….Getting or eating or merely seeing a loaf of white bread signifies harshness and strife for any dreamer.
….If someone dreams of eating white bread he will get profit sufficient for life’s sustenance. But if the bread is hot, he will fall ill.
(Dreambooks in Byzantium: Six Oneirocritica in Translation, with Commentary and Introduction, Steven M. Oberhelman, p. 114,198, 2008)
….If someone dreams of eating white bread he will get profit sufficient for life’s sustenance. But if the bread is hot, he will fall ill.
(Dreambooks in Byzantium: Six Oneirocritica in Translation, with Commentary and Introduction, Steven M. Oberhelman, p. 114,198, 2008)
Dreambooks are one of the oldest forms of practical literature. Of course, same dreams may not get the same interpretation in different books.
Beside its meaning in the dreams, white bread was considered the best in quality among the Byzantines.
Highly milled white bread is less nutritious than wholemeal bread, but this was not understood either in Byzantium or in antiquity. Actually it was not understood until few decades ago. Throughout history white bread has been preferred to wholemeal bread because there are clear links between it and social prestige. The best-quality white bread was consumed by well -fed wealthy people and affluent bakers.
Beside its meaning in the dreams, white bread was considered the best in quality among the Byzantines.
Highly milled white bread is less nutritious than wholemeal bread, but this was not understood either in Byzantium or in antiquity. Actually it was not understood until few decades ago. Throughout history white bread has been preferred to wholemeal bread because there are clear links between it and social prestige. The best-quality white bread was consumed by well -fed wealthy people and affluent bakers.
The compiler of De Cibis, an early Byzantine Greek book of foods, give us directions for how to make good white bread:
”White Bread made from wheat is the best and most nutritious of all foods. Particularly if white, with a moderate use of yeast and salt, the dough kneaded midway between dryness and rawness, and with a little anise, fennel seed and mastic, it is very fine indeed. One with a hot constitution should include sesame in the dough. If wishing to add more moistness to the bread, knead in some almond oil.”*
Τhe fine white bread is the best because of the superior quality of wheat, the eleventh-century physician Simeon Seth says. The reason is the raw grain can scarcely be broken by the teeth.**
*Dalby, Andrew, Flavours of Byzantium, 2003.
**Syntagma de alimentorum facultatibus (On the properties of foods)
