, from six to eight ounces of fine cream-crust, or feuilletage...take nearly or quite half its weight of grated Parmesan, or something less of dry white English cheese, sprinkle it equally over the paste, fold it together, roll it out very lightly twice, and continue thus until the cheese and crust are well mixed. Cut the ramekins with a small paste-cutter; wash them with yolk of egg mixed with a little milk, and bake them about fifteen minutes. Serve them very hot. Cream crust or feuilletage, 6 oz.; Parmesan, 3 oz.; or English cheese, 2 « oz.: baked 12 to 15 minutes."

---Modern Cookery for Private Families, Eliza Acton, with an Introduction by Elizabeth Ray [Southover Press:East Sussex] 1994 (p. 318) [1871::USA]

"Cheese biscuits

Two ounces of butter, two ounces of flour, two ounces of grated cheese, a little Cayenne pepper and salt. To be made into a thin paste an rolled out very thin, then cut in pieces four inches long and one inch broad; bake a very light brown, and send to table as hot as possible."

---Mrs. Porter's New Southern Cookery Book, Mrs. M. E. Porter, introduction and suggested recipes by Louis Szathmary [Promontory Press:New York] 1974 (p. 189) [1875: London]

"Cheese straws. ---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery with Numerous Illustrations [Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co:London] 1875 (p. 119) "Cheese Pastry, Ramequins of.

Take aome good puff paste. Any that is left after making pies, tarts, &c., will answer the purpose. Roll it out lightly, and spread over it nicely-and sprinkle ever fold with cheese. Cut little shapes out with an ordinary pastry cutter, brush them over with the beaten yolk of egg, and bake in a quick oven. Serve them as hot as possible. Time to bake, ten minutes...Sufficient for three or four persons."

---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery, (p. 118) [1897:USA]

"Cheese straws.

Mix well together-- 4 ounces flour, 6 ounces grated cheese, 1 teaspoonful salt, the yolks of 2 eggs well beaten, a few dashes cayenne. Mix these ingredients well together, and add ice-water enough to make a stiff dough. Sprinkle four on the pastry-board, and roll the dough about one quarter of an inch thick, cut into lengths not more than five inches long and one-eighth of an inch wide. Cut a number of little rings; lay these strips and rings in a baking-pan; place in a moderate oven until a delicate brown. When ready to serve, put about five straws into two rings, placing the rings near the ends. These are particularly nice served with salads."

---The Warm Springs Receipt-Book, E.T. Glover [B.F. Johnson Publishing:Richmond VA] 1897 (p. 202) [1930]

"Cheese straws.

2 ounces of flour, 3 ounces of parmesan cheese, yolk of one egg, a little pepper, cayenne, a little salt. Mix the flour, cayenne, salt and cheese together. Moisten with the egg and work into a smooth paste. Roll out on a board one-eighth inch thick, five inches wide, five inches long. Cut some of the paste in small rings--some in small strips one-eighth inch wide. Place both on greased paper and bake ten minutes, or to a light brown. Put the straws in bundles in the rings."

---Old Southern Receipts, Mary D. Pretlow [Robert M. McBride:New York] 1930 (p. 123) [1941:USA]

"Cheese straws

2 cups flour

1 cup grated cheese

1 teaspoon salt

Butter the size of an egg

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Ice-cold water to make very stiff dry dough

Mix salt, pepper and butter into the flour, add cheese and mix with the ice water. Cover and place in ice box for 30 minutes, roll out, fold and roll again. Repeat this four times. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness, cut in 1/4 inch strips about 4 inches long, place on a baking sheet and bake in moderate oven until a light, crisp brown. Sometimes cut small biscuit about as large as a half dollar and bake as crackers or wafers. The oven should be very hot when put in, then reduce to medium heat."

---Southern Cooking, Mrs. S. R. [Henrietta] Dull [Grosset & Dunlap:New York] 1928, 1941 (p. 183)

Ciabatta

"Ciabatta "Slipper," A bread loaf about 8 inches long with a light, thin crust; the shape resembles a common slipper."

---The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink, John Mariani [Broadway Books:New York] 1998 (p. 74)

"Ciabatta is a type of Italian loaf made from a dough that includes olive oil as one of its ingredients. Its long, flat, vaguely shoe-like shape earned it its name--Italian ciabatta menas literally 'slipper'. It is a borrowing, via Turkish, of Persian ciabat."

---An A-Z of Food & Drink, John Ayto [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2002 (p. 77)

"CIABATTA means slipper in Italian. It is also the name of a light and crusty bread from the Lake Como region in northern Italy. The bread is called ciabatta (pronounced cha-BAH-ta) because its flattened oval form resembles a well-worn slipper. The crust encloses a simple, rustic bread with an extremely porous texture, making for an unusually inviting combination of chewiness and lightness. "Ciabatta is not an elegant slipper, but the kind of old slipper you slouch around in," said Jean Salvadore, who lives at Villa d'Este, a hotel in the town of Como, and who wrote the hotel's cookbook. "In the Como region, they come in all sizes. I've heard that they are becoming popular in other parts of Italy but I don't think you'll see them in the south." But if, like many people from that region of Italy, Mrs. Salvadore considers Florence to be in the south, her information is out of date. Ciabatta was recently sighted in that city. And in England, of all places, ciabatta has become so popular that it is sold in supermarkets. And now, ciabatta has made its debut in New York. Sarah Black, who owns a baking company called Campanio, is making ciabatta at the Tom Cat Bakery in Long Island City, Queens. Tom Cat distributes the breads to Dean & DeLuca, Positively 104, Marche Madison and Murray's Cheese Shop in Manhattan, and Bon Appetit Foods in Princeton, N.J. Ms. Black's delicious ciabatta is made in a large domed oval (it would be a slipper only for Big Foot) instead of the traditional flattened slipper shape. It is richly browned outside and full of holes within. She has never been to Italy, but said she became intrigued with the bread about a year ago after reading about it in "The Italian Baker," by Carol Field (Harper & Row, 1985). "I'm fascinated with breads made with very wet doughs," she said. The dough for ciabatta is so wet and sticky that in her book, Mrs. Field warns that it is "utterly unfamiliar and probably a bit scary." She goes on to say that "the shaped loaves look flat and definitely unpromising," but urges the baker on, because the recipe produces an excellent result. Ciabatta, like other old-fashioned country breads with moist, gummy doughs, is slow-rising and calls for relatively little yeast. Ms. Black is not the only one who has become fascinated with it. George Balasses, who owns Balasses House Antiques in Amagansett, L.I., and who has been baking bread for decades, came upon a recipe for ciabatta in The Observer while he was in London in November. He tried it when he returned home. "My first attempts, following the recipe in the paper exactly, fell short of my expectations," he said. "I think the dough was too runny; it needed some more flour." He experimented a few times and once he felt he had gotten it right, what especially pleased him was that the dough could be made entirely in a food processor. "It's not a kneaded bread but it tastes like one," he said. One complaint he had with the recipe was that the loaf was quite small. "It's not a lot of trouble to make, but if you're going to bother at all you might as well have something to show for it," he said. Now when he bakes the bread, he increases the recipe by half. Mr. Balasses added that in England, the bread is usually made in the flattened slipper-shape. The Observer traced the origin of ciabatta in England to a chain of shops called La Fornaia, which it said was started in London in 1985 by an American, Peggy Dannenbaum. Ciabatta is excellent with some cheese or salami, and it's convenient to split in half horizontally and use for sandwiches. Mrs. Field's recipe is more complicated than Mr. Balasses', but the finished breads, four little slippers, have a craggier texture, a crisper crust and a somewhat earthier flavor. The recipe calls for making a starter or "sponge," a mixture of yeast, flour and water that first must be allowed to rise. A little more yeast, plus flour, salt, water and olive oil are combined with the starter to make the dough, which is best mixed in an electric mixer. Instead of merely dumping the sticky mass of dough onto a baking sheet, shape the dough into loaves and wait for it to rise again. Most of the effort in this recipe involves waiting for the dough to rise, not attending to the ingredients. These are not recipes for people with a microwave mentality. The rising times are long and slow, a factor that contributes to the flavor of ciabatta. It's the kind of cooking, as in making a good baked potato or a tender pot roast, that requires the passage of time, but no great effort, to produce its reward."

---"DE GUSTIBUS; So What if It Looks Like an Old Shoe? Ciabatta Is Loved," Florence Fabricant, New York Times, February 12, 1992 (p. C6)

Cinnamon toast

Cinnamon toast through time

[15th century]

Pokerounce [1685]

"Cinnamon Toasts.

Cut fine thin toasts, then toast them on a gridiron, and lay them in ranks in a dish, put to them fine beaten cinnamon mixed with sugar and some claret, warm them over the fire, and serve them hot."

---The Accomplisht Cook, Robert May [1685], facsimile reprint [Prospect Books:Devon] 2000 (p. 176)

[NOTE: Claret is a type of sweet wine.] [1899]

"For the benefit of those who had children with a 'sweet tooth,' the instructress initiated the club into the mysteries of cinnamon toast. It was one of the simplest things to make you ever saw. Slices of bread, dipped for a moment in hot water, fried in a spider, dusted with powered sugar and cinnamon, and there was a dish which would be appreciated by any child, whether it dwelt in Whitechapel or Belgravia."

---"Cooking Classes for the Poor," The Church Weekly [London, Middlesex], May 26, 1899 (p. 20)

[1909]

"Cinnamon toast is served with apple sauce. Shape thin hot toast with a cookie cutter, and spread with a cream of butter and sugar seasoned with cinnamon."

---Des Moines Daily News [IA], October 19, 1909 (p. 5) [1916]

"The course luncheon was also popular, as were the cinnamon toast and tea later. The restaurant, occupying the largest part of the floor, was conducted by former and prospective Smith College students, it being 'Smith Day.'"

---"'Vassar Day' at Bazaar. 'Smith Day' Netted $500 for the College Settlement Fund," New York Times, November 22, 1916 (p. 24) [1917]

"Cinnamon Toast (six portions)

6 slices of stale bread

2 T-butter

1/3 C-powdered sugar

1/2 t-cinnamon

Make a delicate brown toast and butter each slice. Mix the sugar and cinnamon, and place in a shaker. Shake the desired quantities of sugar and cinnamon over the hot buttered toast. Keep in a warm place until ready to serve."

---A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband With Bettina's Best Recipes, Louise Bennett Weaver [A.L. Burt Company:New York] 1917 (p. 369) [1919]

"Cinnamon crackers are first cousins to the fashionable cinnamon toast of the tea rooms,and less trouble, too. Butter the crackers evenly--and a satisfactory way to do this is to melt butter in a sauce pan and dip each cracker quickly and lightly into the melted butter--then sprinkle thickly with granulated sugar mixed with powdered cinnamon. Place on an inverted baking pan in a hot oven. When brown and crisp remove and ornament the center of each with a raisin that has been soaked in hot water until soft and plump. If put on while cinnamon and sugar are still hot the raisin will stick in place. Half a nutmeat may be used in the same way or a bit of candied orange peel."

---"A Pastry Substitute," Los Angeles Times, December 31, 1919 (p. I12) [1923]

"Cinnamon Toast.

Cut stale bread in one-fourth inch slices, remove crusts, and cut in three pieces, crosswise. Toast, spread with butter, and sprinkle with sugar, mixed with cinnamon, using three parts sugar to one part cinnamon. Let stand in oven until sugar has melted."

---The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, Fannie Merritt Farmer [Little, Brown:Boston] 1923 (p. 67) [1924]

"Raisin Cinnamon Toast.

Cut slices of raisin bread half an inch thick; beat two tablespoons of butter to a cream and gradually beat into it half a cup of sugar mixed with half a teaspoon of ground cinnamon and beat until creamy; spread on the slices of raisin bread: place the bread slices on a baking pan and set in a hot oven until lightly browned. Serve hot."

---"Chef Wyman's Suggestions for Tomorrow's Menu," Los Angeles Times, March 5, 1924 (p. A6)

[NOTE: This item was suggested for breakfast.] [1930]

"Cinnamon Toast.

Toast bread; butter while hot and sprinkle with a mixture of 1 part cinnamon to 4 parts sugar. Keep waerm in oven until serving time." ---My Better Homes & Gardens Cook Book [Meredith Publishing:Dew Moines IA] 5th edition, 1930, 1939 (p. 18) [1944]

"Cinnamon toast.

Spread 6 slices white, whole-wheat or raisin toast with 2 tablesp. Butter, margarine, fat or salad oil...Trim the crusts or not as preferred. Blend 1 teasp. Cinnamon with 3 tablesp. Granulated sugar and sprinkle over the toast. Place in a moderate oven of 350 degrees F. Or in broiler oven until sugar melts, then cut in triangles or strips and serve. If preferred, the bread may be toasted on one side only, and the combined butter, cinnamon, and sugar spread on the untoasted side. Put in broiler oven until the sugar melts. Brown or maple sugar, honey, grated cheese or a mixture of 1 tablesp. Each of orange juice and grated orange rind, and 1.2 c. Granulated sugar may be substituted for the cinnamon mixture."

---The Good Housekeeping Cookbook, completely revised edition [Farrar & Rinehart:New York] 1944 (p. 515) [1956]

"Cinnamon toast.

Toast two or more rounds of malt or honey bread on one side only, butter the other side and sprinkle thickly with castor sugar mixed with cinnamon. Grill rather slowly to a good even brown. Cool slightly before cutting into fingers. Make at the last minute and eat hot."

---Constance Spry Cookery Book, Constance Spry [Pan Books:London] 1956 (p. 906) [1960]

"Cinnamon Toast.

Bread is toasted over hot coals to a golden brown and buttered while hot. Raisin, white, or whole wheat may be used in the following variatons as a bread or as a dessert for meals cooked along the trail. Here are some variations...Cinnamon Toast: Mix cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over buttered toast for breakfast or a woodland tea."

---Cooking Out-of-Doors, Alice Sanderson Rivoire compiler [Girl Scouts of the United States of America:New York] 1960 (p. 96)

[NOTE: This scout handbook also offers recipes for applesauce, chocolate, orange, pineapple and apricot marshmallow toast.]

Clover leaf rolls

[1913]

"Clover Leaf Rolls. Materials:--Milk, 2 cups; butter, 3 tablespoons; sugar, two tablespoonfuls; salt, one teaspoonful; compressed yeast cake, one; bread flour. Directions.--Scald the milk in the saucepan and add the butter, sugar and salt to the milk when luke-warm, add the yeast cake dissolved in one-fourth cup of lukewarm water and gradually add about three cups of flour. Beat thoroughly, cover and let rise until light and full of bubbles. Cut down and add flour to make a stiff dough; knead and let rise again until it doubles in bulk, knead lightly and pinch off three small rolls about the size of marbles; dip in melted butter and place them in the space for one muffin pan. Repeat until the pans are full. Sprinkle lightly with granulated sugar. Cover, let rise and bake from fifteen to thirty minutes in a hot oven. These are very nice for afternoon luncheons, inexpensive and very easy to make."

---Janesville Daily Gazette [WI], November 15, 1913 (p. 9) [1929]

"Clover-Leaf Rolls.

For these three very small portions of dough are required. Form each into a small round ball, brush the sides with melted shortening, and place three of the balls together to form a triangle or clover-leaf. In order to obtain the best shape bake these rolls in muffin pans."

---Mrs. Allen on Cooking, Menus, Service, Ida C. Bailey Allen [Doubleday, Doran & Company:Garden City:New York] 1929 (p. 213) [1962]

"Clover Leaf Rolls.

Twenty-Four 2-inch Rolls

Have all ingredients at about 75 degrees F.

Cream: 1 tablespoon lard, 1 tablespoon butter, 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar.

Add and beat well: 1 cup scalded milk.

Dissolve for about 10 minutes: 1 cake compressed yeast in: 1.4 cup 85 degrees F. water.

Add these ingredients to the milk mixture. Sift before measuring and add: 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour.

Beat well. Cover with a cloth and permit to rise until double in bulk. Sift before measuring: 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour.

Add it to the batter with: 1 1/4 teaspoons salt.

Beat well. Place the dough in a greased bowl and turn it, so that it is lightly greased all over. Cover with a cloth and permit to rise until about double in bulk. Now, fill greased muffing tins about 1/3 full with 3 small balls, as sketched below. Brush the tops with: Melted butter.

Permit the rolls to rise, covered, in a warm place until about double in bulk. Bake in a preheated 425 degree F. oven for about 15 to 18 minutes. Remove at once from pans."

---Joy of Cooking, Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker [Bobbs-Merrill Co.:Indianapolis IN] 1962 (p. 573-574)

Hollywood bread

[1938]

According to the records of the US Patent & Trademark Office, Hollywood brand bread was introduced to the American public June 10, 1938, by National Bakers Services (Chicago & Florida). The trademark is currently "dead," indicating it is no longer being manufactured:

"Word Mark HOLLYWOOD Goods and Services (EXPIRED) IC 030. US 046. G & S: BREAD. FIRST USE: 19380610. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19380610 Mark Drawing Code (5) WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS IN STYLIZED FORM Serial Number 71618550 Filing Date September 8, 1951 Current Basis 1A Original Filing Basis 1A Registration Number 0561621 Registration Date July 15, 1952 Owner (REGISTRANT) NATIONAL BAKERS SERVICES, INC. CORPORATION ILLINOIS 1747 VAN BUREN STREET HOLLYWOOD FLORIDA\ 33020 Attorney of Record RICHARD H. COMPERE Prior Registrations 0373270;0385529 Type of Mark SERVICE MARK Register PRINCIPAL-2(F) Affidavit Text SECT 15. Renewal 2ND RENEWAL 19920728 Live/Dead Indicator DEAD"

[1939]

"A new bread that overcomes most objections in reducing diets has just been placed on sale in Washington. It is called Hollywood Bread. Thousands of women throughout the country who are overweight today are including this new bread in their diets. It helps them remove excess poundage without endangering or sacrificing energy. Hollywood Bread is delcious in flavor, yet it contains less calories than most ordinary breads. It is made of whole wheat and eight nonfattening vegetables important to the diet. It is rich in minerals and vitamins so necessary for health and energy. It's filing but not fattening, because it is baked without lard, grease or animal fats."

---"New Type Bread Helps Women Cut Weight," Washington Post, October 20, 1939 (p. 20)

[1963]

"The Federal Trade Commission ordered National Bakers Services, Inc., Chicago, to stop misrepresenting that its Hollywood Bread contains fewer calories than other commercial breads. In an opinion written by FTC Chairman Dixon, the commission said there is 'no significant difference' in the calorie content of National's Hollywood bread and commercial white bread. The only reason a slice of the bread contains fewer calories is that it is thinner. The commission said the concern's advertisements 'definitely create the impression that Hollywood Bread is specialy concocted by a formula which results in a bread of lower calorie content,' when in fact the 'only way' a consumer can reduce with bread is to eat less of it. By not informing the consumer of this 'unvarying fact,' the concern is being deceptive in its advertising, Chairman Dixon said....National licenses more than 180 bakeries to produce its trademarked bread. These licensees pay National a fee of one or more cents a loaf to defray the cost of advertising, th commission said."

---"National Bakers Barred From Saying Its Bread Has Fewer Calories," Wall Street Journal, February 14, 1963 (p. 5)

[1969]

"Everything--good and bad--happened to Eleanor Hansberry early...The young lady stopped growing upward, but began growing outward. She weighed 145 pounds and dreaded to give up that morning toast. Idly, the young lady wondered if anyone had tried to make a nonfattening loaf of bread. Or, let us say, less fattening...She [approached] Elam Health Foods [with] an idea for bread. They had expermental ovens, and they tried Eleanor's formula. It consisted of eight vegetables--parsley, celery, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, artichoke, lettuce and pumpkin. To this, she added a smidge of seaweed. 'That,' she said, 'is five percent of the loaf. The rest is flour, honey, skim milk, molasses, malt, no sugar and no shortening. Go ahead. Bake it.' She waited. And tasted. It had good flavor. The average one pound loaf of bread runs between 64 and 80 calories per slice. Eleanor's came to 46 a slice. 'One more thing,' she said. 'most loaves are cut into eighteen slices. I want mine thin sliced to 25 per loaf.'...Ironically, Eleanor Hansberry has never baked a loaf of bread. Never."

---"Jim Bishop: Reporter," Statesvulle Record & Landmark [NC], September 3, 1969 (p. 7A) [1978]

"If you care what goes into your food...Approximately 46 calories per 18 gram slice...For 40 years we have always believed that there is no substitute for quality...Eleanor R. Hansberry, President, Hollywood bread...Here's what doesn't go in it (granulated sugar & shortening)...Here's what goes in it...Hollywood Bread is a uinque blend of 8 vegetable flours, stone ground wheat, honey and molasses. Naturally good for the whole family."

---display ad, Washington Post, February 9, 1978 (p. E16) Unrelated food? Colonial American diet bread. Irish soda bread

Irish soda bread, as we know it today, surfaces in the mid-19th century, when bicarbonate of soda was first used as a leavening agent. Prior to this time, similar breads and raised cakes were made with sourdough and barm brack, yeast created by fermenting ale. About leavening agents. Traditional Irish Soda Bread comes in three varieties: white, brown and fly (with raisins or currants). The bread is cut into farls, four equal parts, to promote even baking on hot girdles.

"One of the oldest of all leavens is the sourdough method, and like many great discoveries it probably came about by accident. An old fable describes what happened. Long ago in the "stone age" when a woman made bread by the simple expedient of mixing ground corn and water together and baking the dough on hot stones or in the fire, a gound girl had just put down a loaf to bake when her lover invited her to go on a hunting trip. Off she sped, leaving the mixing bowl unwashed. When next she went to mix a cake in the bowl, a lump of sour fermented dough from the last baking was mixed in with the new dough. The result, of course, was delicious spongy bread which gained her the reputation of being the best bread-maker in Ireland, to her immense satisfaction. Even her lover had to admit that she was a better cook than his mother. Barm beer or liquid yeast obtained from beer-brewing was used from early times. Sowans (fermented juice of oat husks) was another traditional leaven, as was potato juice (potatoes grated and the juice allowed to turn sour). Bread soda, which would act not only as a leavening agent, but create the traditional soda bread, did not come into use until the first half of the 19th century. Cream of tartar and commercial baking powders continue to be used down to the present time."

---Land of Milk and Honey: The Story of Traditional Irish Food and Drink, Brid Mahon [Mercier Press:Boulder CO] 1998 (p. 73-4)

"Soda Breads. Quickly made breads, griddle cakes and scones with bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar or tartaric acid became popular in Ireland, Scotland and England well over a hundred years ago. The properties of chemical raising agents had been appreciated early in the nineteenth century, and experiments with commercially practical formulas had been successful during the 1850s, and earlier...At first, chemical mixes seem to have been used mainly to lighten home-made biscuits, girdle scones, oatcakes, and other bakestone products which had previously been made without any benefit of any aerating agen. It was only later, after they had been much advertised as yeast powder, dried yeast, yeast substitute, that housewives began to think that chemical mixtures could...replace fresh yeast in their tea cake, spice cake and bread recipes...At that period, German or compressed yeast, much like the bakers yeast we know today, was increasingly replacing the old ale yeasts and barms, as was very generally known, although incorrectly, as dried yeast...It is try that well-made Irish soda bread, baked over a peat fire and with meal ground from soft Irish wheat unblended with imported high gluten grain, is unsurpassed for flavour. The drawback with these breads, even when made in ideal conditions, is that they quickly become dry, so are only at their best when freshly baked..."

---English Bread and Yeast Cookery, Elizabeth David [Penguin:Middlesex England] 1977 (p. 517-8)

"When an article of food has become part of the national diet it is more often than not an honest-to-goodness product, and generally speaking it is well to look at the original ways of makinb before accepting whole-heartedly all the modern 'improvements.' This is true enough of soda brea, a staple Irish food. To the Irish wife the use of yeast for bread came slowly, and even now soda bread is preferred by the old country people. Four, salt, baking soda, and good buttermilk were the ingredients as I knew them long ago. The acid of the buttermilk in conjunction with baking soda was sufficient to release the ncessary carbonic acid gas to make the bread light. Nowadays in most recipes one sees that a mixture of soda and cream or tartar is called for. Buttermilk of the kind that we had then is less pelntiful or procurable now, so one must accept midifications. Even so, bread and scones made with sour milk and a modified amount of cream of tartar are better, I think, than the more modern baking-powder bread mixed with sweet mlk. To make good soda bread of a light and melting texture buttermilk or sour milk is essential. When sweet milk is used the amount of cream of tartar is generally twice that of bicarbonate of soda; if sour milk is used one may reduce the amount of cream of tartar to equal to or even less than that of bicarbonate of soda. For this type of bread no rising is called for; the moment soda bread is mixed it must be oven cooked. Only the lightest kneading, enough for shaping, is required; anything more makes the bread heavy. Three kinds of soda bread were common, white, fly, and brown, the fly variety containing currants in rather exiguous quantities. Ours, of course, was baked wither on a girdle or in the oven, but up in the hills the farmer's wife used either her girdle or her pot-oven, and the loaves or farls to be cooked on the former might be 1 1/2-2-inches thick, and were stared off on moderate heat so that they were cooked through before the browning process began. When baked and brown below the loaves were turned and finished off. What we liked best in those far-off days were the loaves of the wiefe who cooked them in her Irish pot-oven. These had a thin skin-like crust, a brownness and flavour all their own, a perfeftcion achieved by no written rules but by years of practice. The dougn was put into the heated, floured pot with room left for rising, the upturned lid was put on the few hot turfs set in it, then th pot was set in the hot ash at the side of the fire. It is a long time since I or any of my contemporaries watched this being done--we only remember it. We bake our soda bread now sometimes in the oven but preferably on a girdle, and this must be heated to the right degree. A common mistake is to get this too hot to begin with, and then the crust of the bread cooks too quickly while the inside remains uncooked. A good teast is that when flour is dusted on to the greased girdle it becomes light brown in clour in about 3 minutes. It is desirable to turn the loaves only once, baking as far as possible on one side before turning. If the girdle overheats this point may have to be disregarded. The dough is shaped with the hands into a large flat round and then with a sharp knife cut across into four; these are called farls. We still make all three varieties, using half brown and half white flour for brown loaves and 1 1/2 oz. currants per pound of flour for the fly variety."

---The Constance Spry Cookery Book, Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume [Pan Books Ltd.:London] 1956 (p. 775-776)

[NOTE: Soda Bread recipes from this book here.]

Soda bread/cake recipes



[1829]

"Irish Brade breachd.

To as much flour as will make two quartern-loaves put a half-pound of melted butter. Make the dough with fresh yeast, and when it has risen, mix in a half-pound of beat sugar, a half-pound of currants, picked, cleaned, and dried; the same quantity of stoned raisins; a few sweet almonds blanched and chopped, and some candied orange-peel sliced. Mould and bake the loaves. They may be made of any size."

---The Cook and Housewife's Manual, Mistress Margaret Dods [Mrs. Isobel Christian Johnston], facsimile 4th edition revised and enlarged 1829 [Rosters Ltd:London] 1988 (p. 454-455)

[NOTE: The word "breachd" is defined in this book as "This Irish word signifies spotted or freckled. This mottled loaf is the holiday cake of Munster."] [1862]

"476.--Soda-Cake

Ingredients.--1/4 lb. of butter, 1 lb. of flour, 1/2 lb. of currants, 1/2 lb. of moist sugar, 1 teacupful of milk, 3 eggs, 1 teaspoonful of carbonate of soda.

Mode.--Rub the butter into the flour, add the currants and sugar, and mix these ingredients well together. Whisk the eggs well, stir them to the flour &c., with the milk, in which the soda should be perviously dissolved, and beat the whole up together with a wooden spoon or beater. Divide the dough into two pieces, put them into buttered moulds or cake-tins, and bake in a moderate oven for nearly an hour. The mixture just be extremely well beaten up, and not allowed to stand after the soda is added to it, but must be placed in the oven immediately. Great care must also be taken that the cakes are quite done through, which may be ascertained by thrusting a knife into the middle of them: it the blade looks bright when withdrawn, they are done. If the tops acquire too much colour before the inside is sufficiently baked, cover them over with a pices the clean white paper, to prevent them from burning.

Time, 1 hour. Average cost, 1s. 9d. Sufficient to make 2 small cakes. Seasonable at any time."

---The Englishwoman's Cookery Book, Mrs. Isabella Beeton [Ward, Lock, and Tyler:London] 1862 (p. 208) [1875]

"Soda Bread

Mix thoroughly equal parts of tartaric acid and carbonate of soda, and put the mixture aside to be used as required. Dissolve a tea-spoonful of the powder and a pinch of salt in a breakfast-cupful of milk, and stir the liquor into apound of flour. Knead the dough till it is smooth and light, put it into a tin, and bake the loaf in a brisk oven. Sometimes sour milk or buttermilk is used instead of sweet milk, and then a smaller proportion of tartaric acid is required. Time to bake, about an hour. Probably cost, 3d. for a loaf this size." (p. 888) Bread, Soda.

Mix one tea-spponful of tartaric acid with two pounds of flour, and a tea-spoonful of sat. Dissolve a tea-spoonful of carbonate of soda in a pint of milk, and when it is free from sediment add it to the flour, and mix the whole quickly into a light dough. This quantity will make two loaves. They sould be put into a brisk oven immediately, and baked for a hour. Probably coast, 6d." (p. 79)

---Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery with Numerous Illustrations [Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co.:London] 1875

[NOTE: This book also offers a recipe for soda biscuits, soda scones and four recipes for Soda Cakes (with currants).] [1936]

"Soda Bread

3 cupfuls Wheatenmeal.

1 cupful Flour.

2 Eggs.

1/2 cupful Castor Sugar.

2 tablespoonfuls melted Butter.

1 1/2 teaspoonfuls Salt.

1 teasppnful Baking Soda.

1 pint Sour Milk.

2 teaspoonfuls Cream of Tartar.

Utensils--Two basins, egg-beater, wooden spoon, measuring spoons, cup, sieve, saucepan, loaf tin.

Beat the eggs well, then beat in the sugar and salt, and stir in the butter. Add the flour, sifted with the soda and cream of tartar, to the egg mixture, alternately with the milk. Beat in the wheatenmeal. Bake in a well-buttered loaf tin from 3/4 to 1 hour in a rather hot oven."

---Cookery Illustrated and Household Management, Elizabeth Craig [Odhams Press Limited:London] 1936 (p. 541)

[NOTES: (1) This item appears in a chapter titled "To Put on Weight, Fattening Recipes." (2) Ms. Craig does not offer temperature ranges for "rather hot" ovens. She notes a "fairly hot oven" is 350-375 degrees. "Quick oven" os 375 and "very hot oven" is 375-425 degrees. All Fahrenheit. Her cupfuls are "1 average teacupful" (p. 6-7).] [1956]

"Soda bread

This is without doubt the most delicate of soda bread, but can only be made when good rich butttermilk is available

2 lb. flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 heaped teaspoon salt

1 1/2 oz. butter or margarine

1 pint (approx.)

Sift flour, salt, and bicarbonate of soda together. Rub in the butter. Mix with buttermilk to a good soft dough. Shape rapidly on a floured board intoa large round about 2 inches thick. Cut into four. Put these quarters or farls on to a hot ungreased girdle. Cook on low steady heat about 12-15 minutes on each side. When the bread is done it will sound hollow when lightly tapped.

1. For brown and fly breads 1 dessertspoon sugar is added.

2. If the buttermilk used is not rich and good, or if it is replaced by sour milk, a small teaspoon of cream of tartar should be added to the above recipe.

3. Fat in soda bread is optional; it certainly makes the bread keep better.

4. If the loaves are to be baked they should be put in a moderate oven for approximately the same time as is taken on th girdle, 25-30 minutes.

5. If sweet milk is used for mixing, the proportions of soda and cream of tartar of two of cream of tartar to one of bicarbonate of soda, as in recipe for Brown Soda Bread. "Brown Soda bread may be made as for previous recipe, using half wholemeal, half white flour. If the bread is to be made with sweet milk the following recipe may be used:

Brown Soda Bread

1 lb. 6 oz. wholemeal flour

12 oz. white flour

2 level teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

1 1/2 pints milk or milk and water (approx.), according to the strength of the flour

4 level teaspoons cream of tartar

2 level teaspoons salt

2 level teaspoons sugar (optional) Mix and shape, divide and bake as above, but allow 30-35 minutes. This makes four good-sized farls."

---The Constance Spry Cookery Book, Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume [Pan Books Ltd.:London] 1956 (p. 776-777)

[1960s]

"Brown Soda Bread

Ingredients: 3/4 lb. wholemeal flour; 1/4 lb. white flour; 1/2 teaspoonful salt; 1/4 teaspoonful bread soda; 1/2 pt. buttermilk (a little extra if required); 2 oz. margarine.

Method: Mix all dry ingredients together, rub int he margarine. Make to a very wet dough with buttermilk or well soured milk. Knead lightly. Put in a greased 7" cake tin. Make a cross on top with a floured knife. Cover with a lid and bake in a hot oven for about half to three quarters of an hour." "Soda Bread (White)

Ingredients: 1 lb. flour; 1/2 teaspoonful bread soda; 1/2 teaspoonful salt; 1/2 pint buttermilk or sour milk.

Method: Sieve flour, salt andfinely powdered bread soda into a bowl. Mix to a loose dough with the well soured milk. Turn out on to a floured board and knead lightly until the underside is smooth. Turn the smoooth side up. Place in a well heated, greased, 8" cast iron pot. Make a cross on top with a knife. Cover with lid. Bake in a hot oven for about 40 minutes. Alternatively a baking tin may be used instead of an iron pot."

---250 Irish Recipes: Traditional and Modern, [Mounth Salus Press:Dublin] 196? (p. 101-102)

[NOTE: According to this book a "hot" oven is 425-450 degrees F. (p. 109).]

Lefse

What is Lefse?

"The quality of the flatbread depends upon what sort of flour is used. The same is true for the soft thin bread often known as lefse/levse/lafsa. It was usually baked for feasts, and rye or wheat was then preferred (from the nineteenth century, potatoes too). In some areas the soft breads are soft from the beginning,because they are fried less than the crisp ones, but in most places the lefse is made the same way as crisp bread and stored. When it is prepared for use, it is sprinkled with water to become soft. At festive occasions lefse is buttered and folded according to certain established rule, which are different from region to region. Up until the early twentieth century people baked lefse in the homes, but today a lot of small bakeries deliver the crisp kind in cartons or the soft king in plastic bags."

---Food Culture in Scandinavia, Henry Notaker [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2009 (p. 50)



Norwegian-American traditions

Lefse, like many other traditional dishes adopted of the years by American cooks with strong "0ld Country' roots Lefse has many variations. Each recipe reflects a special connection with unique family roots. Below please find general notes on Norwegian Lefse. Attached please find several recipe variations. Our research suggests potato variations are especially beloved in Minnesota. This "new world" ingredient was not known in Northern Europe until the 16th century.

"In Norway today lefse is omitted from full meals, as are all breads, except flat bread; in Minnesota, however, lefse appears regularly as a unique ethnic specialty at community dinners, bazaars, and family meals. There seems to be an infinite variety of lefse produced in the villages, valleys and regions of Norway, but in Minnesota the item is fairly predictable. Specifically referred to as 'potato lefse' in Norway, the usual Minnesota version calls for mashed potatoes, salt, shortening, and flour. The ingredients are combined while hot, then chilled, rolled into thin flat rounds, and baked on a stove top or a large griddle. The most typical lefse in Norway, especially from the western regions, is here called 'Hardanger' or "Norwegian' lefse. Three egg yolks, baking soda, and buttermilk replace the potatoes. When baked, this lefse is extremely crisp and must be softened before serving by being placed between two damp towels. Kept dry, it may be stored indefinitely; in fact, rural Norwegian bake lefse only a few times a year, storing the accumulation in an out building called a bryggehause.. The modern Norwegian American's lefse grill might be sold as a 'Heritage Grill' or a pancake griddle and is usually thought of as an all-purpose cooking surface. The 'lefse stick,' a flat two-foot by three-quarter-inch wide wand, is an indispensable utensil that the cook slips under the lefse, deftly turning it to brown on both sides. Minnesota lefse is somewhat thinner than a commercially prepared tortilla but is much larger and softer. Traditionally, the surface is a mottled brown and white, a result of uneven cooking due to variations in flour, potatoes, or other ingredients. The younger generation of Norwegian Americans, especially those who learned to cook lefse in church kitchens, are more demanding of consistency. In order to achieve and even-colored lefse and eliminate brown spots, they use commercially prepared potato flakes and rely on one brand of flour, which the community had agreed is the best. Lefse is served plain, with butter, butter and sugar, or wrapped around a filling. Many think of lefse when they want a snack and sometimes use it as a vehicle for herring, goat-milk cheese (jokingly called 'Norwegian peanut butter' because of its color, consistency, and popularity), cold mashed potatoes, sliced meatballs, or even cold lutefisk."

---The Minnesota Ethnic Food Book, Anne R. Kaplan, Marjorie A. Hoover, Willardd B Moore [Minnesota Historical Society Press:St. Paul] 1986] (p. 117-118)

[NOTE: this book does not contain a recipe for lefse.]

"Lefse is a Norwegian bread that resembles a large flour tortilla but is made with a potato dough and has a different texture and flavor than tortillas. It is rolled out with a special rolling pin, handled with a slecial wooden stick and cooked on a special griddle. making lefse is not yet a lost art. But it is dwindling...Only russet potatoes should be used for lefse...The potatoes are peeled and boiled with lots of salt. If necessary, salt also can be added later to the dough...Nothing is added to the potatoes while they are being mashed. Afterward they are mixed with butter and evaporated milk. When cool, they are mixed with flour to make a dough. Lefse is traditionally rolled out with a ridged rolling pin, which helps to get the dough thin and makes a pattern on the surface. The pins, the long wooden sticks used to transfer the lefse to the griddle and electric lefse griddles, and be found in Scandinavian stores. The large round griddles are manufactured in Minneapolis. Lefse can also be cooked on an ordinary griddle on the range, in an electric skillet or in an iron skillet. In this case, the lefse must be made smaller to fit the utensil. In rolling lefse, it is important to roll out the edges so they will be as thin as the rest of the circle. Lefse is served warm with butter and with or without sugar. The lefse is buttered, sprinkled with sugar if desired, rolled up and cut into shorter lengths for serving...Lefse can also be cut into pie-shaped wedges, buttered, sprinkled with sugar and rolled.

Lefse

5 lb. russet potatoes

Salt

1/2 lb. butter

1/2 small can evaporated milk

Flour

Additional butter

Sugar

Peel potatoes and cook in boiling salted water until tender, using twice as much salt a usual. Drain potatoes and put through a ricer, beat in a mixer or mash until no lumps remain. Mix in butter and milk while potatoes are hot. Let stand overnight at room temperature. Do not cover, but lay a clean towel over bowl at nights. In the morning, measure potatoes. Add half as much flour as potatoes and mix well with the hands as in mixing bread dough. Press dough down evenly in a 9X12-in pan and chill at least 1 hr. before using to make dough easier to roll. Take a piece of dough the size of a large egg or small hamburger patty. Pat it out on the floured pastry cloth, then roll it with a ridged lefse rolling pin into a circle as thin as possible. Transfer lefse with a lefse stick to an ungreased lefse grill, and iron griddle or an iron skillet. (Make lefse small if necessary to fit size of griddle). Cook over high heat, 450 to 500 deg. for 25 to 30 sec. on each side or until lefse is lightly flecked with brown. Pile cooked lefse on top of each other on a cloth until all are finished. Then cover with a cloth and let stand about 1 hr., turning pile over once. Separate lefse and spread out on clean towels and let stand until cool. To store lefse, fold each in quarters and place in an airtight tin in the refrigerator for two or three weeks or freeze. Lefse is served warm. Reheat on hot griddle. Spread with butter, then sprinkle with sugar, roll up and cut in lengths in pie-shaped wedges, spread with butter, sprinkle with sugar and roll. makes 25 to 30 large lefse. Note: Recipe may be reduced to make as small a quantity as desired."

---"Lefse is Catnip to Norwegians," Barbara Hansen, Los Angeles Times, June 6, 1974 (p. G2) "Lefse is a...popular Christmas Eve tradition...

2 pounds (4 large) baking potatoes, pared and quartered

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

1/4 cup half and half

1 2/14 cup sifted flour

Cook potatoes with salt in boiling water in saucepan until tender. Drain well. Rice potatoes, using a potato ricer. Cover and chill in refrigerator 8 hours or overnight. Firmly pack chilled riced potatoes into measuring cup. You will need 3 1/2 cups. Place back into bowl. Add melted butter and half and half, mixing until smooth, using large spoon. Add flour a little at a time, mixing until dough forms. Shape mixture into 12-inch roll. (Be sure to remove all air from mixture when shaping into roll.) Divide roll into 12 pieces. Roll out each piece of dough very thinly on a sell-floured pastry cloth the 12-inch circle, using stockinet-covered rolling pin. The Lefse should be very thin, about 1/16 inch thick. Carefully roll Lefse around rolling pin so it can be transferred to griddle. Bake Lefse, one at a time, on a very hot ungreased griddle or in a 12-inch skillet (475 degrees). When small brown spots appear on the underside of the Lefse, turn over, using a long metal spatula. When browned on both sides, fold into fourths, using metal spatula. Remove from griddle. Place on a dish towel (do not use terry towels). Cover with another dish towel. Bake another Lefse and place on top of the first one, placing the point of the wedge in the opposite direction. Recover with towel. Continue in this way until all the Lefse are prepared. Cool Lefse to room temperature. When cooled, wrap Lefse in plastic wrap, placing 6 in a package. The place in plastic bag to keep Lefse soft. They can be stored up to 5 days in the refrigerator. Makes 12 lefse. To serve: Lefse should be served at room temperature. Unfold lefse and cut in half. Spread with softened butter and sprinkle with brown or white sugar. Fold each half into thirds, forming pie-shaped wedges."

---"Christmas in the Country, Part VI: Maintaining Traditional Dining Rituals, Los Angeles Times, December 22, 1978 (p. OC-C8)

VIKING ERA "Two sorts of bread are mentioned in the RigsPula, the white loaves of wheat in the home of the nobleman and the heavy loaves of coarse bread in the thrall's cabin. Very little wheat was cultivated in Scandinavia, and importing it was necessary. Wheat products were very exclusive and primarily enjoyed by the elite for festive occasions, and wheat was used in the hold bread at the communion table of the churches. Neither was rye extensively cultivated, even if this grain, so well suited for bread baking, steadily increased in importance, especially in Denmark and souther Sweden, where it has dominated since c. 1500. The cultivation of rye was accompanied by new baking techniques, the use of leaven and ovens. The first and simpler ovens were made of brick, but solid stone ovens were built in palaces and manors, and also in the northern parts. From the late Middle Ages commercial bakeries and guilds of professional bakers are documented. The coarse loaves in the poem may be representative of the earliest breads. As in other parts of the world, they were simply made by shaping a flat cake of dough, made from flour or crushed grains kneaded with water or another liquid, and put in the ashes or on the embers or on a flat stone beside the fire. The process is a natural interpretation of names such as ashen bread and ember cake, words used in both Norwegian and Swedish. Early on, these breads were mainly baked from oats and barley, and they were unleavened because those two grains don't contain the necessary gluten for leaven baking. In hard times they might be unsavory and coarse in poor homes because of the substituted for grains added to the dough: husks, crushed and dried bark, and in Iceland also reindeer moss. Barley is the oldest grain in Scandinavia and dominant in the north and in the mountainous regions, while oats were introduced in more humid areas. Barley or oats were also the basic ingredient in porridge and gruel, the most common of daily dishes, and the main source of starch besides bread in the nutrition of ordinary people."

---Food Culture in Scandinavia, Henry Notaker [Greenwood Press:Westport CT] 2009 (p. 3-4)

EARLY MODERN PERIOD "Scandinavian breads were of many sorts and forms: round or oblong, thin or thick, leavened or unleavened. They were baked from many different grains. Barley and oats were common in the North, rye in the South, whereas wheat bread--in the early modern period as in the Middle Ages--was primarily eaten by the elite, at festival time, and in church rituals (holy bread)...Unleavened breads were baked on stones (slabs of rocks), griddles, or small frying pans. They had in common that they could not be kept for more than a few days. It is possible that the need for preservation was one of the motivating forces behind the very thin dry and crisp breads that could be stored for years. They are typical of northern Scandinavia...In grains had been ground on manually operated rotary querns, but in the late Middle Ages the millstones worked by steam water were introduced, and larger amounts of grain could be ground in a shorter time. But the mills depended on a good flow of water, which mainly occurred in spring and in autumn. And these two seasons were just the seasons for baking of the thin crisp bread."

---ibid (p. 16-17)

Related foods? Old World Flatbreads & New World tortillas.

Monkey bread

Culinary evidence confirms the practice of combining little balls of dough in one pan for cooking was popular in the mid-19th century. Parker House rolls are perhaps one of the best known examples. Pioneers and cowboys also favored one-pot baked goods because they adapted easily to portable Dutch ovens. Early-mid 20th century American cookbooks are full of recipes for refrigerator rolls; dough chilled overnight which could be used to make breads of many shapes and flavors. "Clover leaf" rolls with cinnamon and butter toppings were common. Modern recipes with this name date in print to 1945. Some food historians state Monkey Bread was a collaborative culinary product of ZaSu Pitts (actress & accomplihsed cook/cook book author) and Ann King (her African- American Albany Texas cook). Ms. Pitts' recipe here.

How did monkey bread get its name?

Food historians offer several theories (see below). All are interesting; none are definative.

"Monkey bread. This pull-apart yeast bread, also known as "bubble loaf," began showing up in women's magazines and community cookbooks back in the 1950s. There are two types, a savory and a sweet...The sweet is also known a bubble loaf because the dough is pinched off and rolled into balls. These are dipped in melted butter and then layered into the pan with a flavoured sugar mixture or a caramel or brown sugar glaze."

---American Century Cookbook: The Most Popular Recipes of the 20th Century, Jean Anderson [Clarkson Potter:New York] 1997 (p. 312)

"Monkey bread. A sweet yeast bread, sometimes mixed with currants, formed from balls of dough, laid next to one another, which combine during baking. The origin of the name is unknown, though it has been suggested that the bread resembles the monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria araucana), whose prickly branches make it difficult to climb. There is also a fruit called "monkey bread," from the baobab tree...of Africa, but there is not evidence of any connection between it and baked bread. It is probably that the name comes from the appearance of the baked itself, which resembles a bunch on monkeys jumbled together."

---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 208)

[NOTE: According to the Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition) the term "monkey-bread," meaning the fruit of the baobab tree, dates in print to 1789.]

"Since monkeys are known for gleefully pulling at, well, everything, it makes sense that an audience-participation loaf should be called monkey bread. Formed of balls of dough and baked in a ring mold, monkey bread emerges as golden puffs that are irresistible to both hand and eye. The idea is that you pick it apart like a bunch of . . . that it's more fun than a barrel of. . . . You get the idea. (The actual cucumber-shaped fruit of the baobab tree that goes by the same name isn't much good to anyone except its namesake -- unless you're in the market for a float to hold up your fishing nets.) With a kind of simian stealth, monkey bread has entered American cuisine, not through high-end restaurants but via the food pages of newspapers across the country and Internet chat rooms. Cindy Crawford prepared her family's version on "Good Morning America" just in time for Christmas 1999, and even in this carb-abhoring age when Dr. Atkins rules supreme, it was one of the two most requested recipes of 2002 from the Chicago Sun-Times Swap Shop column. Variations range from those heavily sweetened with pecans and cinnamon, a virtual coffee cake, to ones with blueberries, butterscotch and even Parmesan cheese, garlic and herbs. But we're not exactly talking haute cuisine. Way too many versions use frozen biscuit dough, and many encourage the participation of children in the cooking as well as the eating. But while no four-star chef seems to have proclaimed his devotion to monkey bread, there is one exemplar of high style and taste who has happily attached her name to this confection. Nancy Reagan served monkey bread in the White House, especially during the holidays, and her recipe was printed in the American Cancer Society Cookbook, published in 1985. Not surprisingly, her version is monkey bread at its purest and most elegant: buttery and yeasty, as much brioche as bread."

---"Just Say Dough," Michael Boodro, The New York Times, February 23, 2003 (Section 6; Page 64)

[NOTE: Reagan-era Monkey Bread recipe.]

"The origin of the name "monkey bread" is anyone's guess. One reader wrote that the name is derived from the amount of "monkeying around" needed to prepare the balls of dough. Another theory comes from the notion of pulling apart the sections of cake and playing with your food in monkey-like fashion."

---"Pull for perfection; Irresistible monkey bread is worth the extra fuss," Jim Frost, Chicago Sun-Times, July 16, 1997, (Pg. 2; NP)

Vintage Monkey Bread recipes

Related recipe? Clover leaf rolls.

National Loaf (UK)

[1895]

"Can nothing practical be done to help the cultivation of wheat in England? Of all the national industries which have been brought to ruin by cheap production and carriage over seas, the case of wheat is the strangest...Good English wheat is superior in certain definite respects to all other kinds; bread made from it possesses qualities which not bread made from foreign-grown wheat can rival. Morever, many consumers are quite aware of this, and would gladly get the native article if they could; but they are helpless in the hands of the trade, which has been drifting for a long time into the way of using more and more foreign flour...We can never grow enough wheat in this country to furnish ore than a fraction of our bread supply; why should not the well-to-do public have the option of of purchasing that fraction at a somewhat higher price than the inferior foreign stuff? It would cost the no more than they already pay for a great deal of their bread and they would get value for their money. The point is that at present the public has no choice in the matter. It buys bread just as bread, without distinguishing or having the opportunity of distinguishing, between the materials of which it is made. Comparatively few bakers even know or are what flour they are using or where it comes from. But give consumers the option of buying a standard 'national' loaf containing a guaranteed amount of English wheat, and there can be o doubt that they will readily by it at a price which would make wheat-growing remunerative to the British farmer. At any rate, the experiment is worth making and it can be done without cost or difficulty by a little organization. Let us go somewhat more into detail to make the idea clearer. The qualities in which bread made from English wheat is superior are the following: (1) It has more flavour, (2) it keeps fresh longer, (3) it is more satisfying...there is no reason why this movement should not be checked and English wheat be put on its legs again by voluntary effort, without violating any principles of supply and demand. An ordinary West-end price of best bread at present is 6d, the quartern. At this price millers profit, while paying the farme 30 s. a quarrter. Give the public the chance of buying such a loaf, guaranteed to be of a standard quality and quite a sufficient number will avail themselves of it to appreciably increase the demand for English wheat, not merely from patriotic motives but because they will get a better article."

---"The National Loaf, a suggestion," St. James's Gazette, [London], September 4, 1895 (p. 4)

“Commenting on the proposal put forward in these columns for the formation of a National Loaf League, the object being to produce and vend a loaf which shall contain 50 or 75 per cent of British –grown flour, the Manchester City News says:--There is nothing to be said against the suggestion; but everything in its favour. The buyer of the national Loaf would pay more for it, but he would undoubtedly get a more substantial and satisfying food. There is already much irregularity in prices of bread retailed; prices ranging from fourpence to fivepence-half penny the four pounds for the same alleged quality of bread. No doubt a flour-pound loaf made of English wheat should be sold retail at sixpence, and leave the farmer thirty shillings a quarter for his wheat. The St. James Gazette makes an appeal to the well-to-do classes to support the proposed League and go in for a national loaf on something like philanthropic and patriotic principles…There is little doubt that there would be an immediate demand for it so long as customers could be sure of getting the genuine article. All that is required is for some reliable bread-baker to produce the article and guarantee for its purity.”

---”A National Loaf,” St. James Gazette, October 1, 1895 (p. 10)

[1941]

"The much proclaimed 'National Loaf' of bread will soon make its appearance in Britain, the food ministry disclosed today. It will be made from 85 per cent whole wheat flour, which is said to be more digestible than the bread of 100 per cent whole wheat. Arrangements have been made with millers and bakers for immediate production of whole wheat flour and bread in quantities sufficient to meet all demands. The loaf will be standardized. The much heralded 'fortified white loaf,' to which vitamin B1 and calcium would be added, will not be available for a few months, the food ministry said. Some food experts complained that the vitaminized bread would be a snare and a delusion if the public relieved in its advertised health properties."

---"Britain to Bake War Bread for All Its People," Larry Rue, Chicago Daily Tribune, February 5, 1941 (p. 7)

[1943]

"London...The recipe for war time natioan bread was given out for the first time today. William Mabane, parliamentary secretary for the food ministry told the house of commons that, apart from wheat, salt, and 'varioius improvers recognized as adjuncts of bread bakinng,' the permitted ingredients are 'wheat flour or 85 per cent extraction, imported white flour, oats products, barley, rye, milk powder, and calcium.' Bakers also may see a proportion of potatoes and potato flour. The composition of the national bread is not standardized throughout the country, Mabane said, but the proportion of silutants, 'altho it may vary slightly in different areas, does not generally exceed 5 per cent.' The British Hotels and Restaurants association today advised its memebers to serve bread only in small pieces, and rolls of not more than one-half ounce weight; not to place butter on the table because it 'encourages consumption of bred,' and to serve large portions of potatoes and other vegetables."

---"Commons Get First Glimpse of Wartime Bread," Larry Rue, Chicago Daily Tribune, January 23, 1943 (p. 2)

[1953]

"In a White Paper, the Churchill government has ordered one of the biggest ever bonfires of red tape and buff forms and pink bureaucratic paraphernalia. The plan is for the decontrol of bread and the ending of animal feeding stuffs rationing and price control. One of the results is that Britain will have a white loaf which is really white for the first time for 12 years...the Churchill government has felt it wise to compromise lest there should be too violent an outcry and too big a rush of new wage claims to meet higher food costs. It has been decided...to continue the subsidized one and three-quarter pound national loaf at sevenpence halfpenny (eight sents). Bakers will be obliged to supply this loaf. Its price will be kept down by subsidy. But there will be an alternative, unsubsidized, really white loaf at about tenpence. What is more, it will be a better white loaf tha the prewar white loaf because it will have put back into it all the vitamins and nutritious what-nots which are taken out to make it white and which in the old days were not put back in again."

---"White Bread on Menu for Britons Again," Peter Lyne, Christain Science Monitor, January 22, 1953 (p. 5)

Scholary economic analysis of this bread may be found in Food and Agriculture in Britain, 1939-1945, R.J. Hammond, Food Research Institute [Stanford University Press:Stanford CA] 1954 (p. 180-183)

Parker House rolls

"Parker House rolls originated during the 1870s at Boston's Parker House Hotel, which opened in 1856. They are made by folding a butter-brushed round of dough in half; when baked, the roll has a pleasing abundance of crusty surface. Recipes for Parker House rolls first appeared in cookbooks during the 1880s."

---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 117)

"Parker House roll. A puffy yeast roll with a creased center, created at the Parker House Hotel in Boston soon after its opening in 1855 by the kitchen's German baker, whose name was Ward. One story holds that Ward, in a fit of pique over a guest's belligerence, merely threw some unfinished rolls into the oven and came up with the little bun that made his employer, Harvery Parker, famous. Such light, puffy rolls, sometimes called "pocketbook rolls" because of their purselike appearance, were a novelty in their day and became a standard item in American dining rooms and tables."

---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999 (p. 231)

"The Parker House is one of Boston's oldest and most distinguished hotels. These rolls (which helped in their little way to make the hotel renowned) became popular throughout New England and were generally called pocketbook rolls. The story of their origin goes back to the days of Harvey Parker, the Maine coachman who founded the hotel. One of Mr. Parker's first guests was a lady from London who misplaced her diamonds. "The chambermaid," she cried, "has stolen my diamonds!" And she went screaming through the hotel, clear down to the kitchen. The pastry cook, who was in love with the chambermaid, heard the commotion and was so angry he picked up pieces of dough in his fists and slammed them into the oven. When the rolls were baked--there was no time to make fresh ones, so they were served as they were (dented in the middle)--everyone said they were delicious. The outside was crisp and the inside was soft. Meantime the lady had found her diamonds. But from that day to this, Parker House rolls have been dented in the middle."

---New England Cookbook, Eleanor Early [Random House:New York] 1954 (p. 19)

"Before the Second World War, Parker House rolls were probably the choicest and best-known breads in American households."

---Craig Claiborne's The New York Times Food Encyclopedia, compiled by Joan Whitman [Times Books:New York] 1985 (p. 316)

The oldest print reference we find for Parker House rolls is this from 1873 (no recipe):

"Parker house rolls! Who is up to that, I wonder?" The blond beauty of the club acknowleged the rolls..."

---"Amateur Cookery: The Newest Notion of the Pretty Girls of Boston," Atlanta Constitution, September 18, 1873 (p. 2)

Recipes were published in cookbooks & newspapers



[1874]

Parker House Rolls.--One quart of cold boiled milk, two quarts of flour. Make a hole in the middle of the flour, take one half cup of yeast, one half cup of sugar, add the milk, and pour into the flour, with a little salt; let it stand as it is until morning, then knead hard, and let it rise. Knead again at four o'clock in the afternoon, cut out ready to bake, and let them rise again. Bake twenty minutes.--Mass. Ploughman."

---"Parker House Rolls," New Hampshire Sentinel, April 9, 1874 (p. 1) [1883]

"Parker House Rolls

At about 9 o'clock at night take 4 lbs. of flour, rub in three oz. lard; make a hole in the flour and add one pint of cold milk, one gill of yeast, three oz. sugar, two yolks of eggs and a little salt, say one oz.; let it stand till morning; them mix and let stand till noon; then roll out and cut into rolls; let them get light and bake in hot oven."

---Secrets of the Bakers and Confectioners' Trade, J. D. Hounihan [self published: Staunton VA] 1883(p. 72)

[NOTE: This professional industry text offers three recipes titled "Parker House Rolls." Happy to share the others if you would like to compare.] [1884]

Parker House Rolls

The Boston Cooking School Cook Book, Mrs. D. A. Lincoln

[NOTE: This cookbook offers a separate recipe for pocketbook rolls (at the very bottom of the page), indicating these two items were not exactly the same.]

Parthian bread