Toasty Panetteria · Volume two
Forgotten
Loaves
Breads and Bakers of the Ancient World and Beyond
Before it was history, it was someone’s food.
What did people need their bread to do? Follow that question from early hearths to Egyptian workshops, Roman cheese loaves, a northern frontier, medieval markets and provisions sent to sea.
By Austin Welsh-Graham
A loaf has work to do
Make gathered plants into a meal. Feed a household. Supply a worker. Fit a cooking vessel. Travel farther than the bakery. Carry an offering or keep a memory.
Nineteen chapters connect those purposes through surviving food, written instructions, tools and living knowledge. The ingredients and shapes become more interesting when the people and the meal return to the picture.
Before the bakery
Early prepared foods, Neolithic households and the work hidden inside an ingredient.
People and portions
Ancient baskets, grain allowances, Greek bread names, Roman methods and frontier supplies.
A wider table
Mixed grains, maize, cassava, seed-food knowledge, medieval trade and bread for a journey.
Read the story. Turn to the recipe.
Ten baking recipes and two serving ideas sit inside their relevant chapters. All have been tested by the author. Make a covered loaf, little cheese-rich libum, honeyed layers or a useful mixed-grain tin bread.
These are modern preparations alongside the history. Short origin notes explain the connection, while ingredient tables and numbered methods keep the kitchen pages practical.
Choose your place to read
Paperback
110 pages · 6 × 9 inches
Black-and-white interior on groundwood paper.
ISBN 979-8-1661-9522-7
Find the paperbackHardback
110 pages · 6 × 9 inches
Black-and-white interior on cream paper.
ISBN 979-8-1661-9547-0
Find the hardbackKindle
A reflowable edition for different screens and text sizes.
Same histories and practical pages.
Find the Kindle editionA Loaf under the Cover
Cato’s kneaded bread, libum and placenta, brought together in a companion excerpt with four tested modern recipes and their references.
Permanent excerpt link: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23325331
Another shelf in Toasty Panetteria
The Toasty Book of Bread follows breads around the world. Forgotten Loaves looks towards earlier meals and the work that made them possible. Each volume can be read independently.
About Austin
Austin Welsh-Graham is a British software developer, baker and bread-history writer. He is the author of The Toasty Book of Bread and Forgotten Loaves, the first two Toasty Panetteria volumes, and the creator of the Baker’s Archive.
Original book text and illustrations are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Credited third-party material retains its own rights.