Bread FAQ

Generally, sourdough - much like today, they would create a culture with flour and water to attract the local yeasts. This would either be maintained as a separate culture to mix into each batch, or more often, a bit of dough was kept from one day's batch to start the next. "Barm", or ale yeast, was also widely used. Since producing carbonation for beer does not exhaust ale yeast, the dregs can be strained out and used to leaven bread. Bakers and brewers were often working side by side, if not the same person.
Anglo-Saxons would take beer sediment, whisk it into fresh water, and dry it on a wooden platter for later use. They also would dip birch twigs in the liquid and hang dry. I am comfortable with extrapolating that out to commercial powdered or cake yeast (although obviously it's not the same breed...)

Very few bread recipes were written down, or survive. Here are some that I've found.

"Anyone, therefore, who does baking should use flour which is well-ground from wheat... from this, he should separate the bran and the inferior flour with a very fine flour sieve, then put the flour, with warm water and some salt, on a baker's table closed in at the sides, as the people at Ferrara in Italy are accustomed to do. If you live in damp places and a bit of leaven is used, [the baker], with help from his associates, kneads to that consistency at which bread can be made fairly easily. Let the baker be careful not to put in too much or too little leaven, for, from the former, bread can acquire a sour taste, and, from the latter, it can become too heavy to digest and too unhealthy, since it binds the bowels. Bread should be well-baked in an oven and not used the same day, nor is it especially nourishing when made from very fresh wheat and if it is digested slowly."

Two bread-like recipes from An Anonymous Andalusian Cookbook of the Thirteenth Century; translation by Charles Perry of the Arabic edition of Ambrosio Huici Miranda with the assistance of an English translation by Elise Fleming, Stephen Bloch, Habib ibn al-Andalusi and Janet Hinson of the Spanish translation by Ambrosio Huici Miranda.

Recipe for Murakkaba
"Knead a well-made dough from semolina like the "sponge" dough with yeast, and break in it as many eggs as you can, and knead the dough with them until it is slack. Then set up a frying pan of clay [hantam] on a hot fire, and when it has heated, grease it with clarified butter or oil. Put in a thin flat loaf of the dough and when the bread is done, turn over. Take some of the dough in the hand and smear the surface of the bread with it. Then turn the smeared surface to the pan, changing the lower part with the upper, and smear this side with dough too. Then turn it over in the pan and smear it, andkeep smearing it with dough and turning it over in the tajine, and pile it up and raise it until it becomes a great, tall loaf. Then turn it by the edges a few times in the tajine until it is done on the sides, and when it is done, as it is desired, put it in a serving dish and make large holes with a stick, and pour into them melted butter and plenty of honey, so that it covers the bread, and present it."

Recipe for the Barmakiyya.
"It is made with hens, pigeons, ring doves, small birds, or lamb. Take what you have of it, then clean it and cut it and put it in a pot with salt and onion, pepper, coriander and lavender or cinnamon, some murri naqi, and oil. Put it over a gentle fire until it is nearly done and the sauce is dried. Take it out and fry it with mild oil without overdoing it, and leave it aside. Then take fine flour and semolina, make a well-made dough with yeast, and if it has some oil it will be more flavorful. Then stretch this out into a thin loaf and inside this put the fried and cooked meat of these birds, cover it with another thin loaf, press the ends together and place it in the oven, and when the bread is done, take it out. It is very good for journeying; make it with fish and that can be used for journeying too."

Prima per Fare Cinquante Pani de Latte e Zuccaro di Oncie nove l'uno
"Fatto Che haverai la tua Sconza, o levaturo, pigliarai di fiori di farina burattata libre 35. e tanto meno, quanto meno sara quella di che haverai fatto il levaturo, e libre 6.di zuccaro ben bianco, e Torli dUova 75 e libre 3 d'acqua rosata, e libre 6 di latte fresco, e oncie 6 di butiro fresco, e impastarai il tuo Pane, avuertirai bene, chee l'acqua, o latte non scottasse, e farai anchor ache torli d'uovu sian caldetti, & li scalderai, ponondoli nell'acqua calda, e li porri, il conveniente sale, e farai la pasta, sic he non siane dura, ne tenera, ma pui tosto ch'habbia del saldetto, e la gramarai moto bene, e poi farai il tuo pane, e lo lasciaraben (?) levare, e lo cuocerai con grande ordine, si che non pigli troppo fuoco, ma che al tuo Giuditio stia bene, e questo pane e piu bell a farlo tondo, che intorto, o in pinzoni, sia dopoi piu grande, o piu picciolo, come tu vorrai: ti governerai adunque secondo questo modo, che e provato."

Translation:
When you have made your sourdough or yeast, you shall take thirty-five pounds of the flower of sifted wheat and a much less amount, so that it shall be enough to have made the yeast (starter), and six pounds of good white sugar, and seventy-five egg yolks, three pounds of rose water, and six pounds of fresh milk, and six ounces of fresh butter, and you shall knead your bread.
You shall note well that the water or milk does not scorch, and you shall make certain that the egg yolks are to be warm, and you shall scald them, putting in the hot water. And you shall put suitable salt, and you shall make the dough, so that it is neither hard nor tender, but harder than you shall have at firm. And you shall knead it very well and then you shall make your bread, and you shall leave them to rise well, and you shall cook them with serious method so that they do not take too much fire, but that at your very good judgment.
And this bread is more beautiful by making them round, that twist, or in buns. Then they can be made larger or smaller, what ever you shall want. You shall govern yourself to one according to this way, which is proven.

Note: "flower of sifted wheat" refers to the finest quality of ground wheat. Not actual flowers.

Fine Manchet. "Take halfe a bushell of fine flower twise boulted, and a gallon of faire luke warm water, almost a handful of white salt, and almost a pinte of yest, then temper all these together, without any more liquor, as hard as ye can handle it: then let it lie halfe an hower, then take it up, and make your Manchetts, and let them stande almost an hower in the oven. Memorandum, that of every bushell of meale may be made five and twentie caste of bread, and every loafe to way a pounde besyde the chesill."

Translation:
Take half a bushel of fine flour twice bolted [sifted], and a gallon of fair luke-warm water, almost a handful of white salt, and almost a pint of yeast, then temper [mix] all these together, without any more liquor [liquid], as hard as you can handle it: then let it lie half an hour, then take it up, and make your Manchets, and let them stand almost an hour in the oven. Memorandum, that of every bushel of meal [grain] may be made five and twenty cast of bread, and every loaf to weigh a pound beside the chesil [bran].

Note: according to the Oxford English Dictionary, a "cast" is "The quantity of bread or ale made at one time."
Chesil or chisel is "whole meal, or the coarsest flour in which some of the bran is left."

"The making of manchets after my Ladie Graies use. Take two peckes of fine flower, which must be twice boulted, if you will have your manchet verie faire: Then lay it in a place where ye doe use to lay your dowe for your bread, and make a litle hole in it, and put in that water as much leaven as a crab, or a pretie big apple, and as much white salt as will into an Egshell, and all to breake your leaven in the water, and put into your flower halfe a pinte of good Ale yeast, and so stir this liquor among a litle of your flower, so that ye must make it but thin at the first meeting, and then cover it with flowre, and if it be in the winter, ye must keepe it verie warm, and in summer it shall not need so much heate, for in the Winter it will not rise without warmeth. Thus let it lie two howers and a halfe: then at the second opening take more liquor as ye thinke will serve to wet al the flower. Then put in a pinte and a halfe of good yest, and so all to breake it in short peeces, after yee have well laboured it, till it come to a smoothe paste, and be well ware at the second opening that yee put not in too much liquor sodenlie, for then it wil run, and if ye take a litle it will be stiffe, and after the second working it must lie a good quarter of an hower, and keep it warme: then take it up to the moulding board, and with as much speede as is possible to be made, moulde it up, and set it into the Oven, of one pecke of flower ye make ten caste of Manchets faire and good."

Translation:
The making of manchets after my Lady Gray's use. Take two pecks of fine flour, which must be twice bolted, if you will have your Manchet very fair: then lay it in a place where you do use to lay your dough for your bread, and make a little hole in it, and put in that water as much leaven as a crab[apple], or a pretty big apple, and as much white salt as will into an eggshell, and all to break your leaven in the water, and put into your flour half a pint of good ale yeast, and so stir this liquor among a little of your flour, so that you must make it but thin at the first meeting, and then cover it with flour, and if it be in the winter, you must keep it very warm, and in summer it shall not need so much heat, for in the winter it will not rise without warmth. Thus let it lie two and a half hours: then at the second opening take more liquor as you think will serve to wet all the flour. Then put in a pint and a half of good yeast, and so all to break it in short pieces, after you have well labored [worked] it, until it come to a smooth paste, and be well aware at the second opening that you put not in too much liquor suddenly, for then it will run, and if ye take a little it will be stiffe, and after the second working it must lie a good quarter of an hour, and keep it warm: then take it up to the molding board, and with as much speed as is possible to be made, mold it up, and set it into the oven, of one peck of flour you make ten cast of Manchets fair and good.

Here's my standard recipe:
1/2 cup sourdough starter
1 1/2 cups water
3 1/2 cups white flour
1/2 cup wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Mix the starter and water together. Combine the flours and mix in. Let rise for twelve to eighteen hours. Sprinkle salt over and knead lightly. Let rise an hour or two, until doubled. Punch down dough and knead until springy. Shape two loaves and rise for one hour. Bake at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.

If I am baking this recipe outdoors, the times are more variable. Unless it is very warm, I will still let the dough rise for roughly eighteen hours, although I will have to take more care to prevent it from drying out. When I bake in a Dutch oven I find that an hour's cooking time is about right, flipping the loaf over halfway through to brown and cook evenly.

This may have occasionally happened, but probably has no widespread basis in fact. Bread played a huge part in most people's diet so bakers and millers were a convenient target in bad times. Sometimes municipal authorities actually encouraged it, to redirect the populace's wrath.
Besides, adulterating dough wouldn't really work. You would need to add a large percentage of non-flour to each loaf in order to make any difference in profit margins. Since sawdust has no gluten, it would make loaves into heavy rocks - which wouldn't sell well. You don't make any profit on bread you can't sell!

No. Old English has both masculine and feminine words for bakers (baecere and baecestre) and the word "lady" comes from the Old English word hlaefdige, which derives from hlaibadigon, or bread kneader.
Art showing bakers (in books of Hours, medieval health manuscripts, etc.) show both men and women baking bread, separately and together. Membership in commercial bakers' guilds was limited to men (and only boys could apprentice to bakers), but the assembly-line nature of large-scale bread making requires all available hands to work efficiently. Much of the process can be learned on the spot. Officially, family members were specifically exempted from apprentice counts and so could be openly used at all times.
As with any prohibition, there are always exceptions -- the town of York allowed widows to inherit and continue a bakery business. The town of Romsey, in 1483, fined a woman baker named Juliana Marks two pence for failing prescribed quality tests.

In times of famine, people will resort to nearly anything. But they would use edible substances first whenever possible, such as ground-up peas and beans. Sure, starving people may have ground up tree bark to bake into bread; but it probably happened with about the same regularity as cannibalism.

Yes. First, a gluten primer: gluten is a protein found in most cereal grains which keeps fermentation gases in the dough, allowing it to rise. Wheat is the only grain that contains a substantial amount of gluten. Rye and barley contain very little. Rice, oats, buckwheat, soybeans, and corn (maize) have no gluten, so bread made from any of these cereals will be fairly brick-like and will not digest as easily as a wheaten loaf. This is why historically people have preferred bread made from white flour. When I make rye or buckwheat bread, I use about a cup of either flour in a recipe with the remainder being a mixture of white and whole wheat flour.