““If thou hearest from the mother, From the mother of thy husband, That the cask for meal is empty, Take the barley from the garners, Hasten to the rooms for grinding. When thou grindest in the chambers, Do not sing in glee and joyance, Turn the grinding-stones in silence, To the mill give up thy singing, Let the side-holes furnish music; Do not sigh as if unhappy, Do not groan as if in trouble, Lest the father think thee weary, Lest thy husband’s mother fancy That thy groans mean discontentment, That thy sighing means displeasure. Quickly sift the flour thou grindest, Take it to the casks in buckets, Bake thy hero’s bread with pleasure, Knead the dough with care and patience, That thy biscuits may be worthy, That the dough be light and airy.”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
BREAD AND BREAD-MAKING. 1668. AMONG the numerous vegetable products yielding articles of food for man, the Cereals hold the first place. By means of skilful cultivation, mankind have transformed the original forms of these growths, poor and ill-flavoured as they perhaps were, into various fruitful and agreeable species, which yield an abundant and pleasant supply. Classified according to their respective richness in alimentary elements, the Cereals stand thus:--Wheat, and its varieties, Rye, Barley, Oats, Rice, Indian Corn. Everybody knows it is wheat flour which yields the best bread. Rye-bread is viscous, hard, less easily soluble by the gastric juice, and not so rich in nutritive power. Flour produced from barley, Indian corn, or rice, is not so readily made into bread; and the article, when made, is heavy and indigestible. 1669.
Sources: The passage is from Unknown, Kalevala : the Epic Poem of Finland — Complete, tr. Crawford, John Martin, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Beeton, The Book of Household Management of 1861, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — burgundy cloth, sheaf stamp.