Hungarian New Bread
Music; Ambience: Bread making sounds, kneading, beating, scraping, singing
Throughout the year, members of Hungary’s Baker’s Guild travel across their country, doing research, asking questions – seeking to broaden their understanding of the older traditional ways of baking bread. And then, this time of year when flour ground from a new crop of wheat is brought in, they demonstrate their knowledge of their craft in a celebration of New Bread. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet.
We’re at a New Bread Celebration in Csongrad – east of Budapest, where members of Hungary’s Baker’s Guild dress in outfits from the 15th century and set up ovens to demonstrate how bread was baked in the old days. Seven wheat seeds were placed in the bread dough, and it was supposed to be kneaded until the seeds became well separated from each other. Kneading dough is hard work, and there’s an old saying in Hungary that bread is not genuine unless it contains a few drops of the baker’s sweat.
In one style of bread making in Transylvania, the loaves are baked in a very hot oven, so hot that the crust is burnt and then beaten and scraped off. Beaten bread stays fresh for weeks, without preservatives.
Another custom involves baking a loaf of bread with a cabbage leaf wrapped around it. The juices of the cabbage penetrate the dough and the leaf prevents the bottom of the bread from being burnt.
In Hungary, bread is indeed considered the staff of life. With families that make their own bread, it’s thought to be disrespectful to waste any of it, and dried, uneaten bread is used to thicken soups and stews.
Pulse of the Planet is presented by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.