Annotation: Reconstruction of the Historical Recipe on fol. 20r “For Making Millas”
Giulia Chiostrini & Jef Palframan
Transcription [from tc_p020r, 30 march 2015]
<title id=“p020r_a1”>Pour faire les millas</title>
<ab id=“p020r_b1a”>Il fault faire fraiser du millet po{ur} en tirer la croutte Et puis le<lb/>
netoyeres bien apres Il fault le remouldre bien delie Et le passer par<lb/>
ung cedar bien delie ce faict Il fault detremper la farine avec du<lb/>
beurre frais fondu et du laict Et quil y ait aultant dung comme dautre<lb/>
de maniere quil soit fort clair comme pate po{ur} faire bignetz Et y<lb/>
mettres des Jaulnes doeuf selon la quantite de la farine de sorte<lb/>
quil revienne deux Jaulnes deouf po{ur} chaique millas puis y mettres<lb/>
du safran si vous voules po{ur} leur donner ung peu de couleur</ab>
<ab id=“p020r_b1b”>Il fault apres avoir des moulles Et fault quil soient de terre<lb/>
de la facon dung fond de chappeau a la catholicque mais Il<lb/>
fault quil soit ouvert par les deux boutz Et puis ayant faict<lb/>
bon feu vous nettoyeres la place du fouyé ou vous voules<lb/>
mettre voz millas Et puis vous prandres voz moulles et les gresseres<lb/>
bien fort affin que la pate ne se tienne pas quant elle sera cuitte<lb/>
ayant faict cela vous mettres voz d{ictz} moules sur la place du fouye<lb/>
bien nettoyee Et mettres ung peu de farine au fondz Et les<lb/>
emplires de la pate cy dessus dicte apres vous couvrires les<lb/>
dictz moules dung couvercle qui sera faict comme le moulle mais<lb/>
Il fault quil soit plus grand Et quil ne soit pas ouvert<lb/>
par dessus puis ayant faict cela vous mettres ung peu de foin<lb/>
sur le{dict} couvercle Et force rachaulx Et y feres bon feu<lb/>
tout au tour de charbon cela faict vous en descouvrires<lb/>
ung de la a peu de temps Et verres quant Il sera cuit Il<lb/>
faudra quil soit dur</ab>
Translation [from tl_p020r, 30 March 2015] and suggested changes:
<title id=”p020r_a1”>For making millas</title>
<ab id=“p020r_b1a”>You must have some millet soaked in order to remove the chaff and then clean it well. Next you must grind it again quite finely and pass through a cloth sieve. One must
soak the flour with fresh melted butter and some milk so that it is very light, like the pastry to make beignets, and add egg yolk depending on the amount of flour, so that there are two egg yolks for each millas. Then you will put in some saffron if you want to give them a little colour.</ab>
<ab id=“p020r_b1b”>Afterwards you must have some molds, which must be made from terra[cotta], in the shape of a bottom of the catholic hat [see note on the translation, below] but it must be open at both ends. And then, having made a good fire, clean where you want to put your millas and then take your molds and grease them very well so that the pastry does not stick to them when baked. Once you have done that, put your molds in a place in the oven where you clean and sprinkle a bit of flour on the bottom and fill them with some of the aforementioned pastry. Then you will cover the said molds, with a lid made like the mold, but it must be bigger and not open at the top. Then once done, you will put some straw on the said lid and a lot of hot charcoal, and set a fire around it, once done, you will […] one from it after a bit of time and will see when it is baked, it will be hard.</ab>
Note on the translation:
This entry corrects the previous translation of fol. 20r, which read fond (bottom) as fons (furnace). Careful analysis of the original French writing shows that the swash on the top of the d of the following word (de) is also functioning as the swash for the final d of fond.[Fig.1_original French text.jpg]
Annotation: Reconstruction of the Historical Recipe on fol. 20r “For Making Millas”
Giulia Chiostrini & Jef Palframan
Introduction
The sixteenth-century recipe “For Making Millas” (Bnf Ms. Fr. 640, fol. 20r) describes how to bake millas, a type of millet bread, in an oven using terracotta molds. The purpose of this historical recipe reconstruction is to investigate the original identity of the dish millas in relation to the background of the anonymous author of the recipe. This annotation will analyze the recipe text alongside relevant contemporary and modern sources.
The Text and Interpretation of the Recipe
This recipe is clearly structured in two paragraphs titled “For Making Millas.” In the first paragraph, the author lists the required ingredients and describes how these must be prepared before baking. In the second paragraph, the technology needed for the actual baking process is discussed, including a specific type of terracotta baking mold.
The recipe’s primary ingredient is millet grain. The baker is instructed to “soak [it] from the chaff and then clean it well.” Millet is widely grown in warm countries and regions with poor soil, and its seeds can be ground to produce coarse flour.1 This coarseness is the reason the author directs cooks to “soak the flour with fresh melted butter and some milk so that it is very light, like the pastry to make beignet.” This reference to beignet pastry would no doubt be a helpful comparative reference for a contemporary reader or baker, signaling to them when the millas flour was ready for use. For modern readers, further research is needed to understand the allusion, as this type of pastry has changed in preparation since the 1600s.
Beignet pastry does not appear in the most obvious contemporary source, Francois Pierre de La Varenne’s 1653 The French Pastry Cook.2 However, a modern Italian source online describes how to cook beignet pastry using an oven rather than a deep fryer (as is the general modern practice).3 This corresponds to the culinary technology used in the historic recipe. The modern beignet recipe thus helps interpret the unexpressed knowledge the recipe writer assumes a reader will have relating to the proportions of flour, milk, and melted butter. For example, the author specifies “two egg yolks [are needed] for each millas,” from which the reader is supposed to deduce the amount of flour needed. Similarly, saffron is suggested as a colorant, but the amount used or depth of dye achieved is not specified. The reader is assumed to know what the pastry looks and feels like before baking.
In the second paragraph the author provides more detailed instructions about the material and shape of the baking mold required. This indicates that readers were expected to know more about the type of cake being made than the specific shape and baking methodology used in this recipe. It calls for “terracotta molds in the shape of a bottom of the catholic hat, but it must be open at both ends.” This odd terminology requires some consideration. Excluding symbolic or slang meanings, it most likely refers to the shape of certain sixteenth-century hats fashionable among Catholic priests. Among these, we can identify the zucchetto, the biretta, and the Camauro. It is most probable that the author is referencing the last hat in the list.4[Fig.2_Camauro hat.jpg] The small, hemispherical shape of the zucchetto could not contain enough dough if “opened on both sides.” The square, horned biretta hat would make a creative shape for a baking mold, but the author explicitly says to use a mold opened on both ends, which implies cutting off the horns. A terracotta version of a camauro hat, though, would produce a practical cylindrical shape, tall enough to contain a certain amount of material and with a large base or “bottom” (the internal area in contact with the head during wear) which could easily be filled “with some of the aforementioned pastry” after being opened on both sides.5 In addition, since the fifteenth century the Camauro hat was exclusively worn by popes, making it “the Catholic hat” most easily recognized at all levels of society.[Fig.3_drawing of our mold shape interpretation.jpg]
The baker is directed to keep the mold open on both sides, indicating the dough was poured inside the cylindrical mold and it was placed directly on the flour-sprinkled oven surface. The author also provides a detailed description of the lid used to cover each mold. In the same shape as the mold, but larger and closed on the top, the lid allowed the baker to place “some straw and a lot of hot charcoal” on the mold, while the fire was set around it.
Although this analysis of the recipe text and terminology helps to visualize the appearance of the final baked millas and clarifies that its finished consistency was probably hard, it is still not clear what millas actually is. Millet was historically an ingredient used in savory dishes. In southern France, as well as in Italy, locally available millet or barley was cooked with milk by peasants and used to make polenta or bread until maize was introduced to Europe in the sixteenth-century.6 Consumption of the new grain spread rapidly, especially in southern Europe, and as it replaced millet and barley, maize polenta became a dish consumed by different social classes.7
Some use of millet continued, especially since some physicians preferred that people stick to familiar foods.8 That might explain why in this recipe millet grain is used even though the author was probably aware of maize grain as a possible substitute.9 It was certainly still being used in similar recipes. Broader research among contemporary sources has identified the presence of millet grain or “panico” in the recipe “Per Far la Minestra di Miglio e Panico Infranto” from Bartolommeo Scappi’s Opera (1570).10 In this recipe, millet is presented as a good grain with a stronger taste than wheat.
The replacement of millet with maize was also linguistic. In many Southern European dialects, the word used for the new grain was simply a variation of “millet.” For example, in the Occitan dialect spoken in Toulouse (where the author of the recipe under discussion probably came from) “maize” was called “millette.”11 This raises the possibility that the author is actually referring to maize, not millet, in this recipe. However, in the original French text the author clearly calls for “millet” not “millette.” While the words are similar and confusion is possible, millet rather than maize still seems the most likely ingredient. This is reinforced by a modern French dessert made with maize flour, “millas, gateau du Sud-Ouest.”12 According to the modern commentary on this recipe, this dessert was made with locally available millet flour and water in the sixteenth century. Today, it can be served as a savory dish instead of a dessert if salt instead of sugar is used as a seasoning. The consistency and taste of this dish are similar to Italian maize polenta.
Experiments
After studying this recipe, we decided to experiment with three versions: one using only the ingredients directly mentioned by the author, and two adding salt or sugar. The addition of either of these last two ingredients might have been assumed by contemporary cooks. Salt in particular might be unnamed, as in the sixteenth-century it was consumed by all classes. Sugar is less likely to remain a “silent” ingredient, as it (like saffron) was still enough of a luxury to deserve specific mention.13 However, we were curious to experiment with the information provided in the modern recipe mentioned above, and to explore the origins of this French millet flour dessert in a sixteenth-century Southern French culinary tradition.
In all our experiments we used the following basic ingredients and instructions, combining the information given by the author with those collected from the modern recipe related to pastry for beignet: take 3 cups of flour from ground millet grain, 2 egg yolks, 3 tablespoons of melted butter, 1 cup of milk, a large pinch of saffron, and enough pork lard or butter to grease the molds. Pour the flour into a medium bowl and mix it with the egg yolks and the milk. Melt the butter on a low fire and pour it into the center of the flour mixture. Stir the ingredients until the dough softens. Add a little saffron to give color to the dough. Grease 3 molds generously. Place 2 tablespoons of dough into each of the molds and cover with a lid. Place in a preheated 350° F oven for 30 to 40 minutes, until the dough is golden brown.
Apart from our molds (of which more in a moment) we used the same basic cooking equipment for all three experiments. It was clear from our first reading of the recipe text that we could not use the straw and charcoal it specifies inside our oven due to safety considerations, immediately affecting part of the authenticity of the results.14 Other equipment was easier to incorporate. A traditional ceramic mortar and pestle was used to grind the millet grain. [Fig.4_grinding process.jpg]
For each version of the reconstruction, the physical challenge of breaking a large amount of the tiny seeds was surprisingly tiring. The ground seeds had to be very fine in order to pass through a cloth sieve as described in the text. Several layers of cotton cheesecloth were used to extract the finest flour from the ground seeds. This first step of the process required focused, time-consuming labor, and the flour thus obtained was still characteristically coarse and heavy. [Fig.5_millet flour.jpg] This step of our recipe reconstruction raised a historical question about the average sixteenth-century French peasant’s use and consumption of grain.
A few types of mortar are listed among the cooking utensils at the beginning of Scappi’s Opera, while just one single mortar is included in the kitchen equipment owned by a fifteenth-century French peasant and listed by Le Roy Ladurie.15 Mortars could be used to grind grains as well as spices, but none of the sophisticated Scappi’s recipes include instructions related to grain grinding, while in the recipe under discussion the author explicitly says to clean the millet grain from its chaff and grind it very finely. Therefore, we assume that “For Making Millas” has its origins in a rural environment, where the population consumed and produced its own product.16 According to Le Roy Ladurie, in sixteenth-century rural France the quantity of grain produced annually for sale was very low. Most of the grain collected during the seasonal harvest was stored in bins by local farmers and consumed within the family. It is even more interesting to note that in the early seventeenth-century, when maize became profitable in the markets of the Toulouse region, French peasants were still keeping millet grain exclusively for their own consumption while simultaneously producing maize for sale.17
These historical considerations provide us a clue about the rural, poor context within which millas were most likely baked and consumed. From this perspective, our experiment with adding expensive, luxurious sugar seemed less valid. However, as shown later in this annotation, the third, sweet version of our baked millas actually helped us better understand the phenomenal success of maize in the early seventeenth-century grain market.
Our most puzzling challenge in executing the author’s recipe was reproducing the terracotta molds and their lids. Initially we attempted to purchase a suitable terracotta item, but it was impossible to find an appropriately shaped piece. We therefore decided to buy commercial clay and make our own molds, focusing on the reconstruction of the original shape according to our interpretation of the author’s description.18
For our first experiment, we made three different molds to test our ability in modeling the clay. We made one mold in the shape of a Camauro hat opened on both sides, foregoing a lid because we did not yet clearly understand the text concerning it.19 A second mold was formed in the shape of a small plate with a round lid. A third mold was made in the shape of a flower with large open petals. This mold was also baked without a lid.[Fig.6_the three terracotta molds.jpg] In this experiment, the proportion of ingredients used led to a “light” dough that was probably still too dense for our purposes. Once the molds were well greased with butter and filled with dough, we put them in the oven. During the baking process, all three versions produced a pleasant and appealing smell.
Our first millas tasted good at first bite, but a bitter aftertaste soon changed our perception of it. We assumed that the bitter taste was caused by our not soaking the grain before grinding it.[Fig.7_first baked millas.jpg] According to the recipe, “you must have some millet soaked in order to remove the chaff…” We did not pay attention to this instruction initially because we thought it was solely intended to clean the chaff from the grain, a step not needed because of modern harvesting methods. After some further research, we discovered that according to modern nutritional literature soaking millet grain is an important step. It reduces the unpleasant taste of millet grain, removes phytic acid, and makes it easier to digest.20 Apparently this practice was known in the early modern period, too. In Scappi’s treatise, for example, most of the recipes that involve the use of any kind of grain begin by instructing the reader to soak it in water for “ten hours” before mixing in other ingredients.21 Reflecting this, in our last two experiments, we soaked the millet grains overnight in a large bowl of water, with enough liquid to completely cover the grains. Though the bitter aftertaste was diminished, it did not really disappear from our baked millas, suggesting one possible reason why in the sixteenth-century maize swiftly replaced millet in making certain dishes.
Adapting the instructions in the modern French recipe “millas, gateau du Sud-Ouest,” we made our next two batches of pastry with less millet flour but with a large amount of boiled milk: three cups added to the three tablespoons of melted butter and two cups of ground millet flour. We added ¼ of a cup of salt to the second trial and ¼ of a cup of sugar to the third. The two egg yolks were added to the dough once it cooled down, before pouring it into the mold and baking it as described above in our basic methodology. In both cases, the consistency of the pastry was creamier than that of our first experiment.
We decided to use only one of the molds previously made. Further reading and better understanding of the recipe text supported our choice of the mold in the shape of “a bottom of the catholic hat” (presumably a Camauro), while a larger lid made of the same red clay and closed on the top was constructed and used. [Fig.9_final mold reconstruction.jpg] We sprinkled flour on the surface of the oven tray, and placed on it the mold previously greased with butter and opened on both sides. We poured a small amount of pastry into the mold and used the lid to cover it. After baking, both salty and sweet millas came out of the oven golden brown. [Fig.10_the last two baked millas.jpg] The pastry became hard after “a bit of time” as suggested by the author at the end of the recipe. Although over the course of our experiments we doubled the amount of saffron used from one single small bag or pinch, no significant changes were noticed in dough color. Further trials should be done in order to establish the right amount of saffron required.
The taste of the salty millas suggested the common dish polenta, while the sweet version of the same pastry had no flavor after the light perception of sugar on the first bite, suggesting that the original millas was intended to be savory. Moreover, the addition of the salt to the millas dough did not really affect its flavor when compared to that baked strictly according to the author’s expressed instructions. Therefore, the result of our experiments shows that this written text from fol. 20r is, despite its simple appearance, probably a complete and “authentic” millas recipe reflecting a dish of a peculiar bitter taste.
Conclusions
In addition to our experiments, we also focused on the location of “For Making Millas” within the manuscript’s context, considering that there are no other recipes in Bnf Ms. Fr. 640 concerning millet grain or millas.22 On fol. 19r, an entry entitled “Enemas” precedes the culinary recipe under discussion, while an entry titled “Glazier” follows it. These three different recipes from three different fields (medical, culinary, and technical) are presented together, reflecting the manuscript’s sometimes seemingly random ordering of various unconnected recipes. In these three recipes, differences observed among the formulas of the three recipe texts reveal something of the author’s “identity” as a practitioner or as a simple observer of the practices he describes.
The “Enemas” recipe (fol. 19r) is described from the perspective of an observer, using “they” to refer to the people actually executing this medical technique, though the author also comments that “it is true that it gives some wind always at the end,” suggesting he tried the technique out himself. In the “Glazier” recipe, the author is not only knowledgeable about this craft technique, but seemingly is also a practitioner, for he uses specific adjectives to describe different types of glass that would not be known to a casual observer, as in: “Glass from Lorraine is smoother and more even than plate glass.”
In the case of “For Making Millas” the author follows a formula common to contemporary culinary recipes.23 As was normal at the time, the recipe does not provide any quantitative measurements for its ingredients, but does give clear instructions on technique in an imperative style and concludes with information about the desired consistency of the baked millas.24 The author was not employed as a cook, but was obviously familiar with explaining how to perform an unknown task and had probably personally eaten the end results of this one.25 The author probably also had a tacit personal connection with millas via the culinary tradition of his apparent location in southern France. This is evident through the few instructions that imply a personal relation with the recipe and assume his readers will come from a similar cultural context.26 For instance, he assumes they will understand references to molds shaped like a bottom of the Catholic hat and the consistency of beignet pastry.
In conclusion, our experiments and research gave us the unique opportunity to sensorily and “intellectually” taste millas. Although further study is required for a better understanding of the original identity of this dish within its traditional culinary context of southern France, our initial linguistic and practical analysis of the recipe text functions as a key to understanding the author’s background, contributing to a better comprehension of the whole manuscript within its historical and cultural contexts.
References
Alonso-Almeida, F. “Genre Conventions in English recipes, 1600–1800.” In Reading and Writing Recipe Books, 1550 – 1800, edited by M. Dimeo and S. Pennell, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013.
Albala, K. Eating Right in The Renaissance. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
Ayto, J. The Diner’s Dictionary. England: Oxford University Press, published online, 2013.
Beck, E. “Ecclesiastic Dress in Art Article VI (Conclusion).” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, vol. 8, no. 34 (January, 1906): 271–281.
Mason, L. Food Culture in Great Britain. USA: Greenwood Publishing, 2004.
Ladurie, E. Le Roy. The French Peasantry 1450–1660. Translated by A. Sheridan. England: Scholar Press, 1987.
Scappi, Bartolommeo. Opera. Venice: Michele Tramezzino, 1570.
Turner, W. A New Herbal. Cologne, 1568.
Willan, A., Cherniavsky, M., and Clafin, K. The Cookbook Library: Four Centuries of the Cooks, Writers, and Recipes that Made the Modern Cookbook. Berkeley: University of California, 2012.
Online References
“millet, n.1”. OED Online. March 2015. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/118524?isAdvanced=false&result=1&rskey=9VZi6Q& (accessed April 16, 2015).
http://gourmandisesansfrontieres.fr/2012/06/la-recette-du-millas-gateau-du-sud-ouest/
(accessed April 16, 2015)
http://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Pasta-per-choux.html
(accessed April 16, 2015)
http://pamelasalzman.com/soak-grains/
(accessed May 5, 2015)
1 See John Ayto, The Diner’s Dictionary, Word Origins of Food and Drink (England: Oxford University Press, published online, 2013).
2 François Pierre La Varenne, Le Cuisinier françois (Paris: P. David, 1651).
3 http://ricette.giallozafferano.it/Pasta-per-choux.html (accessed April 16, 2015)
4 For a description of sixteenth-century ecclesiastical dress, see Egerton Beck, “Ecclesiastic Dress in Art,” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, vol. 8, no. 34 (January 1906): 271–281.
5 “The bottom of a hat” is still a colloquial expression in French and Italian, and retains this meaning.
6 Other culinary and medicinal recipes that include food from Bnf Ms. Fr. 640 include: 40r, 71r, 16v, 50r, 98v, 7v, 20v, 37r, 47r, 77r, and 84r.
7 Ken Albala, Eating Right in The Renaissance (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002) 198.
8 Not all physicians agreed. In his 1568 New Herbal, for example, the famous English physician and natural historian William Turner describes bread made of millet flour as less of a “nourisher” than that made from other grains. William Turner, A New Herbal (Cologne, 1568) 57.
9 Albala, Eating Right, 217–240.
10 See Bartolommeo Scappi, Opera (Venice: Michele Tramezzino, 1570), Book II, 73. Millet grain or millas is not mentioned in other contemporary sources.
11 Albala, Eating Right, 234.
12 http://gourmandisesansfrontieres.fr/2012/06/la-recette-du-millas-gateau-du-sud-ouest/ (accessed April 16, 2015)
13 See the discussion of rural salt consumption in Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, The French Peasantry 1450–1660, trans. A. Sheridan (England: Scholar Press, 1987) 106.
14 According to Laura Mason’s Food Culture in Great Britain (USA: Greenwood Publishing, 2004), sixteenth-century ovens were built of stone or brick. Wood or furze was fired inside and allowed to burn away, heating the whole structure. The ashes were removed and the oven floor swabbed before use. This kind of large brick oven was built into even modest houses.
15 Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, The French Peasantry, 90.
16 See discussion of consumption and production of food in rural Renaissance France in Le Roy Ladurie, The French Peasantry, 106.
17 Le Roy Ladurie, The French Peasantry, 201.
18 The red terracotta clay we bought could be fired in the oven or allowed to self-dry. We decided to fire it in the oven to test its strength and be sure we could bake dough inside it for at least thirty minutes.
19 Our first attempt in reconstructing a mold in the shape of “a bottom” of the Camauro hat was not a good representation of our understanding of it. Further thinking was required to express our interpretation of the Camauro mold via the the clay model, as shown in our final reconstruction (see below).
20 http://pamelasalzman.com/soak-grains/ (accessed May 5, 2015)
21 For example, in the recipe “Per far minestra di formentone e orzo mondo”, Scappi says: “stare nell’acqua tiepida per dieci ore mutando l’acqua alcune volte…” Scappi, Opera, Book II, 72
22 Although in a short text from fol. 84r the author says that flour “ground during Alvast time flour lasts the whole year,” there is no particular connection to the recipe under examination here.
23 Francisco Alonso-Almeida, “Genre Conventions in English recipes, 1600–1800,” in Reading and Writing Recipe Books, 1550–1800, ed. Michelle Dimeo and Sara Pennell (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013), 68-92.
24 Most cookbook authors did not start to list the amounts of ingredients needed in recipes until the nineteenth century. Anne Willan, Mark Cherniavsky, and Kyri Clafin, The Cookbook Library: Four Centuries of the Cooks, Writers, and Recipes that Made the Modern Cookbook (Berkeley: University of California, 2012).
25 The only extraneous suggestion provided by the author concerns the use of saffron. The conditional sentence “put in some saffron if you want to give them a little color” is actually a formula repeated in different languages in numerous contemporary culinary recipes. For example, in Scappi’s Opera, exactly the same sentence (in Italian) is used in many savory or dessert recipes: si potrebbe dare il colore con. un poco di zafferano. The whole recipe for millas might have been copied by the author from such a contemporary source. See Per fare un brodo di pollo di gran sostanza ridotto in gelo, in Scappi, Opera, Book VI, 394
26 The text of fol. 20r was analysed during the summer 2014 palaeography workshop. Participants identified a different hand in this writing (see clues-composition in Google Drive). However, this initial observation can be interpreted in two different ways. Another hand may have added this recipe text, or the author may have confidently “copied” the formula of this recipe from another contemporary source. In either case the origins of millas in the southern French culinary tradition implies a personal/cultural connection with the author, confirming the nature of his manuscript as an expression of his identity as an author-practitioner within his cultural and historical context.