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Friday Bread Basket 3/10/23

newsletter.wordloaf.org

Friday Bread Basket 3/10/23

Holiday breads

Andrew Janjigian
Mar 10
11
6
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Friday Bread Basket 3/10/23

newsletter.wordloaf.org

Welcome to the Wordloaf Friday Bread Basket, a weekly roundup of links and items relating to bread, baking, and grain. I’m currently working on a version of my English muffin bread recipe using yogurt whey instead of sourdough discard (pictured above), because I have more of the former than I do the latter and I need a way (whey) to use it up. And also because I’m going to be sharing excerpts from Homa Dashiki’s new book Yogurt & Whey here soon and wanted to have this recipe ready for it. (It needs another test or two.)


💯and still baking strong

Some of you might remember Shirley Haney Reid, a Wordloaf reader from the early days here. I just learned that she recently turned 100 years old, a milestone which she celebrated by baking a loaf of bread, something that she does almost every week at least once. I hope to interview Shirley for the newsletter soon, but in the meantime I think we should all wish her a happy 100th birthday!


Martyr dumplings

Twitter avatar for @georgescu_r
Irina.R.Georgescu @georgescu_r
Happy Mucenici day ❤️
9:40 AM ∙ Mar 9, 2023
18Likes1Retweet

Thanks to Irina Georgescu’s tweet, I learned that yesterday was Mucenici Day, a bready holiday in Romania and Moldova:

Mucenici is a Christian feast of the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste, a traditional holiday in Romania and Moldova. It coincides with the start of the agricultural year.[1]

On the day of the martyrs (mucenici), in the popular belief, the tombs and the gates of Heaven are opened, and the housewives make, in honor of the Holy Martyrs, 40 coils called sfinti, mucenici or bradosi.

In Moldova, they have the shape of the number 8, a stylization of the human form, and are baked from Cozonac dough, then glazed with honey and splinkled with walnuts.

Mucenici with cracked walnut and honey

In Dobrogea, the same anthropomorphic form is preserved, but the martyrs are smaller and are boiled in water with sugar, cinnamon and walnuts, symbolizing the lake where the Holy Martyrs were thrown.

In Muntenia, in addition to the usual brados, there is a "Uitata pentru morti" (The forgotten dead) celebration, a larger martyr bread (considered to be blind), which children dance around the fire with in celebration of the dead who were forgotten during the year.

The customs of March 9 form a ritual scenario specific to the coming of a New Year: the preparation of ritual food (Saints, Saints, Bradoşi), spring cleaning, the ritual drunkenness attested by popular tradition, the opening of the tombs and gates of Heaven for the return of spirits among the living, lighting fires in courtyards and gardens, in front of the houses and in the field, the purification of people and cattle by sprinkling holy water, beating the earth with the mayors to drive away the cold and take out the heat, finding luck in the new year by preparing the Macinici cake, harvesting honey and cutting the first vines.[2]

Irina’s video—which I first thought was some kind of savory soup—depicts the Dobrogea version, where the mucenici are boiled like dumplings.


Twitter avatar for @domesticetch
Elizabeth Goodspeed @domesticetch
Empanada typography
Image
11:05 PM ∙ Mar 2, 2023
1,315Likes54Retweets

Holi days

Twitter avatar for @SejalSukhadwala
Sejal Sukhadwala @SejalSukhadwala
1/22: Since it's Holi, I wanted to use it as an excuse to talk about colours in Indian food. Natural colours, artificial colours. A pichkari of scattergun ideas, a little Mughlai tomfoolery and a tiny bit of politics. A thread...
5:18 PM ∙ Mar 18, 2022
89Likes19Retweets

Speaking of holiday food traditions, I loved this Twitter thread from Sejal Sukhadwala on the colo(u)rs in Indian food. You should definitely read the whole thing, but the most astonishing bit is this:

Twitter avatar for @SejalSukhadwala
Sejal Sukhadwala @SejalSukhadwala
8/ MULTI_COLOURS Jumping to the Mughlai era, the Mughals elevated the use of colour to clever, creative eye-popping new heights. One small example is a pulao made from rice in which half of each grain was painted red so that it would resemble pomegranate seeds when cooked.
5:19 PM ∙ Mar 18, 2022
16Likes1Retweet
Twitter avatar for @SejalSukhadwala
Sejal Sukhadwala @SejalSukhadwala
9/ MULTI-COLOURS If we start talking about Mughlai culinary trompe-l'oeil, we would be here forever - so let's just think about the poor sods who had to spend hours painting half of each grain of rice red to please their masters.
5:19 PM ∙ Mar 18, 2022
15Likes1Retweet

All this talk of holidays and food traditions got me to start compiling a list of all the holidays/days/seasons that have breads linked to them. You should share your favorite bready holidays in the comments below so I can add them to the list, which I’ll share here eventually.

Have a peaceful weekend, everyone, see you next week.

—Andrew

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Friday Bread Basket 3/10/23

newsletter.wordloaf.org
6 Comments
Janet C
Mar 10Liked by Andrew Janjigian

As a frequent yogurt maker, I'm really interested in finding more ways to use my whey. Looking forward to more recipes and plan to check out the Yogurt and Whey cookbook. Thanks!

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Ruth Ristich
Mar 10

Happy birthday Shirley!!!!!!!

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