The Satchel Bread for the Road (Keeping Bread)
Traveler's Dark Bread with Fava Bean Flour
TravelEvocation🧂moyen5 h (including rising)
A dense, rustic bread mixing brown flour and fava bean flour, which satisfies for a long time and keeps for several days in a traveler's satchel.
Why this dish? Calvin's life was a long exile: Noyon, Paris, then flight to Basel, Geneva, Strasbourg, and again Geneva. A man on the roads of the 16th century carried in his satchel a dense, rustic bread capable of lasting several days — dark bread reinforced with fava bean flour, nourishing and cheap, the true companion of the Reformer on his journey.
I have known more roads than rest, driven from one city to another for the cause of the Gospel. On the road, there is no set table: one carries in one's satchel a dark bread, to which I like to add fava bean flour, which makes it firm and sustaining. Such bread does not flatter the palate, but it holds the body for three days, and that is all that is needed for one who walks for his God. Break off a piece, moisten it with a little water or watered wine, and give thanks: the pilgrim's bread is better than the meats of the sluggard.
Ingredients
- •Brown flour (lightly bolted wheat) — three parts (base)
- •Fava bean flour — one part (strength and nourishment)
- •Sourdough starter — a piece from the previous batch (leavening)
- •Salt — to taste (flavor and preservation)
- •Water — as needed (hydration)
How it was made : Dark bread (made from lightly bolted flour rich in bran) and legume breads were the daily fare of the lower classes and travelers. Dense and long-lasting, they were sometimes deliberately hardened (biscuit, from "bis-cuit" = twice-baked) for long journeys and sieges.