A replica Middle Ages peasant horsebread recipe made with heritage wheat and legumes inspired by Ken Follett’s novel Pillars of the Earth.
I have a very active imagination.
A significant portion of my day is spent daydreaming of things other than what I am supposed to be doing. I can be a bit like the lead character in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (an absolutely fantastic film, by the way).
One moment I’m doing something mundane, the next I’m off in a crazy adventure in my head.
For example, I could be driving down a single-track country lane and I spot a flock of sheep with coloured paint splodges on their rumps.
In my head those sheep have been playing paintball at night, how else can you explain the paint shots? Cue: dramatic slow-motion mind-scene of paint-balling sheep. (I do realise in reality these paint splodges have something to do with medication, but nocturnal paint-balling sheep are much more interesting).
Last autumn I finished an Open University Life Sciences degree after eight years of study. This means I now have time to read books for pleasure, not just for education.
It took most of my final year of study to get through George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. Most of my reading energy was spent studying stem cells. Now that I am finished I can devote as much time as I want to the wonderful world of fictional books.
Such book reading fuels my imagination.
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
I started reading Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth (1989) after a friend recommended it, and I was instantly gripped.
Not gripped in the way that oh, I’m looking forward to the evening when I can sit down and read my book, but gripped in the way that I would hurriedly pack the children off to school in the morning and spend the whole time they were away curled up on the couch with coffee and a blanket kind of gripped.
The housework was neglected. The washing piled up. The phone wasn’t answered. The sort of gripped that means everything, including getting up off the couch to make meals, is an inconvenience (as an aside, you may have noticed the resulting blogging silence of late!).
Pillars of the Earth is the story of a master builder in the Middle Ages with a lifelong dream to build a cathedral church. It describes the hardships he had to endure during those times in the city of Kingsbridge, England, the complex relationships between people, and the violence and consequences of human ambition.
The author clearly did his research before writing this novel. It is very convincing – it makes you believe you are in 1135 England.
Kingsbridge, England
Last week I went on a spontaneous trip to the south coast of England. The airplane landed in Exeter and we took a taxi to our destination in Plymouth.
En route, I saw several grand (to me) churches and what I think was an abbey of some sort. I also saw a road sign to Kingsbridge.
My heart might have fluttered a little bit – there’s a real Kingsbridge?! (Note to self: check if the Pillars of the Earth setting of Kingsbridge was based on a real place – it’s not, but it’s loosely based on an area not too far from where I physically was).
The whole time I was in Plymouth I was admiring the architecture from a completely different perspective.
I could visualise the people behind each and every stone. I could imagine the thought processes and passion that went behind the design of each and every detail.
My imagination ran riot.
Recipes inspired by literature
When I came home I found out about a new food blogging challenge: Read, Cook, Eat, jointly hosted by Chris over at Cooking Around the World and Galina from Chez Maxima.
For this blogging challenge, we’re asked to recreate the recipes we’ve read about in a fiction book. Novel Food by Simona over at Pulcetta also features recipes inspired by books.
Pillars of the Earth frequently mentions horsebread.
“When the daylight began to soften into dusk, a kitchen handcame to the guesthouse with a cauldon of pottage and a loaf as long as a man is tall, all just for them. The pottage was made with vegetables and herbs and meat bones, and its surface glistened with fat. The loaf was horsebread, made with all kinds of grain, rye and barley and oats, plus dried peas and beans; it was the cheapest bread, Alfred said, but to Jack, who had never eaten bread until a few days ago, it was delicious. Jack ate until his belly ached. Alfred ate until there was nothing left.”
Pillars of the Earth
Why are there so few horsebread recipes?
Surprisingly, an internet search for horsebread recipes came up with nothing even remotely authentic (or at least it did back in 2014).
Paul Newman, author of Daily Life in the Middles Ages (2001) explains why. Newman says virtually no bread recipes remain from the Middle Ages because bread making was so commonplace the recipe didn’t need to be written down. It would have been like writing down the recipe for boiling water.
Bread was made by bakers, not chefs, and it was the chefs who recorded recipes.
Newman says, “Whatever the recipe, the basic ingredients for bread have remained the same: a powdered starch (usually a flour made from wheat, spelt, rye, barley or other grain), a liquid (water or milk), salt and a rising agent. By far, yeast was the most common leavening for bread, but today’s easy-to-use dry yeasts did not exist.
Instead, old dough (as used in sourdough bread) or “barm” (a liquid process of fermenting grain mash into beer) were used.
It had basic ingredients such as oats, nuts, dried fruits, and even beans. Lentils were sometimes added in for flavour and texture, or to act as fillers when grain was in short supply.
Bean bread was usually served to horses but people would eat them as well if no better bread was available.”
Sometimes the grains were ground with legumes, often dried yellow split peas, and with this information, I set to work to recreate the recipe.
Trying to recreate a mediaeval horsebread recipe
My first stop was our local wholefoods shop where I remember seeing pea flour for sale. They didn’t have pea flour at this time, but they did have some Dove’s Farm English Wholegrain Heritage Flour and some chickpea (gram) flour.
Heritage flour is interesting: it is a blend of grains grown in the 16th/17th centuries. The shop proprietor told me the reason she’d sold pea flour when I saw it ages ago was that she’d used it a historic bread-making course.
Dried yellow split peas were what they ground, she said. People in coastal communities flavoured their bread with dried seaweed instead of salt.
Salt would have been an unaffordable luxury for the poor.
I made my horsebread recipe with some lively sourdough starter; my second sourdough loaf, the first one being a resounding success.
To accompany the horsebread I made a simple stew with Shetland beef and vegetables, based on the following 15th-century recipe:
“Beef y-Stywyd.—Take fayre beef of þe rybbys of þe fore quarterys, an smyte in fayre pecys, an wasche þe beef in-to a fayre potte; þan take þe water þat þe beef was soþin yn, an strayne it þorw a straynowr, an sethe þe same water and beef in a potte, an let hem boyle to-gederys; þan take canel, clowes, maces, graynys of parise, quibibes, and oynons y-mynced, perceli, an sawge, an caste þer-to, an let hem boyle to-gederys; an þan take a lof of brede, an stepe it with brothe an venegre, an þan draw it þorw a straynoure, and let it be stylle; an whan it is nere y-now, caste þe lycour þer-to, but nowt to moche, an þan let boyle onys, an cast safroun þer-to a quantyte; þan take salt an venegre, and cast þer-to, an loke þat it be poynaunt y-now, & serue forth.”
Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks
For the meal, I donned my most medieval dress – a floor-length, embroidered, swishy brown affair. I asked everyone to eat out of clay bowls with wooden spoons. To accompany, Noble English craft lager made with hops dating back to the 800s.
We loved every bite of our dinner, considering the basic ingredients. The bread was very filling, and at first, when everyone was quite hungry it was really flavoursome. Then, as we began to fill up the split pea flavour became a little overpowering. If I was a starving peasant I likely would have been grateful for such a filling meal.
So, this is my horsebread recipe.
I have no idea how authentic this recipe is. From what I’ve read I would think it’s a pretty good attempt.
Do let me know what you think of the recipe, or what you thought if you read the book! I’m a quarter of the way through the sequel, World Without End. I’m enjoying it as much as I did the first in the series. I really hope there is a third* on the way!
*Update 21 November 2022 – I thoroughly enjoyed the third in the series, A Column of Fire (2018).
Recipe Difficulty Levels
Easy
Requires basic cooking skills and ingredients you most likely already have in your kitchen.
Moderate
Requires more experience, preparation and/or cooking time. You may have to source special ingredients.
Challenging
Recipes requiring more advanced skills and experience and maybe some special equipment.
Mediaeval Horsebread
Ingredients
- 100 grams dried yellow split peas
- 200 grams lively sourdough starter
- 450 grams Dove’s Farm Heritage Wholegrain flour
- 50 grams pea flour
- 10 grams dried seaweed
- 350 ml water
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Equipment
Instructions
- Wash dried yellow split peas and place them in a medium sized bowl. Cover with water and leave overnight to soak.
- Take sourdough starter out of the fridge and leave overnight to get to room temperature.
- The next morning, mix together the starter, flours, seaweed (or salt) and water until a thick wet dough forms. Leave, covered, in the bowl for 3 hours or more.
- Meanwhile, drain and dry split peas. Coarsely chop them and set aside.
- Turn dough out onto a floured board, adding extra heritage flour so that a workable dough forms. Knead in the chopped split peas and form into a loaf.
- Using extra heritage flour, make sure the sides of the banneton are well coated to prevent sticking. Place loaf in banneton and leave to rise for at least 4 hours.
- Place a large baking tray in the oven and heat oven to its highest setting (around 230 C)
- When the oven is hot enough, remove tray, sprinkle with more heritage flour and turn loaf out of the banneton.
- Score loaf with a sharp knife and bake in the oven for 25 minutes. Turn out on a wire rack to cool.
An Adventure to Plymouth, England
I make sourdough bread that I call horsebread but I make it so that it is similar to Northern European rye “bricks”. I use peasemeal (have to make my own since Golspie Mill shut) and use some oat flour and oat groats as well as rye flour and rye berries. I also grind up some Scottish hazelnuts. Between first mix and baking I wait 24 hours which gives it lovely sour tang. I cook it in a lidded pan (made my own lid). Delicious and nutritious. Been doing this for around 12 years.
That sounds incredible!
In a recent Gastro Obscura article about bread for horses from before the trains were invented. Horses had to do the heavy work of moving items and people long distances and needed to be fed. Bread weighing about 5 lb each looking like large hockey pucks made from bean flours and leftovers from grains milled when grinding finer white flour were made with specific government guidelines by only approved bakers. This gave them the nutrients needed for energy to keep moving
That is fascinating! Thank you so much for sharing! I love finding out the stories behind recipes like that.
I’d love to see a translation of the Beef Stew recipe– I can figure out most of it, but there are a few words I don’t recognize…..
I know I’m 3 years late, but… this is less a “beef stew” than “stewed beef.” The spices here would be astronomical in price for almost everyone. This is a display of conspicuous consumption. I’m surprised the lowly onion, sage, and parsley are in here, honestly.
Anyway.
Beef y-Stywyd.—Take fayre beef of þe rybbys of þe fore quarterys, an smyte in fayre pecys, an wasche þe beef in-to a fayre potte;
Stewed Beef: take good beef of the ribs of the fire quarters, and chop in good pieces (NB: smallish) and wash the beef into a clean pot.
þan take þe water þat þe beef was soþin yn, an strayne it þorw a straynowr, an sethe þe same water and beef in a potte, an let hem boyle to-gederys;
Then take the water that the beef was sothen in (NB: soaking?) And boil the same water and beef in a pot, and let them boil together.
þan take canel, clowes, maces, graynys of parise, quibibes, and oynons y-mynced, perceli, an sawge, an caste þer-to, an let hem boyle to-gederys;
Then take cinnamon, cloves, mace, grains of paradise, cubebs, and minced onions, parsley and sage, and throw in, and let them boil together.
(NB: grains of paradise have a slightly sweet, floral, peppery flavor, cubebs, sometimes seen as long tailed pepper, have a soft peppery flavor)
an þan take a lof of brede, an stepe it with brothe an venegre, an þan draw it þorw a straynoure, and let it be stylle;
And then take a loaf of bread and steel it with broth and vinegar, and then draw it through a strainer and let it settle. (NB: you’re basically clarifying the broth)
an whan it is nere y-now, caste þe lycour þer-to, but nowt to moche, an þan let boyle onys, an cast safroun þer-to a quantyte; þan take salt an venegre, and cast þer-to, an loke þat it be poynaunt y-now, & serue forth.”
And when it is near enough, cast the liquid there-to (add the clarified broth back to the beef), but not too much, then let boil once, and put a quantity of saffron , then put salt and vinegar on it, and look that it is poignant enough, and several forth.
Greetings, my name is Elizabeth from Charlotte, NC. I am about 2/3 of the way through Pillars of the Earth and just googled horsebread and found this wonderful blog. I love to bake but don’t have much experience with whole grain bread. I do happen to have a box of bread mix from Ikea called Brodmix Flerkorn with a picture of a hearty bread. I will make it with my 5yo grandson tomorrow and pretend I am dining with Prior Phillip and the other monks!
Oh wonderful!! Pleased to ‘meet’ you and I’m delighted you’re enjoying the book. The sequels are really good too!
There is now a prequel that is just as good
I have read it! It is very good, indeed, although not as high quality and intricate as Pillars of the Earth. He’s still one of my favourite authors though.
Sooo, the reason for those splotches on the sheep – it is not medication, it’s to show which ewes have been “serviced” by which ram.
I’ve since learned this, lol! I had no idea when I wrote this post, hah!
My horse bread is 400g each of oatmeal and wholemeal rye and 100g each of peasmeal and hazelnuts, around 5g salt and my sourdough starter (I keep two running, one rye and the other a 50/50 mix of peasemeal and oatmeal – all from Golspie Mill). I add the starter and around 900ml of water. Mix in the morning and leave until I’m home from work and after I have got the fire going and cooked our evening meal. Place in two breadtins near the Rayburn to prove. When risen to fill I put in the Rayburn at around 200c then shut it down for the night. After around 40 minutes I invert the bread tins onto baking trays and put the loaves back in the oven where the bread continues to cook in its own steam. Take them out before getting the fire up to heat in the morning, take it out of the tins and leave to cool. Lovely, dark, moist and flavour filled. Very addictive.
That sounds utterly gorgeous, and a lot more authentic than my made-up version! Yum!
What a great recipe! And I love that you ate it in a swishy mediaeval-style dress 🙂
I greatly enjoyed your post. I, too, was intrigued by the description of horse bread in Pillar of The Earth.
I found World Without End, though to be a poor man’s Pillar of The Earth. The same characters and much of the same plotline recycled and not nearly as well written.
Thank you! I wish I had more time to read these days as there are so many new worlds to explore within pages! I agree, the second novel wasn’t as good, but I still read, and enjoyed it. Oh to be able to go back and meet them all again for the first time! 🙂
1) Am reading “Pillars of the Earth”–good read–will look for “World Without End”, as well.
2) Has anyone tried grinding the legumes with the grain for flour for the horse bread?
3)Colored splotches on the rumps of the sheep let the farmer know that the sheep have been bred. (The ram wears a harness holding a paint pad to his chest during breeding).
4) Just found your blog–looks good!
Yes you can grind peas or lentils to a powder. They don’t have gluten so don’t use a lot.
I just finished reading The Pillars of The Earth a couple weeks ago, and I was intrigued by the sound of horsebread – I’m so glad I found your attempt to recreate it here!
And I loved the book of course – the descriptions were really graphic in places and the plot was amazing detailed!
Sounds great from the name alone.
I’m from Brazil and I’m reading The Pillars of the Earth on the quarantine. At the Priory Phillip and Millius are depicted eating “horsebread” for breakfast. Didn’t knew the word, so I put it on Google. Your recipe was the first occurrence. Now I know what it means and also gonna bake one for me too. Thanks.
Love the book and your recipe. I routinely add gram flour to cakes scones and bread as I am cooking for vegans.
Love finding out about different breads – especially wholegrain/granary types. Looks great.
Looks great!
Never heard of horsebread before, sounds intriguing.
Congratulations on finishing your degree. I also love Ken Follet books. The Pillars of the Earth is a fantastic read. I’ve always wanted to write a Medieval Cookbook. It’s been a dream of mine. The Horsebread sounds interesting. I’ll have to give it a go. Great blog post. Many thanks x
Finished reading Pillars of the Earth last month. I am reading World Without End right now. What fascinated me through both books mention of this horsebread, even though there is a 200 year difference between the 2 books. The breads of yore were more nutritious and filling than breads of today. Being gluten intolerant can appreciate the use of other ingredients other than wheat flour which was extremely expensive for the peasantry of the period. Only the rich would have been able to afford wheat. But land owning peasants would have been able to grow a portion for themselves and pay their rents with the remaining amount to their lords.
I am excited to see your attempt at making the horsebread and definitely looks like a recipe that might have been made during that time period.
Wow! This sounds gorgeous!
This is a wonderful recipe! I love that you based it off of a passage from a favorite book. You did a great job recreating it as well. It fits the description perfectly. Now for some authentic Frobscottle.
Thank you! I was quite pleased with it too. It’s nice when an idea works!
What an interesting bread – love the name! I use chickpea flour in quite a lot of things so I can see the sense in it, must be very nutricious.
Thanks Heather – I was quite pleased with this post. I put a lot of effort into it, so I really appreciate the feedback 🙂
Very interesting post and beautiful bread. I didn’t know about barm until I read Dan Lepard’s Handmade Loaf. I have yet to try using it. I have however used legumes in bread. It looks like you’ve found some really nice flour.
Must read this book and the bread looks amazing. I never realized you could make bread with peass
The book is fab, I am insisting everyone should read it! I miss the characters in it still! I can see why making bread with peas fell out of favour over the years, but if I was really hungry I’d be delighted to have a loaf of horsebread!
I definitely admire your adventurous nature. This sounds like an excellent revival. Wearing appropriate dress for the meal is a wonderful notion, but I’m not sure that my knowledge of period dress is quite up to it. On the subject of pea flour, someone recently told me that there are traditional pancakes made in Scotland form pea flour. That was news to me.
I’ve never heard of pancakes made from pea flour either. Must investigate further! I had the chance once to attend a Society for Creative Anachronisms event back on the East Coast of Canada. I got to wear a 14th century gown with tippets (?) hanging from the arms and a knight (Sir Percival) jousted in my honour. It was absolutely amazing. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong era, but then I remember how much I appreciate modern medication and sanitation!
This is fascinating, love the research to get you to your recipe and the authentic settings to eat and imagery it conjures up. You might like this page: http://savoringthepast.net/ They recreate old recipes, very interesting.
Thanks Ruth 🙂 I will definitely be exploring that website for inspiration! I do love old recipes.
i think we may have been separated at birth you and I… I love this meal and that bread, well I shall be attempting this recipe at the weekend
We do seem to like a lot of the same things, don’t we! Do let me know how you get on if you make the bread 🙂
First of all, I won’t get those paint-balling sheep out of my mind for a while, but that’s fine with me. I enjoyed reading your post every minute of it. I especially liked the effort you put into bringing the bread from fiction to plate. It’s also interesting to read the recipe for the stew, although it’s … a bit different. The themed meal sounds great, too. Thank you for sharing all this with us and also linking up to ReadCookEat.
See! Paint-balling sheep are highly amusing! 🙂 I’m so glad you enjoyed reading my post, I really do appreciate your positive feedback, thank you!
I always wondered how people from the ancient (or long distant) past managed to survive on “bread and water” – but with nutritious additions like split beans or beans, it makes a LOT more sense! The bread might not be quite what we expect today, but now I can understand how peasants could fill their bellies with something as simple as bread…
I think if I was starving I’d have been very grateful for this loaf! Half tempted to find a horse to try it on too… ha! 🙂
How interesting, I’ve never seen split peas in bread, looks very authentic.
I think there is a very good reason split peas aren’t used in bread any more! There are much nicer additions which could be added, but in times of desperate hunger I can see how it could be useful.
I’ll have to try that bread, although I suspect my son and husband will prefer my usual whole wheat-flaxmeal-sunflower seed recipe.
Oh, and the paint marks on the rumps of the sheep show that they’ve been bred; the ram wears a marker on his chest to show who he’s serviced.
I suspect I would prefer your whole wheat flaxmeal-sunflower seed recipe too! I think there is a good reason dried split peas stopped being used in bread making, haha! Thanks for the sheep info – I had no idea! I honestly though it had something to do with medication. “Serviced” *Giggles!*
What a beautifully written post. I read Pillars of the Earth many years ago and the story has stayed with me ever since. At the time, I was living in South Africa where there are no great Cathedrals or Abbeys and it was like a different world to me. When I eventually moved to the UK and subsequently visited many beautiful churches I too, imagined the lives that were involved in the many years of building them. I’m not sure why but I never read the sequel – time to pay a visit to Amazon I think.
Aw thank you Angelia 🙂 I’m glad to hear I am not the only one who views churches and cathedrals differently after reading that book. The sequel is superb too – I insist you should read it! 🙂
what a fun meal – I can’t claim to owning any medieval dresses but I do have a medieval recipe book that I have never had time to read and enjoy – the historic breadmaking course sounds fascinating too – and I love the sound of the book – really want to read it now – though I procrastinate enough as it is – I am reading a book I love and can’t wait to get to bed and read each night
Your mediaeval cookery book sounds intriguing! How did you come by that? I’d love to go on a historic breadmaking course myself. Will have to keep an eye out for such things. I urge you, when you get the time, to read Follett’s book – it really is something else!
congratulations on getting your new website up – looks great
re your question, the medieval cookbook was purchased at a medieval exhibition at our state library – it was a huge event with a huge gift shop to visit afterwards – loved it and was intrigued by the cookbook but I have never sat down and read it because it just got lost under my piles of books and has never seen the light of day because I think of it occasionally and then forget it again
oh wow that sounds like it would have been an amazing event! I can be the same with books, sometimes. I’ve a copy of a novel I waited 13 years for it to be released, and it’s been sitting untouched on my bookshelf for another six or seven so!
Thank you so much for your most inspiring story and recipe! The horsebread looks fantastic. I must have seen the name before, as I have read the book ages ago, but it clearly slipped my mind. I would have liked to see your dress as well. I would imagine it was a great meal. I confess I don’t often bake my own bread, but I would love to try your recipe. Years ago I baked a cake with marigold petals for the Tudor-themed party, that is as far historically as I travelled.
Thank you for your kind words! It’s funny how undesirable food back in the Middle Ages is considered a health food now. My how diets change! I did consider getting my husband to photograph me in the dress, but I don’t photograph well so I changed my mind! Your marigold petal cake sounds fantastic, by the way!