# The Daily Lives of Medieval Bakers

An episode of [Human History ASMR](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6793196842), 24 Sep 2026, 59 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75116429/the_daily_lives_of_medieval_bakers_human_voiced_no_ads.mp3

Step into the warm, smoky, and demanding world of the medieval bakery and discover what daily life was really like for the men and women who produced one of the most important foods in medieval Europe. From preparing grain and grinding flour to kneading dough and managing enormous ovens, this episode explores the routines, skills, and hardships behind the medieval loaf. Discover how medieval bakers began their working day long before most people were awake. Explore the process of preparing flour, mixing dough, shaping loaves, controlling fermentation, and baking bread in wood-fired ovens. Learn how temperature, weather, grain quality, and fuel could all determine whether a batch of bread succeeded or failed. Beyond the bakery itself, this episode examines the important role bread played in medieval society. Explore the differences between the bread eaten by wealthy households and the darker, coarser loaves available to poorer communities. Discover how wheat, rye, barley, and other grains shaped diets, and why the price and availability of bread could become matters of serious political and social concern. The episode also explores the working lives of medieval bakers. Discover guild regulations, apprenticeships, working hours, competition, taxes, market rules, and the punishments that could follow dishonest practices. Learn how bakers were expected to maintain weights and measures, provide consistent quality, and operate within increasingly regulated urban economies. Drawing on medieval guild records, household accounts, archaeological discoveries, legal documents, cookbooks, artwork, and historical scholarship, this immersive journey reveals the practical realities behind one of Europe's oldest trades. Explore what historians can reconstruct about medieval baking while separating documented practices from later assumptions and romanticized images of the medieval marketplace. Narrated with a calm, human voice, this episode is perfect for history enthusiasts, medieval history lovers, food history fans, documentary listeners, relaxation, or listening before sleep. Step into the medieval bakery and discover the heat, labor, skill, and everyday routines behind the bread that fed medieval Europe.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Bread. More than just another kind of food in the
[0:05] Speaker 1: Middle Ages. It was life itself. At the break of
[0:09] Speaker 1: dawn in any random medieval town, you could already catch
[0:13] Speaker 1: the glow of a baker's oven and the aroma of
[0:16] Speaker 1: fresh loaves wafting through the streets. Medieval people depended on
[0:21] Speaker 1: their daily bread in the most literal sense. It formed
[0:26] Speaker 1: the bulk of daily meals. And even language reflected this.
[0:31] Speaker 1: The word lord comes from an old English term meaning
[0:36] Speaker 1: loaf guardian and lady from loaf kneader. Just a few
[0:42] Speaker 1: reminders of how fundamental bread was to the lives of
[0:46] Speaker 1: medieval people. Furthermore, in the 13th century, there was a
[0:51] Speaker 1: French poem, Lady de Boulanger. The anonymous author declares that bakers, quote,
[0:58] Speaker 1: support bread. the world, statement that once again speaks to
[1:03] Speaker 1: the indispensable role that these bakers played. And indeed, from
[1:09] Speaker 1: the humblest peasant all the way up to the mightiest noble,
[1:14] Speaker 1: everyone relied on the work of bakers. Yet the life
[1:19] Speaker 1: of a medieval baker was anything but simple. It was
[1:24] Speaker 1: a life of long hours, strenuous labour, and one that
[1:29] Speaker 1: was governed by strict regulations, fought with both risk and reward.
[1:35] Speaker 1: And so today, we are going to look at the
[1:40] Speaker 1: world of medieval bakers across Europe, from their daily routines,
[1:45] Speaker 1: the guilds and regulations that shaped the trade, the social
[1:50] Speaker 1: importance of their craft, and of course, the challenges that
[1:54] Speaker 1: they faced. Fortunately, we have plenty of contemporary medieval sources
[2:00] Speaker 1: and a bit of modern research and recent archaeology to
[2:04] Speaker 1: illuminate the topic, the good, the bad, and the truly fascinating.
[2:11] Speaker 1: Of course, I'll be doing my best to add in
[2:16] Speaker 1: as many little bread and baking puns as I can
[2:19] Speaker 1: along the way for you. It's the yeast I can do. Well,
[2:25] Speaker 1: let me welcome you to the channel first. Welcome. Anybody
[2:30] Speaker 1: new here, it's good to meet you. And if you've
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[3:15] Speaker 1: pinned comment, or channel description. You'll find where you need
[3:19] Speaker 1: to go if you want to go there. But let's
[3:23] Speaker 1: all get relaxed, and we can begin. So, as we
[3:29] Speaker 1: probably already know, throughout medieval Europe, bread was the staple food.
[3:35] Speaker 1: And that's not just for the poor, but for the
[3:38] Speaker 1: rich as well. There was even a common saying of
[3:41] Speaker 1: the time that described bread as the staff of life.
[3:47] Speaker 1: Perhaps it's a bit of an exaggeration, or perhaps it isn't.
[3:52] Speaker 1: You see, in many regions, adults consumed remarkable quantities of
[3:57] Speaker 1: bread daily. Let's look at 14th century France, for example.
[4:02] Speaker 1: An average person might eat around a kilogram of bread
[4:06] Speaker 1: a day, so that's around two pounds. Now that's a
[4:11] Speaker 1: heavy reliance, for sure. And that meant this reliance that
[4:16] Speaker 1: the quality and type of bread one ate became matters
[4:20] Speaker 1: of social distinction and survival. Of course, peasants and nobles
[4:26] Speaker 1: alike were certainly both eating bread, but bread is kind
[4:31] Speaker 1: of an umbrella term, isn't it? Even when we think
[4:35] Speaker 1: of bread in our modern sense, we've kind of went
[4:40] Speaker 1: full circle a little bit with it. Bread from the bakery,
[4:44] Speaker 1: of course, is vastly superior to bread from the supermarket.
[4:50] Speaker 1: And of course, you can probably go and get those
[4:52] Speaker 1: cheap loaves of chemical-laden, bleach-drenched bread from the supermarket or Walmart, Tesco,
[5:02] Speaker 1: whatever it is, Woolworths, wherever you shop. And you might
[5:07] Speaker 1: only pay $ 2, something like that. But if you go
[5:11] Speaker 1: to an actual bakery, you can get the quality stuff. Now,
[5:15] Speaker 1: you're going to pay more for it, sure. But once
[5:19] Speaker 1: you have it once... You'll never go back. It's like
[5:23] Speaker 1: going to the butcher. You get the actual good meat.
[5:27] Speaker 1: You'll never go to the supermarket again. In any case,
[5:30] Speaker 1: in medieval times, the simplest fare was the dense and
[5:35] Speaker 1: dark loaf of the peasantry, made from those coarse grains.
[5:40] Speaker 1: So think about a multi-grain bread in our modern vernacular. Now,
[5:45] Speaker 1: peasants in England, for instance, often ate rye or barley bread.
[5:50] Speaker 1: which had a brownish colour and a heavy filling texture,
[5:56] Speaker 1: something you'd have with a nice soup or a pottage,
[6:00] Speaker 1: something like that. Now, in parts of France, the common
[6:03] Speaker 1: loaf was meslin bread, or maslin in England, a mixture
[6:09] Speaker 1: of wheat and rye flours that combined a bit of
[6:12] Speaker 1: the prized wheat with the cheaper and hardier rye to
[6:17] Speaker 1: add it out a little bit, make it last. that
[6:20] Speaker 1: these mixed grain breads were filling and had the advantage
[6:23] Speaker 1: of a longer shelf life than pure wheat bread. But
[6:29] Speaker 1: they were also coarser and harder to chew, hence you
[6:33] Speaker 1: would have it with a soup or some oatmeal, something
[6:36] Speaker 1: like that. Just makes it easier to go down. Or
[6:40] Speaker 1: you just have a bit of beer with it, the
[6:42] Speaker 1: medieval drink of choice. Ale, mead, perhaps. Or by contrast,
[6:48] Speaker 1: The wealthy enjoyed fine white bread made from refined wheat flour,
[6:55] Speaker 1: which is quite ironic because the white bread nowadays is
[7:00] Speaker 1: seen as the cheaper loaf, but the moldy grain, quote,
[7:04] Speaker 1: artisan bread, is seen as the, well, a little bit
[7:09] Speaker 1: more expensive, a little bit of a nicer bread, a
[7:12] Speaker 1: bit of a reversal from medieval times to modern times.
[7:18] Speaker 1: Nobles in the world, too, in England, dined on soft
[7:21] Speaker 1: white loaves known as manchettes, or pandemimans, pan being the
[7:29] Speaker 1: French word for bread, by the way. It was later
[7:31] Speaker 1: called pandemans. These were often made from the flour sifted
[7:37] Speaker 1: to remove all of the bran. The slightly lower-grade white bread,
[7:42] Speaker 1: often called westol, was made from good wheat flour that
[7:47] Speaker 1: was not quite thoroughly sifted. This might be eaten by
[7:51] Speaker 1: prosperous town folks and merchants. Meanwhile, the poorest folks sometimes
[7:56] Speaker 1: had to make do with what was called horse bread, which, well,
[8:02] Speaker 1: was quite aptly named. It was composed of whatever grains
[8:06] Speaker 1: or legumes were available, rye oats, pea or bean flour,
[8:13] Speaker 1: or even acorns or chestnuts. You better cut them up
[8:17] Speaker 1: a bit small, they're a little bit hard to chew.
[8:19] Speaker 1: Of course, a loaf like that was dense, dark, and
[8:23] Speaker 1: only lightly leavened. And it meant more to stave off
[8:28] Speaker 1: hunger than to be enjoyed. Hard times, I suppose. But
[8:35] Speaker 1: bread not only filled stomachs, you see, it also carried
[8:38] Speaker 1: a symbolic weight in medieval culture. Sharing bread was an
[8:44] Speaker 1: emblem of fellowship. And actually, the very word companion derives
[8:51] Speaker 1: from the Latin com-panis, meaning with bread. That indicates somebody
[8:57] Speaker 1: with whom you break bread with. Of course, the modern
[9:02] Speaker 1: French pan-panis coming from that too. Now, the importance of
[9:08] Speaker 1: bread is further evident in how it delineated social status
[9:11] Speaker 1: at the table. Think about that phrase, upper crust. It's
[9:16] Speaker 1: still used today to denote the elite. It has its
[9:20] Speaker 1: roots in a medieval dining practice of literally cutting off
[9:23] Speaker 1: the upper part of the loaf, and that is the
[9:26] Speaker 1: finest and least burnt portion, to serve lords and distinguished guests.
[9:35] Speaker 1: In great households, the lord of the manor would be
[9:38] Speaker 1: served with the soft top of a well-baked loaf, while
[9:41] Speaker 1: the blackened bottom crust, inevitably sooty from the wood-fired oven floor,
[9:49] Speaker 1: might be given to servants or the poor. In fact,
[9:53] Speaker 1: bread was so central to meals that it often doubled
[9:56] Speaker 1: as dishware. Thick slices of stale bread called trenches were
[10:01] Speaker 1: used as plates for serving food. It's kind of like,
[10:06] Speaker 1: I don't know in your country if you have cob loaves,
[10:09] Speaker 1: but in Australia we have that, and sometimes they'll hollow
[10:13] Speaker 1: out some bread, they'll put some stuff in it, some
[10:16] Speaker 1: of the best Eastern European food is just meat stuffed
[10:21] Speaker 1: into bread. You really cannot go wrong with that, can't you? Well,
[10:27] Speaker 1: after absorbing the meat juices and sauces during the meal,
[10:32] Speaker 1: these trencher slices were usually given to beggars or perhaps
[10:36] Speaker 1: to feed dogs, so they wouldn't actually eat that stale bread.
[10:41] Speaker 1: It was just, well, used as a serving apparatus. In
[10:45] Speaker 1: any case, it was another efficient way to ensure that
[10:49] Speaker 1: nothing edible went to waste. When they say edible, of course,
[10:54] Speaker 1: they mean edible to beggars and dogs, not to the
[10:57] Speaker 1: normal working man. The ubiquity of bread in the medieval
[11:03] Speaker 1: diet did come with its own perils, however. You see,
[11:08] Speaker 1: a bad grain harvest, that could spell nothing short of catastrophe.
[11:13] Speaker 1: and dependence on certain grains could literally poison people. Rye bread,
[11:22] Speaker 1: a mainstay for many peasant communities, carried the risk of
[11:25] Speaker 1: developing ergot, a fungus that flourished in damp conditions and
[11:31] Speaker 1: turned rye kernels dark and toxic. These unfortunate enough to
[11:37] Speaker 1: eat ergot-infected bread fell victim to ergotism. known in medieval
[11:43] Speaker 1: times as St. Anthony's Fire, for the burning sensations and
[11:47] Speaker 1: convulsions it caused. Outbreaks of this affliction could kill or
[11:52] Speaker 1: maim thousands. Chroniclers in Germany recorded ghastly scenes of sufferers'
[11:58] Speaker 1: limbs turning black and even falling off due to gangrene.
[12:03] Speaker 1: Such was the fear of corrupted bread that an order
[12:06] Speaker 1: of monks, the Antonines, dedicated themselves to caring for ergotism victims,
[12:13] Speaker 1: and the disease itself came to be called after their
[12:16] Speaker 1: patron saint. Even when the grain was sound, the hunger
[12:22] Speaker 1: of hard times forced people to get creative, or perhaps desperate,
[12:28] Speaker 1: with bread ingredients. There are accounts of famine-time loaves being
[12:34] Speaker 1: bulked out with sawdust, moss, or chalk. This was not
[12:40] Speaker 1: standard practice by any means, but it does show the
[12:43] Speaker 1: lengths to which people might go to stretch the flour
[12:47] Speaker 1: when food was scarce. Well, bread quite literally meant life
[12:53] Speaker 1: or death, and so it was little surprise that the
[12:56] Speaker 1: craft of the baker was held both in esteem and
[13:00] Speaker 1: under close scrutiny by medieval society. So given the fundamental
[13:07] Speaker 1: importance of bread, The trade of the baker was a
[13:11] Speaker 1: tightly regulated and organized profession in medieval Europe. In towns
[13:16] Speaker 1: and cities, bakers typically operated within the framework of guilds,
[13:22] Speaker 1: formal associations that oversaw the training, standards, and business practices
[13:27] Speaker 1: of their members. You see, a person could not just
[13:31] Speaker 1: set up shop as a baker on a whim. You
[13:34] Speaker 1: usually had to progress through a prescribed path from apprentice
[13:38] Speaker 1: to to journeyman, and finally, master baker. Well, as an apprentice,
[13:47] Speaker 1: a youth, usually a boy in his early teens, would
[13:51] Speaker 1: be indentured to an experienced master to learn the craft.
[13:57] Speaker 1: After years of learning and hard work, the youth would
[14:00] Speaker 1: gain the fundamentals of the trade, and only after a
[14:03] Speaker 1: long apprenticeship would the candidate become a journeyman baker. Now,
[14:08] Speaker 1: a journeyman basically meant that he was free to earn
[14:11] Speaker 1: wages and practice the craft, and journeymen often travelled to
[14:16] Speaker 1: gain experience in different bakeries, spreading techniques, and sometimes jealously
[14:22] Speaker 1: guarding the recipes of their masters. Finally, the most ambitious
[14:28] Speaker 1: or talented could attempt to become a master baker, gaining
[14:35] Speaker 1: the right to open his own bakery shop after presenting
[14:39] Speaker 1: proof of his skill and, of course, paying the requisite
[14:42] Speaker 1: fees to the guild. But the ridders of this journey
[14:46] Speaker 1: ensured that those calling themselves masters were well versed in
[14:51] Speaker 1: the art and science that was bread-making. So bakers' guilds,
[14:57] Speaker 1: they emerged as early as the High Middle Ages in
[14:59] Speaker 1: many cities. London had an organisation of bakers by the
[15:03] Speaker 1: twelfth centuries, a century rather, Record-short fraternity of bakers existed
[15:09] Speaker 1: there by 1155. In Paris, the Corporation of Bakers, also
[15:15] Speaker 1: known by the old term telomeliers, was among the city's
[15:19] Speaker 1: oldest and most prominent guilds. The royal provost of Paris,
[15:25] Speaker 1: Étienne Boileau, compiled the Livre des Métiers in 1268 at
[15:31] Speaker 1: the behest of King Louis IX, which was a comprehensive
[15:34] Speaker 1: list of the rules for trades in Paris. And tellingly,
[15:39] Speaker 1: it begins with the Statute of the Bakers. Well, this code,
[15:46] Speaker 1: running to 61 articles in total, laid out everything from
[15:51] Speaker 1: who could enter the trade and how, stressing the proper
[15:55] Speaker 1: apprenticeship and honest conduct, to the quality of ingredients, and
[16:01] Speaker 1: even the days on which baking was permitted, We learn
[16:05] Speaker 1: from these statutes that baking was not a free-for-all business,
[16:10] Speaker 1: but a closely supervised public service. For example, Parisian bakers
[16:15] Speaker 1: were forbidden to bake on certain holy days and festivals,
[16:18] Speaker 1: a reflection of both religious observance and an attempt to
[16:21] Speaker 1: prevent unfair competition. Only if dough was already in the
[16:27] Speaker 1: oven when a church holiday vigil began could they finish
[16:30] Speaker 1: that bake. Otherwise, their ovens had to go cold in
[16:34] Speaker 1: deference to the sacred calendar. Guild membership also conferred benefits
[16:41] Speaker 1: and protections. As a collective voice, the guild could petition
[16:44] Speaker 1: local authorities for favorable treatment or subsidies when hard times hit.
[16:50] Speaker 1: Guilds often acted to protect their members, ensuring that no
[16:55] Speaker 1: baker would be ruined by arbitrary taxes or predatory nobles.
[17:02] Speaker 1: and there were plenty of them. Bakers in some regions
[17:06] Speaker 1: banded together to resist onerous fees imposed by feudal lords
[17:11] Speaker 1: for the use of mills or ovens, the little creeping
[17:16] Speaker 1: taxes that come up. Clear laws and guild oversight helped
[17:20] Speaker 1: avoid arbitrary punishment, and also fend off competition from unlicensed sellers.
[17:26] Speaker 1: The guilds maintained quality control as well, that was another
[17:30] Speaker 1: important part. They inspected members' bread, ensured weights were honours,
[17:36] Speaker 1: and fined those who cut the corners. You get it?
[17:41] Speaker 1: Cut the corners of the bread, you know. Anyway, this
[17:45] Speaker 1: self-policing was in the guild's interest, since one deceitful baker's
[17:51] Speaker 1: scandal could tarnish the reputation of all. The guild structure
[17:56] Speaker 1: also created a tight-knit professional community, too. Members met on
[18:01] Speaker 1: regular occasions and participated in religious observances together. Most guilds
[18:07] Speaker 1: had patron saints and held an annual feast day. The
[18:12] Speaker 1: patron saint of bakers, of course, varied by region. In Paris,
[18:16] Speaker 1: for example, bakers initially venerated Saint Lazare, perhaps seeking protection
[18:22] Speaker 1: from leprosy due to their constant exposure to heat. But
[18:26] Speaker 1: later they adopted Saint Honoré, as their chief patron, a
[18:31] Speaker 1: 6th century French bishop who, according to legend, had been
[18:34] Speaker 1: a baker before he entered the clergy. In many parts
[18:38] Speaker 1: of Germany and Alsace, similarly bakers placed themselves under the
[18:43] Speaker 1: care of St. Nicholas, and often used the pretzel, a
[18:47] Speaker 1: traditional bread with religious origins, as a symbol on their
[18:52] Speaker 1: signs and seals. These religious ties were not merely symbolic, though.
[18:58] Speaker 1: They fostered solidarity and spiritual comfort in a very demanding occupation.
[19:04] Speaker 1: When a baker fell ill or a family member died,
[19:07] Speaker 1: the guild would rally and provide aid, for example, delivering
[19:12] Speaker 1: bread to the family or perhaps even covering funeral costs.
[19:19] Speaker 1: All these elements, the years of training, the examinations and fees,
[19:25] Speaker 1: the shared sense and standards, It gave the guild baker
[19:30] Speaker 1: a distinct identity and pride. Bakers were keenly aware that
[19:34] Speaker 1: their craft was extremely important. The poet of the Dix
[19:40] Speaker 1: de Blanche might have been poetic in claiming bakers support
[19:44] Speaker 1: the world, but it rang true in an age where
[19:48] Speaker 1: bread comprised the bulk of most people's meals if you
[19:52] Speaker 1: don't eat you're dead of this importance of course came
[19:58] Speaker 1: heavy expectations lots of pressure and the baker's guilds knew
[20:05] Speaker 1: that the eyes of both the authorities and the public
[20:08] Speaker 1: were always upon them. So what about the daily routine, though?
[20:16] Speaker 1: What was it actually like? The normal work of a baker? Well,
[20:25] Speaker 1: long before sunrise, the master and his household, which could
[20:29] Speaker 1: include apprentices, journeymen, and perhaps other family members, were already
[20:34] Speaker 1: hard at work by flickering candlelight, and the red glow
[20:38] Speaker 1: of the oven's fire. Not bad for a winter job,
[20:42] Speaker 1: I suppose. Baking was largely a pre-dawn activity, so that
[20:48] Speaker 1: fresh bread could be ready for the markets and customers
[20:51] Speaker 1: in the morning. First order of business each night was
[20:55] Speaker 1: to prepare the oven. Medieval ovens were typically large, domed
[21:00] Speaker 1: constructions made of stone or brick. Think about a wood-fire
[21:04] Speaker 1: pizza oven, that kind of thing. but because ovens got
[21:08] Speaker 1: extremely hot and posed a serious fire hazard, they were
[21:11] Speaker 1: often built as separate structures, sometimes even at the edge
[21:15] Speaker 1: of town or outside city walls to mitigate risk. The
[21:19] Speaker 1: baker's team would kindle a fire inside the oven and
[21:22] Speaker 1: heat it until the masonry was scorching hot, then sweep
[21:26] Speaker 1: out the coals and embers with a long-handed broom. Once
[21:31] Speaker 1: the oven's interior was adequately heated, the remaining ash was removed.
[21:36] Speaker 1: There was no thermometer. or thermostat, of course. You just
[21:40] Speaker 1: had to judge that heat by experience. The baker would
[21:44] Speaker 1: do this by occasionally tossing a bit of flour inside
[21:47] Speaker 1: to see if it scorched instantly. While the oven was
[21:52] Speaker 1: being fired, other members of the bakery team were busy
[21:55] Speaker 1: grinding grain and mixing dough. Flour was the baker's primary ingredient,
[22:01] Speaker 1: and obtaining good flour was an ongoing concern. Many bakers
[22:06] Speaker 1: purchased their flour ready ground from millers, who were themselves
[22:12] Speaker 1: crucial figures in the food supply chain, by the way.
[22:15] Speaker 1: Large towns had water mills or windmills that could produce
[22:19] Speaker 1: flour in quantity, but in some cases bakers still did
[22:23] Speaker 1: a bit of milling or sifting on site. They used
[22:27] Speaker 1: hand-driven cairn stones for small batches and passed flour through
[22:32] Speaker 1: cloth or hair sieves to achieve a finer purity. The
[22:37] Speaker 1: introduction of hair sieves around the 11th century allowed for
[22:41] Speaker 1: much finer white flour than previously possible, enabling bakers to
[22:46] Speaker 1: create multiple grades of bread for different customers with different
[22:51] Speaker 1: needs and resources. So with the flour ready, the baker
[22:55] Speaker 1: mixed it with some water and some form of leavening
[22:59] Speaker 1: to make dough. Yeast in the medieval bakery was not
[23:04] Speaker 1: a packaged commodity. but rather byproduct of fermentation. A common
[23:09] Speaker 1: source was brewer's yeast, a frothy balm from ale brewing,
[23:14] Speaker 1: which bakers would collect and add to the dough. Many
[23:18] Speaker 1: bakers also maintained a sourdough starter, a bit of old
[23:23] Speaker 1: fermented dough kept alive from batch to batch, which naturally
[23:27] Speaker 1: leavened the new dough. As for managing yeast, well, that
[23:32] Speaker 1: was a delicate art, too. Too little and the bread
[23:35] Speaker 1: would be dense. Too much and the dough might over-ferment
[23:40] Speaker 1: and collapse. So it was a gentle balance, and the
[23:44] Speaker 1: baker had to time everything just right, coordinating the rising
[23:48] Speaker 1: of the dough with the heating of the oven. Kneading
[23:54] Speaker 1: the dough was one of the most labor-intensive parts of
[23:57] Speaker 1: the process. Contemporary illustrations and accounts often show bakers stripped
[24:03] Speaker 1: down to their shirts, sweating over huge wooden kneading troughs.
[24:09] Speaker 1: In a busy bakehouse the dough quantities were enormous, enough
[24:13] Speaker 1: to yield dozens upon dozens of loaves, and all it
[24:17] Speaker 1: was worked by hand, occasionally by foot or elbow. You
[24:23] Speaker 1: wouldn't want to be eating the dough kneaded by someone's
[24:26] Speaker 1: dirty old feet, wouldn't you? Well, it could take 15
[24:31] Speaker 1: minutes or more of vigorous heaving and folding to develop
[24:34] Speaker 1: the gluten and eventually distribute the yeast. Apprentices and journeymen
[24:40] Speaker 1: provided much of this brute labor, developing the baker's muscles
[24:46] Speaker 1: needed for the train. And you could only imagine the
[24:49] Speaker 1: forearms that they would get. Very strong. They're not forearms,
[24:55] Speaker 1: they're five-arms. Of course, flour dust hung thick in the air,
[25:02] Speaker 1: coating the work surfaces and often the bakers themselves in
[25:04] Speaker 1: a fine white powder. Well, once the dough was of
[25:10] Speaker 1: the right consistency and had risen sufficiently, it was shaped
[25:14] Speaker 1: into loaves. Medieval loaves could be round, oblong, or sometimes
[25:19] Speaker 1: even ring-shaped. But the typical loaf was a simple round.
[25:25] Speaker 1: In French, a standard round loaf was called a miche.
[25:28] Speaker 1: The term boulanger for baker actually comes from boule, meaning
[25:33] Speaker 1: ball or round loaf. The more you know. Well, bakers
[25:39] Speaker 1: made loaves of various sizes, of course, often standardized by weight.
[25:44] Speaker 1: For example, in England, the assize of bread defined how
[25:48] Speaker 1: much a farthing loaf, that is a loaf sold for
[25:50] Speaker 1: a quarter penny, should weigh when wheat cost a certain amount.
[25:56] Speaker 1: To identify their products, bakers would sometimes mark their loaves,
[26:01] Speaker 1: scoring a pattern or stamping an emblem onto the dough,
[26:04] Speaker 1: so that if an inspector found an underweight loaf, the
[26:07] Speaker 1: offending bakery could be recognized by its mark. Pretty clever. Well,
[26:14] Speaker 1: in general, bakers took care to produce uniform, quality product,
[26:20] Speaker 1: both out of pride and also to avoid trouble with
[26:24] Speaker 1: the authorities, or the guild, rather. Well, when the oven
[26:30] Speaker 1: was ready, and the dough had sufficiently risen, the baker
[26:35] Speaker 1: skillfully loaded the loaves into the oven, using a long-handled
[26:39] Speaker 1: wooden paddle called a peel. This tool is quite similar
[26:43] Speaker 1: to those used by pizza makers today. It allowed bakers
[26:46] Speaker 1: to reach deep inside the hot oven and place loaves
[26:50] Speaker 1: on the hearth, that is, the oven floor, without burning themselves.
[26:54] Speaker 1: Of course, burning yourself, that was... Well, you were pretty
[26:59] Speaker 1: much just going to burn yourself at some point or another. Well,
[27:04] Speaker 1: it took strength and dexterity to load an oven quickly
[27:07] Speaker 1: and efficiently. Dozens of loaves might need to go in
[27:11] Speaker 1: for a single bake. And once they were all in,
[27:14] Speaker 1: the oven door was closed to retain the heat. There
[27:18] Speaker 1: was no precise timing by the clock. Instead, bakers relied
[27:22] Speaker 1: on experience and cues like the changing aroma of the bread.
[27:27] Speaker 1: or the colour of a test loaf. After sufficient time,
[27:31] Speaker 1: the loaves were drawn out one by one with the peel.
[27:35] Speaker 1: Because the oven floor could never be perfectly clean of
[27:38] Speaker 1: ash and soot, most loaves emerged with a blackened bottom crust,
[27:43] Speaker 1: and the customers expected that it was just the way
[27:46] Speaker 1: it was. In manor houses, the servants routinely slipped off
[27:50] Speaker 1: the bottom of each loaf, reserving the upper crust for
[27:54] Speaker 1: the Lord's table, as noted earlier. Well, after baking, today's
[27:59] Speaker 1: bread was sold, and many bakers ran a small shop
[28:03] Speaker 1: just outside where they were doing their work, where customers
[28:06] Speaker 1: came each morning to get a little bit of breakfast.
[28:11] Speaker 1: Others sold at stalls in the marketplaces, and some sent
[28:15] Speaker 1: hawkers through the streets to peddle the bread. Large orders
[28:20] Speaker 1: for monasteries or noble households might be delivered by cart.
[28:26] Speaker 1: Any unsold loaves were by the day's end given to
[28:29] Speaker 1: the poor, ground into breadcrumbs for cooking, or dried into
[28:34] Speaker 1: rusks to keep longer. And then the baker cleaned up,
[28:40] Speaker 1: and ready to start the cycle again the next night. Well,
[28:47] Speaker 1: because bread was such a critical commodity, medieval authorities made
[28:50] Speaker 1: extraordinary attention to how it was made, and also how
[28:54] Speaker 1: it was sold. The most famous regulations were the English
[28:58] Speaker 1: assize of bread and ale, first promulgated in the 13th
[29:02] Speaker 1: century under Henry III. This law was actually one of
[29:06] Speaker 1: the earliest pieces of consumer protection legislation in Europe. It
[29:11] Speaker 1: regulated the price, the weight, and the quality of bread,
[29:16] Speaker 1: as well as ale, of course. This was all to
[29:19] Speaker 1: ensure fairness and to prevent profiteering. Well, in effect, the
[29:25] Speaker 1: assize fixed how much bread one should get per penny paid,
[29:30] Speaker 1: adjusting the required loaf weight as the grain prices rose
[29:34] Speaker 1: or fell. If grain became expensive, the baker was allowed
[29:38] Speaker 1: to sell smaller loaves at the same price so that
[29:42] Speaker 1: he could recoup his costs. And if grain became cheaper,
[29:46] Speaker 1: the loaves were expected to be larger. In theory, this
[29:50] Speaker 1: protected consumers from overpricing and also ensured that even in
[29:55] Speaker 1: lean times, the poor could at least get a little
[29:59] Speaker 1: bit of bread. The assize of bread was rigorously enforced
[30:04] Speaker 1: in England for centuries, and remarkably, it remained on the
[30:09] Speaker 1: law books until the nineteenth century. While other parts of
[30:15] Speaker 1: medieval Europe had similar ordinances, many towns on the continent
[30:20] Speaker 1: were knew that riots could break out over bread if
[30:23] Speaker 1: prices skyrocketed or loaves were too small. City councils and princes, therefore,
[30:31] Speaker 1: set rules to preempt public unrest. For example, some local
[30:37] Speaker 1: laws in Italy and Germany specified standard weights for loaves
[30:41] Speaker 1: and fixed maximum prices during shortages. In France, royal edicts
[30:46] Speaker 1: and town charters likewise established oversight of bakers. Paris had
[30:51] Speaker 1: officials known as boulangers jures, that is, sworn baker inspectors,
[30:57] Speaker 1: tasked with checking bread in the markets and certifying fair weight.
[31:04] Speaker 1: Enforcement of bread laws was taken very seriously. Periodically, local authorities,
[31:11] Speaker 1: sometimes the mayor, sometimes market inspectors or even knights appointed
[31:16] Speaker 1: as bread wardens, would visit bakeries or examine bread for sale.
[31:22] Speaker 1: They would weigh loaves to ensure they matched the legal standard,
[31:26] Speaker 1: and we've actually got records of such inspections going on
[31:28] Speaker 1: in London, where city officers seized underweight loaves and identified
[31:34] Speaker 1: the baker by the stamp on the bread. If a
[31:37] Speaker 1: baker was found guilty of giving deficient weight or otherwise
[31:42] Speaker 1: violating the assays, punishments followed an escalating scale. Well, for
[31:50] Speaker 1: the first offence, you'd probably just get away with a fine.
[31:54] Speaker 1: The baker would be immersed at his penalised sum of
[31:56] Speaker 1: money proportional to the offence. A second offence could bring
[32:02] Speaker 1: a heavier fine and a stern warning. But if a
[32:06] Speaker 1: baker was a repeat offender or committed a serious fraud,
[32:11] Speaker 1: he would be put into the oven and turned into
[32:15] Speaker 1: bread himself. No, I'm joking. But in any case, the
[32:21] Speaker 1: consequences became public and very humiliating. English law, for example,
[32:26] Speaker 1: prescribed the pillory for persistent, dishonest bakers. And the pillory
[32:32] Speaker 1: was basically a wooden framework set up in a public
[32:35] Speaker 1: square with holes for the offender's head and hands. You
[32:39] Speaker 1: know the one I'm talking about. A convicted baker would
[32:42] Speaker 1: be locked in the pillory, exposed for hours to the
[32:47] Speaker 1: jeers and occasional throwing of rotten vegetables of the townspeople.
[32:54] Speaker 1: But this public shaming was intended as a deterrent and
[32:57] Speaker 1: a way to restore trust by making an example of
[33:01] Speaker 1: dishonest people. There are colourful accounts of pilloried bakers too.
[33:09] Speaker 1: One chronicle recounts a baker who was dragged through the
[33:12] Speaker 1: streets with a weight-deficient loaf hung around his neck as
[33:16] Speaker 1: a sign of his crime. before being clamped in the pillory.
[33:23] Speaker 1: Women bakers, too, could face such punishment. A 1310 record
[33:27] Speaker 1: tells of female bakers from outside London who were arrested
[33:32] Speaker 1: for sending underweight bread into the city, and were duly
[33:36] Speaker 1: pilloried for it. In some cases, instead of the pillory,
[33:42] Speaker 1: the baker might be paraded on a hurdle, or thrown
[33:46] Speaker 1: into a tumbril, which is a kind of cart or
[33:50] Speaker 1: stool kind of thing, well, again, to be pelted by
[33:54] Speaker 1: the angry customers. And for the truly poor businessman, the
[34:02] Speaker 1: one that just cannot stop, authorities could strip a baker
[34:08] Speaker 1: of their profession entirely, banishing him from the guild and
[34:14] Speaker 1: forbidding him to bake bread for public sale henceforth. your
[34:18] Speaker 1: bread-making days are over. Well, given that baking was one's
[34:23] Speaker 1: life trade, this, of course, was a devastating punishment. These
[34:30] Speaker 1: strict measures show how trust was the cornerstone of the
[34:34] Speaker 1: baker's relationship with the public. A medieval housewife needed confidence
[34:40] Speaker 1: that the loaf she bought for her family was honest
[34:43] Speaker 1: in weight and wholesome in quantity. Well, any hint that
[34:49] Speaker 1: bakers might cheat could erode social stability, hence the keen
[34:54] Speaker 1: interests of city elders and kings in bread regulation. Rulers
[35:00] Speaker 1: sometimes issued special edicts against specific abusers. King Edward I
[35:04] Speaker 1: of England, for example, in the late 13th century, forbid
[35:08] Speaker 1: bakers from using ground bone or chalk to whiten bread flour. Well,
[35:15] Speaker 1: the penalty for using such deceptive additives was, quite fittingly,
[35:21] Speaker 1: an hour in the public pillory. You better hope that
[35:25] Speaker 1: word does not spread quickly. But of course, human nature
[35:31] Speaker 1: is what it is, isn't it? Some bakers tried to
[35:33] Speaker 1: outsmart the system. Everyone's trying to get something for nothing,
[35:37] Speaker 1: aren't they? Medieval records and later commentary give us a
[35:41] Speaker 1: sense of the tricks of a bad baker. Some mixed
[35:47] Speaker 1: cheaper flours like bean or pea flour into wheat and
[35:50] Speaker 1: failed to disclose it, conveniently. Or they used spoiled grain
[35:55] Speaker 1: and excess bran in breads meant for the poor. But
[36:00] Speaker 1: more deviously, a few scoundrel bakers even attempted to hide
[36:06] Speaker 1: unlawful substances in their loaves. There are reports of bread
[36:11] Speaker 1: padded with chalk or loaded with a lump of metal
[36:14] Speaker 1: to increase its weight, which I assume you would find
[36:19] Speaker 1: that out when you bit down on it, right? I mean,
[36:23] Speaker 1: pretty obvious. In any case, such extreme frauds were certainly
[36:27] Speaker 1: not the norm. They were the medieval equivalent of horror stories.
[36:32] Speaker 1: But when they did happen, they were harshly punished when uncovered.
[36:36] Speaker 1: In fact, the need to stay on the safe side
[36:39] Speaker 1: of the law might have given rise to the tradition
[36:42] Speaker 1: of the baker's dozen. Now, a normal dozen is twelve.
[36:46] Speaker 1: but a baker's dozen means thirteen. According to tradition, English bakers,
[36:53] Speaker 1: wary of being fined or flogged for selling short weight,
[36:57] Speaker 1: developed the practice of adding a free extra loaf for
[37:01] Speaker 1: every dozen. By giving thirteen loaves when a customer ordered twelve,
[37:06] Speaker 1: the baker provided a safety margin to ensure the total
[37:09] Speaker 1: weight was at least what it should be. This practice,
[37:13] Speaker 1: recorded since the thirteenth century, served as a kind of
[37:17] Speaker 1: insurance policy for the baker. A small loss in profit
[37:22] Speaker 1: to avoid the far greater cost of a brush with
[37:26] Speaker 1: the law. Well, despite all these regulations, or indeed, probably
[37:33] Speaker 1: because of them, many bakers took their responsibilities seriously and
[37:38] Speaker 1: cultivated reputations for honesty. Guild records show that upright bakers
[37:45] Speaker 1: often supported the enforcement of standards, since it kept rogues
[37:49] Speaker 1: from undercutting them. And authorities, for their part, recognized that
[37:55] Speaker 1: bakers provided an essential service and needed fair treatment. So
[38:01] Speaker 1: during extreme situations like famines, this relationship could become quite strained.
[38:09] Speaker 1: Rulers might temporarily suspend the usual rules, ordering bakers to
[38:15] Speaker 1: sell bread cheaply or distribute stocks to the hungry even
[38:18] Speaker 1: at a personal loss. Guilds sometimes negotiated subsidies, or grain
[38:24] Speaker 1: allotments in such cases, to keep their members from going bankrupt.
[38:29] Speaker 1: In the late 14th century, for instance, the city of Florence,
[38:32] Speaker 1: during a shortage, fixed bread prices so low that bakers
[38:37] Speaker 1: could barely afford to do their job. The bakers' guild
[38:41] Speaker 1: petitioned for access to cheaper government grain to continue their work.
[38:46] Speaker 1: The legal framework around bread was thus a delicate balancing act,
[38:51] Speaker 1: ensuring affordable bread and preventing fraud while also keeping bakers
[38:55] Speaker 1: in business. The elaborate rules and the longevity of the
[38:59] Speaker 1: assize of bread attest that bread was far too important
[39:03] Speaker 1: to be left to the whims of the market. It was,
[39:07] Speaker 1: in effect, treated as a public utility. with a medieval
[39:11] Speaker 1: baker at the center of a centuries-long early experiment in
[39:15] Speaker 1: consumer protection. Well, let's look at the social hierarchy of
[39:21] Speaker 1: medieval towns. And within that hierarchy, bakers occupied an interesting
[39:27] Speaker 1: middle ground. You see, there were skilled tradespeople, and as
[39:32] Speaker 1: members of a guild they ranked among the middling sort.
[39:36] Speaker 1: They weren't nobles or high clergy, that's for sure, but
[39:41] Speaker 1: they were respectable craftsmen, integral to daily life. A successful
[39:48] Speaker 1: master baker, could be reasonably well to do. Because bread
[39:53] Speaker 1: was in constant demand, a busy baker might turn a
[39:55] Speaker 1: good profit, enabling the baker to own a comfortable house
[39:58] Speaker 1: or contribute to civic projects. And some bakers even served
[40:03] Speaker 1: in town councils or took on municipal roles like market supervision,
[40:09] Speaker 1: indicating a level of esteem and trust placed in them. However,
[40:15] Speaker 1: bakers also faced suspicions and stereotypes. Much like millers who
[40:21] Speaker 1: were infamous for cheating their customers on weight, bakers had
[40:26] Speaker 1: to contend with certain weariness from the public. Common folk
[40:32] Speaker 1: might swap stories about the baker who mixed chalk into
[40:36] Speaker 1: his flour, or one who sold loaves that were half air.
[40:42] Speaker 1: This meant trust had to be earned daily. Bakers did
[40:46] Speaker 1: so by establishing a reputation for fairness and consistency. For example,
[40:52] Speaker 1: a conscientious baker might always give a little extra, hence
[40:56] Speaker 1: the baker's dozen, or make sure his weights were visible
[40:59] Speaker 1: to customers. Small gestures that reassured the public. Guild regulations
[41:07] Speaker 1: often encourage such behavior. On the feast of their patron saint,
[41:12] Speaker 1: baker's guilds would sometimes distribute extra loaves to the poor
[41:16] Speaker 1: as a form of charity and public relations. And not
[41:21] Speaker 1: only was this an act of Christian duty, but it
[41:24] Speaker 1: also demonstrated the guild's commitment to feeding the community, thereby
[41:29] Speaker 1: fostering a bit of goodwill. Now in times of famine
[41:35] Speaker 1: or grain shortage, bakers were often on the front line
[41:38] Speaker 1: of public anger. Hungry crowds could easily suspect bakers of
[41:43] Speaker 1: hoarding grain or profiteering, making them scapegoats when bread grew scarce.
[41:49] Speaker 1: Chronicles recount that in severe crises, authorities sometimes had to
[41:53] Speaker 1: protect bakers from mob violence, or compel them to bake
[41:57] Speaker 1: at controlled prices to feed the populace. In 1527, during
[42:02] Speaker 1: a famine in Lyon, a little bit after the medieval period,
[42:06] Speaker 1: but we'll include it, rioters targeted bakers' shops, prompting the
[42:11] Speaker 1: city to enforce emergency just price measures. Such incidents were
[42:17] Speaker 1: a constant worry for bakers, and rulers in earlier centuries
[42:21] Speaker 1: as well. You see, they show how politically volatile the
[42:26] Speaker 1: food supply could be, and how bakers often bore the
[42:29] Speaker 1: brunt of popular frustration when food ran short. But within
[42:36] Speaker 1: their own community of the Guilden family, bakers navigated challenges
[42:40] Speaker 1: of a different kind. Baking was often a family enterprise.
[42:45] Speaker 1: The master's wife and children commonly worked alongside him, In fact,
[42:50] Speaker 1: many guilds explicitly allowed a baker's widow to continue operating
[42:54] Speaker 1: the bakery if her husband died, at least until she
[42:58] Speaker 1: remarried or her children grew old enough to take over,
[43:01] Speaker 1: recognising that she likely knew the business intimately. And indeed,
[43:08] Speaker 1: women were deeply involved in baking. A baker's wife often
[43:12] Speaker 1: worked in the shop or at the kneading trough, and
[43:17] Speaker 1: widows of bakers frequently kept the business running, sometimes being
[43:21] Speaker 1: officially licensed by the Guild to do so. Illuminated manuscripts
[43:26] Speaker 1: from the later Middle Ages even show women working together
[43:30] Speaker 1: at the oven and at the dough table, indicating that
[43:34] Speaker 1: all female bakeries' workspaces, though not the norm, certainly did exist.
[43:42] Speaker 1: While formal Guild membership was usually closed to women except
[43:45] Speaker 1: through a husband, In practice, many bakeries were family operations
[43:49] Speaker 1: that relied on labour and matchment of wives and daughters.
[43:54] Speaker 1: In London, for example, women known as brewsters or bakesters,
[43:59] Speaker 1: the feminine forms of brewers and bakers, were common in
[44:04] Speaker 1: the early medieval period before guild structures strictly became male.
[44:09] Speaker 1: Even in later periods, the term bakester survived in English
[44:14] Speaker 1: as a surname, baxter. hinting at the legacy of women bakers.
[44:20] Speaker 1: Now women in a bakery, working in a bakery rather,
[44:24] Speaker 1: was physically demanding for anyone, and especially for women in
[44:28] Speaker 1: an age where heavy labour was often presumed to be
[44:31] Speaker 1: men's work. Yet the historical evidence shows that women did
[44:36] Speaker 1: do their share. In some cases, all women teams might
[44:40] Speaker 1: run a bakery, particularly in towns where a widow took
[44:44] Speaker 1: on apprentices or where sisters inherited a bakery. In Montpellier, France,
[44:50] Speaker 1: in the 14th century, records note a widow who successfully
[44:53] Speaker 1: petitioned to continue her late husband's baking business, and another
[44:57] Speaker 1: case in which a mother and daughter team managed a
[45:00] Speaker 1: village bakery. Now these examples show that while the public
[45:05] Speaker 1: image of the baker was typically male, the reality often
[45:08] Speaker 1: involved a husband and wife partnership, or a similar relationship.
[45:13] Speaker 1: family collaboration. In any case, it was all hands on
[45:17] Speaker 1: deck in this enterprise. But bakers were also intimately connected
[45:22] Speaker 1: to millers and the broader feudal economy of food. In
[45:28] Speaker 1: the countryside, feudal obligations often meant that bakers, or peasants
[45:32] Speaker 1: baking themselves, had to use the lord's mill and the
[45:36] Speaker 1: lord's oven, both for a fee, of course, due to
[45:41] Speaker 1: manorial monopolies. This system, common in medieval times, especially early
[45:47] Speaker 1: medieval times with the bannel mill and oven, essentially forced
[45:51] Speaker 1: rural people to rely on the lord's baker or oven keeper.
[45:58] Speaker 1: By contrast, independent town bakers valued the freedom to grind
[46:04] Speaker 1: again and bake in their own facilities without such interference.
[46:09] Speaker 1: The rise of guild-regulated baking in free towns can be
[46:12] Speaker 1: seen as a part of a larger movement away from
[46:14] Speaker 1: fuel controls and toward a market-based urban economy. But what
[46:21] Speaker 1: about the bakers' personal status within the community? Well, bakers
[46:26] Speaker 1: generally enjoyed a reputation as honest, pious folk, or at
[46:31] Speaker 1: least they had to in order to keep their customers
[46:35] Speaker 1: and avoid scrutiny. Their very schedules set them apart. While
[46:40] Speaker 1: others were sleeping, bakers laboured by night, and were among
[46:45] Speaker 1: the first up in the morning, a fact often noted
[46:48] Speaker 1: with appreciation by their neighbours. At the same time, a
[46:53] Speaker 1: lazy or dishonest baker could very quickly find themselves become
[46:57] Speaker 1: a pariah. City records occasionally mention bakers who were boycotted
[47:03] Speaker 1: or even driven out of business by collective anger after
[47:06] Speaker 1: repeated cheating or a scandal, such as selling bread made
[47:11] Speaker 1: from bad flour, getting everybody sick, that kind of thing.
[47:17] Speaker 1: But on the whole, though, as long as a baker
[47:19] Speaker 1: met the community's expectations, providing fair weight, decent quality, and
[47:28] Speaker 1: maybe a little bit of charity, throwing those scraps to
[47:31] Speaker 1: the poor, he and his household would be counted perhaps
[47:35] Speaker 1: among the most respectable of the common citizenry, certainly something
[47:42] Speaker 1: that the community needs. And so, from the pre-dawn kindling
[47:51] Speaker 1: of the oven fire to the careful sale of the
[47:55] Speaker 1: day's loaves, life of a medieval baker was a cycle
[47:59] Speaker 1: of labor and service woven tightly into the fabric of
[48:03] Speaker 1: their communities. We've seen that bread was certainly the cornerstone
[48:08] Speaker 1: of medieval existence, and by extension, bakers were the craftsmen
[48:14] Speaker 1: at that cornerstone, sustaining society day by day with their work.
[48:19] Speaker 1: The rewards of a baker's life included a steady livelihood
[48:23] Speaker 1: and the simple pride of nourishing the community. The hardships,
[48:29] Speaker 1: Will they range from gruelling hours at the oven so
[48:33] Speaker 1: hot to the ever-present fear of penalties for any misstep?
[48:39] Speaker 1: Whether it was on purpose or not, the result is
[48:42] Speaker 1: the same, and so is the punishment. Of course, the
[48:46] Speaker 1: whole craft was filled with these intriguing customs and quirks,
[48:50] Speaker 1: from the invocation of patron saints to the giving of
[48:53] Speaker 1: a baker's dozen to ensure fairness. Behind every loaf of
[48:58] Speaker 1: bread was the toil of a baker who often laboured
[49:00] Speaker 1: through the night so that others could break their fast
[49:03] Speaker 1: each morning. And think about it. If you're listening to
[49:08] Speaker 1: this at perhaps 3am in the morning, perhaps some baker
[49:13] Speaker 1: in our modern era is getting himself ready, or herself ready,
[49:19] Speaker 1: to go off. to the bakery and begin their work
[49:24] Speaker 1: so imagine once more a medieval baker shutting his shop
[49:29] Speaker 1: up at noon after selling out the day's bread his
[49:34] Speaker 1: arms are sore and tired from all that kneading and
[49:39] Speaker 1: the eyes are hurting from the smoke. But perhaps there's
[49:44] Speaker 1: a certain satisfaction in that work. The village or town
[49:49] Speaker 1: will eat today, in part because of his great efforts
[49:53] Speaker 1: the night before. In the grand scheme of kings and popes,
[49:57] Speaker 1: a baker might seem like a minor character, just a
[50:02] Speaker 1: simple craftsman. But to the people lining up for his
[50:06] Speaker 1: lows each dawn, he was nothing less than a lifeline,
[50:11] Speaker 1: Everything is connected. Everybody's role is important. Sometimes people don't
[50:18] Speaker 1: get written into their history books. But that's what videos
[50:21] Speaker 1: like this are for. And it is fitting that in
[50:25] Speaker 1: the Lord's Prayer, one implores, give us this day our
[50:31] Speaker 1: daily bread. For in medieval times, each day's survival truly
[50:35] Speaker 1: depended on those like the baker doing their humble but
[50:38] Speaker 1: vital work. And so the life of medieval bakers with
[50:42] Speaker 1: all of its trials and triumphs ultimately reminds us that
[50:47] Speaker 1: even the most ordinary and forgotten of professions can be
[50:52] Speaker 1: the very thing that, as we said at the start,
[50:56] Speaker 1: supports the world. Well, thank you very much for joining
[51:04] Speaker 1: me today. It's been a while since I actually made bread.
[51:09] Speaker 1: I used to make it quite a lot. And believe me.
[51:14] Speaker 1: The forearms. Well it depends on what kind of bread
[51:19] Speaker 1: that you're making. I used to have a bread maker.
[51:23] Speaker 1: A little machine. Years ago. But it wasn't very good.
[51:30] Speaker 1: You need to buy the big one. You know what
[51:32] Speaker 1: I mean. The big one. Sometimes you'll make the bread.
[51:37] Speaker 1: And it'll. Well, it'll go off if there's too much
[51:41] Speaker 1: humidity or something like this. Sometimes the game's not worth
[51:46] Speaker 1: the candle. But your homework is next time you go
[51:50] Speaker 1: and buy bread, go and buy it from the actual bakery.
[51:54] Speaker 1: Don't get it from the supermarket. It's just not as good.
[51:59] Speaker 1: And you should support those smaller bakeries. Yes, it might
[52:04] Speaker 1: be a little bit more expensive, but what price can
[52:06] Speaker 1: you put on good food? It might only be an
[52:09] Speaker 1: extra 50 cents or one euro or one dollar, whatever
[52:15] Speaker 1: it is for you. In any case, I am going
[52:19] Speaker 1: to thank the people who perhaps don't support the world,
[52:23] Speaker 1: but support the channel. Let me read out the list. Kimberly, Christine, Sally, Amber, Susan, Cameron, Carrie, Charlene, Lynn, Therese, Katiana, Nicholas, Ulf, Edneer, Alexander, Charles, Christine, Dr. Newhornard, Erin, Jaden, Jim, Jeffrey, Jessica, Madeline, Melissa,
[52:42] Speaker 1: Orthodox Review, Scott, Shell, Wendy, Josie, Sarah, Ryan, Thor, Cameron, Stefan, Kevin, HMSH, Crystal, Tauvery, Anthony, Lucy, Brandon, Gugu, Bubonic, Nicholas, Craig, Neftis, Alexander, Gokhan, Dorsey, Benita, Claire, Courtesy, Carol, Robert,
[53:04] Speaker 1: Mary Bridget Nefertari, Yvette, Miss Mochi, Eleven, Allison, Free American, Jennifer, Brittany, David, Cody, Brian,
[53:16] Speaker 1: Are You My Mum, Rhonda, and Carrie. All right, thank
[53:22] Speaker 1: you very much. And I hope I will see you
[53:27] Speaker 1: in the next video. Thank you so much for listening.
[53:30] Speaker 1: Good night for now. Lots of love to you all.
[53:34] Speaker 1: And farewell.

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