White Bread in Early Modern England: Manchets (1594) vs. Robert May’s French Bread (1685)

Fine white breads on the English table, 16th–17th c.

Can you imagine eating two to three pounds of bread a day—and washing it down with ale? In late medieval and early modern kitchens, bread was the staple, from four-day-old trencher loaves to fine white table bread. This overview compares two elite white breads I bake often: manchet “after my Ladie Graies use” (1594) and Robert May’s “French bread” (1685).

Quick takeaway

• Manchet (1594) = bolted (sifted) white wheat bread, shaped as loaves or rounds with the classic shallow “equator” cut; closely related to Rastons and other fine white English breads.
• “French bread” (1685) in Robert May is not a modern baguette—think salty, barm-raised rolls (or small loaves) baked “in a quick oven,” sometimes formed in little wooden dishes.

“Trencher bread… baked four days before and browned…” — Le Ménagier de Paris (c. 1393)

What changed from Tudor to Restoration?

• Leavening & flavor: Both use household leaven/yeast; May explicitly allows ale barm or yeast and adds egg whites with assertive salt for a delicate, crusty roll.
• Flour handling: Manchet depends on bolting (fine sifting) to achieve its status-y white crumb. I sometimes add a small portion of whole wheat to mimic period texture.
• Shaping & bake: Manchets: rounds/loaves with an “equator” cut; May: rolls or small forms baked hot (“quick oven”), often chipped/trimmed hot for refinement.
• Table role: Manchet = everyday elite table bread; May’s rolls are lovely for service bread and for sops under gravies/roasts.

The Assize of Bread & Flour Hierarchies

Bread was not only the cornerstone of the diet—it was also carefully regulated. The Assize of Bread (first issued in 1266, reaffirmed through the Tudor period) fixed the price and weight of loaves according to the cost of grain. Bakers could be fined or even pilloried for short-weight bread. This regulation mattered most for common loaves sold in markets, while noble households could afford the finest bolted flours for manchet.

• Manchet flour: Twice- or thrice-bolted white wheat flour, very low in bran. High-status and more costly, eaten by nobles and gentry.
• Cheat bread: Coarser wheat flour with bran; the daily bread of the middling sort.
• Maslin bread: A wheat-and-rye mix, darker and denser, common among laborers.
• Horse bread: Made from peas, beans, oats, or mixed grains—cheap, filling, and sometimes literally used for animals.

So when recipes call for “fine flour,” they mean the very best bolted white flour available—the refined option on this hierarchy.

Modern Flour vs. Period Flour

Our modern flour is quite different from what a Tudor or Restoration baker used:

• Bolting vs. modern milling: Period flour was sifted through cloth (bolting) to remove bran, but not as completely as today’s roller-milled all-purpose. Even “fine” flour had a little bran.
• Stoneground vs. roller-milled: Early flours were stone-milled, leaving more texture, mineral content, and sometimes grit. Modern flours are consistent and very fine.
• Gluten content: Period wheats were landraces with generally lower gluten. Modern wheat varieties are bred for higher yield and bread strength, so our doughs are usually stronger and more elastic.
• Whiteness: Period “white” flour was creamy or off-white. Bleached flours today can be whiter than anything pre-19th c.

Modern approximation: Blend unbleached all-purpose flour with a small portion of stoneground whole wheat (about 1:3). This gives a slightly darker, heartier crumb while preserving the fine texture manchet recipes expect.

Humoral note: In period dietetics, fine white wheat bread was thought “lighter” and healthier for elites, while darker breads were suited to laborers. (Modern nutritionists would reverse the valuation!)

Go to the full recipes

• 💠 Ladie Graies Manchets (1594) — modern redaction
• 💠 Robert May’s “French Bread” (1685) — modern redaction (updated)

Related breads on the site

• Rastons (Harleian MS 279, c. 1430) — a close cousin in the white-bread family.
• Dutch “Van Coeck te backen” (Bread with…) — another early modern European bread path.

Sources

• The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin (1594) — Ladie Graies manchet.
• Robert May, The Accomplisht Cook (1685) — “To make French Bread the best way.”
• Le Ménagier de Paris (c. 1393) — trencher bread context.
• Assize of Bread (1266 onwards) — medieval bread regulation statutes.