# Bread and Milk Loaf

The Hungarian word for bread, kenyér, comes from an ancient Permian language, and we can find its equivalent in the Zyrian, Votyak, and Mordvinian languages as well, only there it means: grits, coarse meal. That is, the word has survived, but the concept originally designated by it has moved through a thousand year long road of historical development, until it has come to mean the leavened common bread of today. Although such leavened bread, made of cereal, looks back on a long past, it was not baked generally in all sections of the linguistic territory. Thus among the eastern Székelys, in the Bodrogköz, and also at other places, it has eclipsed only in more recent times mushy foods and unleavened kinds of tart loaf.

Fig. 141. Wooden tub for kneading dough to make bread.
Szalafö, Vas County. 1930s

The most important basic material of bread in the central part of the Carpathian Basin is wheat, while rye is often primarily in three regions: the West and Central Transdanubia, between the Tisza and the Danube, and on the rolling hills of the Nyírség in the Tiszántúl. Besides wheat the kétszeres (abajdóc, mixture of wheat and rye) was grown in many places, especially in regions connected with the areas named above. Barley was made into bread primarily in Székelyland, and another version baked out of maize occurs in the entire area of Transylvania, as well as in the southern part of Transdanubia.

Preparation of the flour begins the evening before bread baking day. As much flour is brought from the pantry as is needed for as many loaves as they want to bake. First the housewife sifts the flour and pours it in a tub, formerly made of beech wood, later of aspen or willow wood. Then comes the leavening process, two forms of which are known over the linguistic territory. According to one method, they separate a small portion of flour and mix the leaven with it, then cover it with the kovászfa (leaven wood) on the trough, and let the dough mature for several hours. When it has risen, it is kneaded into the rest of the flour, together with the necessary salt and water, and the whole dough is left to rest, so that it may rise. In this way, therefore, the sequence is: leavening, maturing of the leaven, kneading, and rising of the dough. By the other method, they mix and knead together the necessary raw material (flour, water, salt, leaven) all at once, that is to say, they omit leavening. The latter method occurs only rarely.

Fig. 142. A wooden “leaven-stick” (kovászfa), placed on the tub in which the dough is rising underneath the cloth which covers it.
Great Plain. Late 19th century

{288.} The leavening agent may be acquired in many different ways. The simplest method is to put away as much of the leaven after breadmaking as was considered enough for the next baking. Generally, however, leaven is made out of bran for a longer period, for half a year or for the whole year, and mix hops, acacia flowers, the skins of pressed grapes, or the foam of fermenting grape juice are also mixed with it, which all gives the desired taste to the bread. Shop-bought yeast has spread from the end of the last century, for this, along with the leavening agent, ensures that the bread will rise perfectly. A good housewife always has leaven at home, which she does not like to lend to others, because she thinks that this might have a bad effect on the bread.

148. Baking bread: mixing leaven
Konrádi, Hajdú-Bihar County

149. Baking bread: forming the dough into loaves
Komádi, Hajdú-Bihar County

150. Basket for the dough of a loaf
Cigánd, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County

Kneading is the hardest of a woman’s chores, made even harder by her having to do it generally at night, because it takes until midnight for the leaven to rise. Then she strains as much warm water on the flour as is needed for the quantity, and breaks the leaven apart. She then kneads in this fashion: she puts her four fingers into the dough, squeezes them together, and pushes the dough forward with her clenched fist. This work goes on for about two hours, until holes form in the dough and it parts easily from the side of the tub. Then she folds the dough up, {289.} places it in one end of the tub, covers it, and lets the whole thing rise.

Fig. 143. Utensils used when placing the bread into the oven.
a) Brush (pemet). b) Wooden implement to draw away the hot ashes. c) Peel for placing the bread into the oven. Region of Őrség. 1930s

151. Bread basket
Cigánd, Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County

Fig. 145. Straw basket to hold bread.
Jászapáti, Szolnok County. Late 19th century

152. Bread inside an oven
Átány, Heves County

She takes a little rest afterwards, but soon starts to heat the oven. This is always done in such a way as to leave one of its interior sides clean. When it is sufficiently hot, she pulls the embers out with a szénvonó (ember-peel), after which she can start to shape the risen bread dough. For this baskets are used made out of bulrush or straw, or in forest {291.} regions vessels carved out of wood. Each is lined with a cloth and the basket is filled with dough. They let the shaped dough rest a while, and finally, begin putting it into the oven with the help of the baker’s shovel.

Fig. 144. Bread-rack.
Velem, Vas County. Late 19th century

This can be done when the bottom of the oven is hot enough to send out sparks when it is touched by the poker. They light to a small piece of wood and set it into the centre of the first loaf, so that it lights up the entire hearth. The large-sized and always round-based loaves generally take three hours to bake in the ovens of the Great Plain. For the small loaf (cipó), which is about half the size of the others, a shorter time is sufficient. When they take the loaves out, the bottom of the loaf is brushed clean with whisks made out of a goose wing in the Great Plain, and the top part is washed with lukewarm water to attain a nice, shiny reddish-brown colour.

Baking bread was generally done once a week for the whole week, and according to the saying: “a good housewife bakes on Saturday and washes on Monday” (Hódmezővásárhely). This meant fresh bread on the Sunday table. To cut the first slice of bread is the task of the head of the family, who in Catholic areas drew a cross on the bottom of it. The bread he had begun to slice was generally kept in the front room, covered, at the end of the bench, or in the table drawer. They kept whole loaves in the pantry on variously shaped bread racks, or perhaps in baskets woven from bulrush, so that the mice could not get at them.

A piece of the dough may be broken off, or the dough scraped off the side of the bread tub, and this is kneaded together into a bun-like fist-sized bun, vakaró, a favourite early morning treat of children. The lángos (flat bread), stretched into tart shape, was also baked of bread dough and was made tastier with sour cream. They put it into the oven near the opening, because half an hour’s baking was sufficient and it could be taken out more easily from there. Lángos bread is a favourite morning meal on a bread-baking day.

Fig. 146. Stick for baking a pastry rolled like a funnel (kürtőskalács).
a) Székelyland b) Kalotaszeg. Late 19th century

The milk loaf (kalács) is also made of raised dough, primarily for holidays or other outstanding occasions. The best kind is kneaded out of flour, milk, sugar, and perhaps eggs, then allowed to rise. Its original form is round, as its name, taken from Slavic, also implies. Milk loaf may be formed deftly by hand; human and dove shapes were popular. A long cylinder form braided from dough was also popular. Milk loaves shaped similarly to pretzels, with open-work like a window (ablakos) or like a key (kulcsos) are usually made for weddings and are used to treat the wedding party. A flask or bottle, filled with wine, was decorated with a round-shaped milk loaf with a hole in the centre pulled on its neck and presented to the priest who officiated at the wedding. Recently various moulds have become popular, depicting fishes, doves, roses. These are made of earthenware or tin. One baked loaf version is the kuglóf, known primarily in Transdanubia. It came from the Austrian kitchen during the first half of the 19th century.

153. Baking pastry horn wound around a stick
Jobbágytelke, former Maros-Torda County

Most of the raised pastries are also baked in the oven, although some were baked over an open fire. Among these we can mention the kürtőskalács (pastry horn), well known in Transylvania. Finger-wide dough is rolled on a wooden stick and turned over the open fire until it is baked through. The flat bread called lángos is fried in lard. It is made of {292.} dough similar to bread or milk loaf dough, and is widely spread not only in the villages but in the cities as well. The csöröge (fritter-like pastry) is cut out with different moulds, formed into different shapes, and fried in lard or oil.

Pastries made of raised dough are still generally used in peasant households, although they are slowly being eclipsed.