Gervase Markham lists three types of bread in his tome, The English Huswife, published in 1615. Manchet bread was the bread for the rich and was made from the finest sifted whole wheat flour, which almost looked white and was leavened with ale barm. Cheat bread was considered bread of middle grade and was made with coarser sifted wheat and leavened with sourdough. It was browner than manchet bread but still not brown, and still bread for the well-to-do. The third category Markham lists is brown bread for servants. This bread was made with barley, malt, rye or wheat and peas, and leavened with sourdough. It was the coarsest type of bread and would remain the bread of the working class up until the end of the 19th century. A fourth type of bread Markham doesn’t list in his cookbook but does give recipes for in another publication is horse-bread, a dense, dark bread made of pulses and a portion of oat flour, barley flour and/or bran. Even in times of plenty, the poor would have to sustain themselves with the unpalatable yet nutritious bread that was baked for the animals of the rich.
