Class Activity: Making and Molding Bread

Objectives

  • explore historical breadmaking recipes and techniques

  • learn to bake bread

  • produce loaves of bread to use as molds

This activity has two parts

  • Part 1 (at home before class): learn to bake bread and produce loaves to use as molds for a small object

  • Part 2 (in class): pour wax (and/or sulfur) into your molds, unmold

Source text

There are two entries on breadmolding on fol. 140v. Another on fol.156r mentions breadmolding as an alternative process for “Molding promptly.”

FolioTranslation
140v

For casting in sulfur

To cast neatly in sulfur, arrange the bread pith under thebrazier, as you know. Mold in it what you want & let dry, & you will have very neat work.

Molding and shrinking a large figure

Mold it with bread pith coming from the oven, or as the aforesaid, & in drying out, it will shrink & consequently the medal that you will cast in it. You it can, by this means, by elongating and widening the imprinted bread pith, vary the figure & with one image make many various ones. Breadcoming from the oven is better. And the one that is reheated twice retracts more. You can cast sulfur without leaving the imprint of the bread to dry, if you want to mold as big as it is. But if you want to let it shrink, make it dry, either more or less.

156r

Molding promptly and reducing a hollow form to a relief

You can imprint the relief of a medal in colored wax, & you will have a hollow form, in which you can cast en noyau a relief of your sand, on which you will make a hollow form of lead or tin, in which you will cast a wax relief. And then on that wax you will make your mold en noyau hollow, to cast there the relief of gold & silver or any other metal you like. But to hasten your work if you are in a hurry, make the first imprint & hollow form in bread pith, prepared as you know, which will mold very neatly. And into that, cast in melted wax, which will give you a beautiful relief on which you will make your noyau.

Part 1 – Making Bread and Molding (at home, in advance)

Start familiarizng yourself with making bread well in advance of the class (we recommend at least two weeks) to give yourself enough time

Materials

  • flour
  • water
  • salt
  • yeast (optional)
  • any other ingredients called for in your recipe of choice (see below)

Tools

  • mixing bowl
  • surface for kneading
  • baking sheet
  • oven

Objective

Essentially you need to bake bread according to a recipe of your choosing (early modern or contemporary), cut it open, and impress an object into it while it is still warm and moist, let it cool and dry so that there is a hollow into which we can cast. You then bring this mold to class, so that we can pour wax (and/or sulfur) into it. Take notes of your choices and experiences.

Notes on baking bread, then and now:

  • Before beginning a full reconstruction, you will see that the entry on fol. 140v assumes that you already have “bread pith coming from the oven,” which means you will need to bake bread.
  • Most modern recipes use “active dry” or “instant” yeast as the rising agent (and you can do this for this assignment), but another (and older) method uses another form of yeast: sourdough starter (see below).
  • You will want to spend time gaining experience with the baking process: combining ingredients, kneading the dough, resting it, letting it rise, etc. Generally speaking, most of these stages of bread making will take more time than you expect.
  • You will find a plethora of information on bread baking online. Feel free to find recipes and instructions you think will be helpful, but please know that bread is actually very forgiving and it is hard to have a bread making disaster - most of the time, you just have to wait a little longer (for it to rise, rest, etc.). Try to make many batches so you can get as much practice as possible. Try to have fun and not worry too much!
  • Try different recipes, especially historical ones mentioned in the resources below. When you feel ready, move forward in your process and decide what the next steps should be for creating a mold from your bread - pressing an object into the freshly-baked loaf, into which wax can be poured (see more info below).

Sourdough

Sourdough is a naturally-grown yeast culture. If you know someone who makes their own sourdough bread you can ask them to share their starter with you. You can also make your own sourdough starter at home (there are many online resources about how to do this safely).

Sourdough is alive and hungry. It will keep best in the refrigerator between bread baking sessions. It may develop a strong fermentation smell or a watery, grey-black hooch, but this is normal - do some reading about it online. You will need to feed your starter before using it for baking, but you don’t need to feed it as often as most instructions dictate. Feed it (with water and flour) 24-48 hours before you want to bake with it. Once it has risen and become frothy (if it’s not yet risen and frothy, just wait!), save about a cup of it and put that saved portion back into the refrigerator.

After looking into these options, you may find that you are logistically only be able to bake bread with dry yeast (and that is ok). Start experimenting!

Sources on making sixteenth-century bread

A few tips

  • You are welcome to work alone or in groups of two.

  • Sourdough starter: Best to keep the portion you are saving in the refrigerator between bread baking sessions. Do not use the entire starter for a single loaf of bread, but instead feed and divide it, always saving a cup or so for your next loaf.

  • Start early with the experiment as it will take you some time to become adept at making bread, and you may need more than one try at the mold making. (You may also eat up some of your baking experiments!)

  • For the molding pattern for your one-sided or two-piece mold, you will need to choose a relatively uncomplicated object, such as a key, flat shell, a large medallion or necklace pendant, as a pattern.

  • To prepare your molds, you will need to choose an object (also known as the “model” or the “pattern”) to press into your bread. The manuscript’s entries on fol. 140v can be interpreted in many ways, so how you choose to do this is up to you.

  • We recommend that you make more than one mold and it is always interesting to try different models.

  • You can make one-piece, two-piece, or multi-piece molds, depending on the size and shape of your pattern/model (i.e., the object you are pressing into your bread) and the size of your loaf (or your ball of pith, depending on how you interpret the author-practitioner’s instructions). Have a look at how previous cohorts of Making and Knowing students interpreted them by consulting the fieldnotes site. Or, just experiment on your own.

  • If you make your molds some days before the casting process, you should probably keep them wrapped in plastic in the fridge, if possible, so they do not get moldy.

  • Breadmolds can be fragile, so you might want to transport them in a rigid container to class.

  • Min Lim’s article about bread (see below) will really help you with practical questions.

Instructions

  1. Look for early modern bread recipes - can you find many? Why do you think this might be? (You should do this whether or not you are planning to use a historical recipe for making your bread.)

  2. Bake bread according to an early modern recipe, or according to another recipe (you can choose how you bake the bread, just record your justifications).

  3. Find the bread molding instructions in BnF Ms. Fr. 640 (read folios 140v and 156r - English translations are provided on this website, click here for shortcuts to 140v ‘For casting in sulfur’ and ‘Molding and shrinking a large figure’ and 156r ‘Molding promptly and reducing a hollow form to a relief’). Read both pages in full, including the marginalia. If you have time, explore the edition more - try searching for a word (like bread or sulfur in the search box, or scroll forward and back).

  4. Write an experiment protocol that lays out how you interpreted the Fr. 640 recipes and the step-by-step process which you will follow in reconstructing them. When you have finished the experiment, note down what you had to change in your protocol and why.

    Keep detailed notes on the experience. What is hard? What is unexpected? What happens?

  5. When you have finished baking your loaf, let it cool a little (or a lot – does this make a difference to the outcome?). Cut it in half and impress a small object of your choice into the bread pith.

  6. Bring your mold and molded object to class.

Read in preparation for class

Other helpful resources in Secrets of Craft and Nature

Additional sources to explore on the uses of bread in the early modern workshop

If you have time, search in other sources for other uses made of bread in the workshop:

  • Alessio Piemontese, Book of Secrets (1555); various English versions on EEBO; French versions on Gallica; Italian versions…

  • (For English: Search for Ruscelli, Girolamo, The secretes of the reuerende Maister Alexis of Piemount Containyng excellent remedies against diuers diseases, woundes, and other accidents, with the manner to make distillations, parfumes, confitures, diynges, colours, fusions and meltynges. … Translated out of Frenche into Englishe, by Wyllyam Warde (1558).

  • Hugh Platt, The Jewell House of Art and Nature: Containing divers rare and profitable Inventions, together with sundry new experimentes in the Art of Husbandry, Distillation, and Molding (London, 1594). EEBO

  • Cennino Cennini, Il libro dell’Arte (The Craftsman’s Handbook), trans. Daniel V. Thompson, Jr. (New York: Dover, 1960).

  • Vannoccio Biringuccio, Pirotechnia (1540), trans. Cyril Stanley Smith and Martha Teach Gnudi (repr., Cambridge, MA, 1966).

  • Theophilus, The Various Arts: De Diversis Artibus, ed. and trans. C. R. Dodwell (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986).

  • Benvenuto Cellini, Two Treatises, trans. C. R. Ashbee (repr. 2006).

Part 2 – Wax Casting (in class)

Review your experimental protocol with your instructor. What steps are described in Fr. 640? What other steps might be needed? (For example, how might you make it easier to release the cast object from the mold?)

Safety notes for melting wax

  • heat the wax slowly

  • make sure no wax gets on the hotplate – this will produce smoke

  • if your melting receptacle does not have an insulated handle, make sure to wear heat protective gloves to handle it

  • do not put down the hot receptacle on a non-fire-resistant surface

Questions to keep in mind during the activity and discuss in class

  • What does the impression in the bread look like? Is this different from what you expected?

  • What does the cast object look like compared to the original? What does this tell you about the original object, the breadmold, the process?

  • What might an early modern artist or craftsman do with the wax object? What might it tell them?

  • What properties of the bread make it a good material for this purpose? What else could it be used for in a workshop?