jan 1, 1465 - spice bread

Description:

The OED has a reference to ‘speysse-bred and wine’ in 1550 and the inference is that this was richly flavoured bread or cake which contained raisins, plums, figs or the like. As a delicacy it actually has a much longer history and was being imported into Hull in the fifteenth century, from Danzig: 1453 <i>1 bar’ spycebrede</i>; 1465 <i>8 skok spysed brede </i>(YRS144/6,86). It was almost certainly being made in some of the monasteries from the late thirteenth century, for Selby Abbey allowed small quantities to certain privileged tenants as part of their ‘payment’: 1320 ‘and he shall carry half a skep of wheat at Christmas to Seleby and shall have a loaf of<i> Lespeys bread</i>’ (YRS94/49). Perhaps it was a seasonal delicacy.

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