The Grim Life Of A Victorian Baker | Victorian Bakers | Absolute History

Four modern bakers bake their way through the era that gave us modern baking as we know it - the reign of Queen Victoria. Experts Alex Langlands and Annie Gray join them to tell the incredible story of our daily bread.

The journey begins in 1837, when bread was the mainstay of most diets and bakers were at the heart of every community. A rural bake house has been kitted out exactly as it would have been in the 1830s. The bakers must get to grips with centuries-old methods of breadmaking and that means doing absolutely everything by hand.

[listodd]

My grandmother taught me to make scones in a wood oven without a thermometer. She would throw some flour into the oven and count. She knew by how long the floor took to turn different shades of brown how hot her oven was. Hot enough for pork crackling to cool enough for merengue. Also different woods burnt at different temperatures.

[valorarise]

Whenever i feel my housework is too much, i watch history documentaries and feel MUCH MUCH BETTER. We have it so much better

[Delicate_Disaster]

It's actually kind of beautiful that the man from Smith's got to experience how his family started his shop and got to be them for a short time. I have a feeling that he took his lessons back to the modern world with him and is including them in his shop in one way or another.

[Obsidius]

It's kinda nice to see Alex in a supportive role this time, advising others.
He definitely picked up a thing or two during adventures with Ruth and Peter.

[Katharina-rpiq]

For me as a german it's interesting how they talk about things like bread not having its own taste and different blends - because in germany good bread and buns still have a unique taste in every region. Each region in germany puts different proportions of grains (hardly anyone eats pure wheat bread all the time) and different types of seeds and sometimes herbs or spices in their bread. Pure wheat is something used in cake, cookies, white baguette, toast and pastries. Bread on the other hand rarely consists of less than 2 types of grains. Having sunflower seeds and many other types of seeds in it, even baking with beer or soup instead of water is very common.

[hannahmclaren]

The episode with the adulterated flour was so sad. They had no passion left because they knew that type of bread ate away at people's spines and killed people. It was awful to watch their experience but I think they will have more pride in their own baking afterwards.

[TaylorJohnson]

Let’s all give thanks to our ancestors for their determination to survive and their continued desire to further their bloodline during hard times.

[frenchustube]

That is exactly how my grandparents made bread in their farm in France until the late 60's when they started buying bread. We used the same wood trough that they use in this documentary but it was a least twice's long as it was the main table when not in use. I remember not liking it because you could not put your legs under the table and had to seat sort of sideways. Sourdough bread will last a week !

[rashaunjones]

This a definitely humbling experience for me to watch. Being a baker myself, this would be an experience I would talk about for a lifetime.

[mikakestudios]

This makes me miss my grandmother so much. She let 4 year old me stand on the table I now own and punch down the dough in the bowls I now mix in.

[vickidianacoghlan]

I have to laugh.
As an Australian many people travelled to Australia from Britain for stealing a loaf of bread.
Long Live The Loaf of Bread.

[WayToVibe]

I stumbled across this video and I happen to be trying my hand at baking no-knead bread right now. It's been in the oven for 20 minutes and I'm really hoping it turns out. I'm amazed at how fine a process bread was for the Victorians when I can literally just throw some stuff together for fun and experiment because there is no chance I'm going to starve if it fails. Edit: My bread came out wonderfully, and made the lamb stew and stewed apples I ate with it so much more filling. People really do underestimate the quality of a good whole-grain - or at least partial whole-grain - bread in making the expensive ingredients stretch.

[batbratsdesigns]

It looks so rewarding the be a Victorian Baker. You are responsible for the lives of the community. The more nutrition in the bread the better production the community will have. Food is the backbone of life. You need energy to function.

[happyhome]

As a child, I was used to "store bought" bread - tasteless, white, full of air, and I remember totally not understanding the phrase, "Man shall not live by bread alone", as I reacted, "Of course, bread is terrible, what's your point ?" Only as a young adult, able to travel to Paris, and later, making my own bread, the light finally came on. Great episode.

[sylviecharlois]

I am lucky enough that my family managed to keep its ancestral house, built out of rocks collected from the nearby fields by my great great grandfather, about 200 years ago. And we still have a functioning wood oven, where bread used to be made. It was last fired in 1998, for my grandmother's 90th birthday, and we made a few loaves of bread in it. We have all the paraphernalia, the wooden tools to get the loaves out, the woven linen-lined baskets where the dough rested and rose, and the huge "maie", the wooden trough where the dough was prepared and kneaded... The maie still sees daily use, as we have turned it into a (very unpractical !) food storage unit. And yes, it is big enough to be a coffin !

[bentleyv]

"The Victorian Era was home to so much progress and elegance"

*slowly removing beer froth with wooden spoon*

[reginaromsey]

Wonderful!! Thank you for pointing out that bread was among the many foods deliberately adulterated in “simpler, more natural” times!
I’m chuckling at all the different things they haven’t figured out what they have gotten themselves into. Not laughing AT the people, laughing at the difference. As a home baker I’m learning a great deal!

[sherry]

Bread is so amazing, the softness, the smells, the Butter On it OMG, the deliciousness !

[darciemerriweather]

My grama was a Baker before and during the revolution. She'd walk to the other side of the city at 4am to start the day's baking. Even at 80, she was the strongest woman I have ever known. So many hardships and hard work. Two jobs and then raising children through the depression and working hard all day... illness, TB, and all kinds of other issues. She was an amazing woman. The best Baker and cook, I've ever known as well. I miss her. She even passed away without an utter of disdain or show of pain. Such strong women back then.

[websiteckron]

What a lovely documentary. I am from the continent and in my country all the farmhouses baked their own bread. My grandmother used to have a big farmhouse and a mill. Even my mother remembers to bake bread.