THIS MAKES 2 LARGE LOAVES AND ABOUT 8 SPLITS
50 g (2 oz) lard
1–5 kg (3 lbs) strong flour
25 g (1 oz) salt
25 g (1 oz) fresh yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
900 ml (1½ pints) warm water (or half milk and water)
Rub the lard into the flour and add the salt. Put the yeast in a basin with the sugar and mix with 150 ml (¼ pint) of warm water. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the yeast mixture. Sprinkle a little flour over the yeast and leave until yeast begins to break through flour. Add the rest of the warm water or milk and water and mix. Put on to a well-floured board and knead well. Return dough to bowl and leave to rise in a warm place, covered with a cloth. (It should double in size.)
When risen cut into three pieces and knead separately. Put two of these into well-greased bread tins and leave to rise again. Brush over with water and bake for 45 minutes at 220°C (425°F) Gas 7. To test, tap the bottom of the tin – they sound light if cooked.
Roll out the third piece about 2.5 cm (1 inch) thick and cut with a plain round cutter for 8 splits. Brush over with water and leave to rise. Bake in a slightly cooler oven for about 15 minutes.
Demelza used to make the bread at Nampara. There is a reference to it in Demelza, Book One, Chapter II and also in The Black Moon, Book One, Chapter XII:
While Ross was away Demelza had a caller . . . at the time she was baking bread. This she always did herself and would never leave to Jane Gimlett, who had a heavy hand. The bread was just beginning to plum when someone rat-tatted, on the front door. Jane came back and told her it was Miss Caroline Peneven . . .
Demelza took out as much of the dough as she could lift in her hands and put it on the board . . .
‘Why do you knead each lump so long?’ Caroline asked.
‘Because if I don’t the bread will have holes in it. We eat a lot of bread. There are five loaves here and a little over. Perhaps if I made you a small one with this smaller piece you would like to take it back with you?’
Demelza began to lift the round masses of kneaded dough on to a metal tray . . . . This part done, she stood back and rubbed her hands down her apron and then with the back of her wrist pushed the dank hair away from her eyes . . . . Presently they went back into the kitchen together and Demelza went under the arch of the stove, opened the iron door of the oven and raked out the white-hot remnants of the gorse. Then Caroline lifted the other end of the heavy tray and they slid it into the oven.
The oven referred to here is known as a cloam oven. This was generally a hole in the chimney wall, which was roofed over with a hard baked clay. The oven was heated by burning hedgerow trimmings such as gorse or blackthorn and it took about an hour to heat. When the oven was hot enough, the white-hot ashes were raked out, the food put in and the door shut, as indicated above.