Bread and Rolls

From time immemorial until late in the nineteenth century baking day, usually a Friday or a Saturday, was the hardest day of the week for the English farmer’s wife. Laundry, until the eighteenth century at least, was often done only once a month, in some houses once every three months, not because dirty linen was endured but because home spinning and weaving had resulted in dower chests of linen which lasted the household from generation to generation: everything from sheets to embroidered petticoats was counted in dozens, and grandmother’s and mother’s linen sheets were handed down, often as good as on the day they were hemmed and embroidered. But baking had to be done every week, in some large households twice a week, and though it was pleasant work in winter, it was exhausting on a hot summer’s day. In the really great households, a baker was kept who often baked daily so that the mistress of the house was always served with a fresh fine manchet and even the coarser bread for the servants was new.