As children, we were sent to fetch the daily loaves from the local bakery and could not resist digging into the soft white inner part to fill our mouths with those warm spongy morsels as we walked back home. As adults, we still seek the comfort of thick slices of crusty bread rubbed with ripe tomatoes and drizzled with olive oil, and if there are any stale loaves left over, we make bread pudding for teatime indulgence.
For Dr Noel Buttigieg, one of the directors of Heritage Malta’s Taste History unit, bread is not only one of life’s simple pleasures but also an immense world of fertile ground for study and research, as attested by his latest publication Bread and Bakers in Eighteenth-Century Malta. Despite the long hours that went into this volume, Dr Buttigieg – who is also the brains behind the nomination of the Ftira to be registered on the UNESCO list for Intangible Cultural Heritage for Humanity – says that, “My curiosity about bread has not as yet been satiated. What appeared to be an easy and straightforward answer became a rather complex yet very interesting odyssey.”
Describing his work as the most exhaustive book ever written locally on one particular food topic, Dr Buttigieg adds that he has tried to steer clear of bread-related subjects that have already been researched in depth, such as the politics behind grain procurement. He has opted, instead, to focus on the grain-bread cycle in 18th-century Malta, starting from the moment the grain reached the Grand Harbour and ending with the crackling sound and nutty
aroma of freshly-baked bread as it cooled in bygone bakeries. Along this cycle, he delves into various themes such as grain provisioning and distribution, the baker’s workshop, the Order’s bakeries, consumer protection, and even the baker’s social life or lack thereof.
As Dr Buttigieg expounds, “The grain-bread cycle encapsulates the acquisition, distribution, and processing of grain into bread. As a conceptual framework, the cycle lends itself well to analyse both macro and micro beliefs and behaviours dominating the world of bread. Furthermore, as a process of exchange, it encompasses the relations between the government of the knights and its Maltese subjects, but also the connections among the subjects themselves. Therefore, the grain- bread cycle can be considered as a form of reciprocity that influences all levels of society every time a cycle is completed.”
Shortage or mismanagement of any aspect of the grain-bread cycle meant that food consumption for the Maltese people immediately fell below the basic nutritional requirement. ‘Good governance’ had to accommodate the islands’ circumstances, with all their associated challenges and opportunities. Upon the arrival of grain cargos in Malta, the government oversaw their transfer to adequate storage facilities. Some individuals involved in the handling of supplies from their arrival to their transfer to any storage facilities were prone to circumnavigating official measures meant to reduce grain smuggling. The archives open windows on various ship captains, sailors, boatmen, carters, grain police officials, and bakers who sought to earn extra money at the government’s expense, as demonstrated in this book. The Order’s bakeries, known at the time as the Forni della Signoria, comprise the author’s favourite chapter. “This study would not have been complete without investigating the Order’s bakeries,” he says. “Unfortunately, research about Malta’s first mass bread production facility is hard to come by. The story of the Forni della Signoria turned out to be most rewarding. The piecing together of information from different sources from the bakeries’ origin until their eventual demolition provided a lot of unknown or misconceived information about this site. With over 158,195 rotoli of bread produced every month during the years 1795- 96, the Forni must have contributed significantly to the cultural shift towards the gradual adoption of ready-made bread consumption. Details about its employees, master-baker contracts, running expenses, and smuggling of products provide the most detailed account of the Order’s bakeries to date.”
References to bread do not only emerge repeatedly in our daily conversations but also in the jargon associated with the world of bread-making. Dr Noel Buttigieg’s book is a treasure trove in this regard, particularly when describing the contents of old documents such as the 1780 inventory of the late French baker Giuseppe Berard, listing the goods still present in his workshop. From scales to weigh the dough, to scrapers, spatulas, knives, dough cutters, the pannaro where freshly baked bread would cool, and the ferkun with which the baker avoided scalding his hands, bakeries were and still are, to some extent, the place where old words defy the heat and the test of time.
Even though the local consumption of bread per capita today has dropped significantly when compared to the 18th century, and despite the fact that we are quickly heading towards the complete loss of the craft of making bread by hand from scratch, people still consider bread as the most basic marker of survival. As Dr Buttigieg puts it, “Precisely because we need to eat, in our moments of hunger we tend to precipitate towards the most basic of foods known to mankind – bread. In times of crises – take the Covid-19 lockdown as a prime example – we all hoard flour and yeast from supermarket shelves, we download bread-making recipes, and we become bakers overnight. Bread was, and still is, the ‘staff of life’.”
Dr Noel Buttigieg is one of the directors of Taste History, Heritage Malta’s gastronomic arm. Taste History provides unique events that merge food with history, recreating menus from a bygone era by drawing inspiration from Heritage Malta’s museums and sites, as well as artifacts, old documents and paintings. Should you wish to savour the authentic tastes of Malta’s chequered past surrounded by historical artifacts, please get in touch on 7970 6554. Heritage Malta regularly organizes educational programmes on food for children and adults alike, and has published several books with traditional Maltese recipes. More information may be accessed through Heritage Malta’s website. https://heritagemalta.mt
