can be devoted to the varieties of bakers’
goods.The Middle Ages
During the European Middle Ages, bakers
were specialists, producing either common
brown or luxurious white bread. It wasn’t
until the 17th century that improvements in
milling and in per capita income led to the
wide availability of more or less white bread
and the dissolution of the brown guild as a
separate body. In northern areas, rye, barley,
and oats were more common than wheat and
were made into coarse, heavy breads. One use
of flat bread at this time was the “trencher,” a
dense, dry, thick slice that served as a plate at
medieval meals and then was either eaten or
given away to the poor. And pastry was often
made to serve as a kind of all-purpose cooking
and storage container, a protective and edible
wrapping for meat dishes in particular.