This British bread had a ‘coffin’ in the centre that could predict the future!

Imagine baking a bread that can predict your future, death as well as spellbind the desired partner!

All this may seem like a mindless myth, but what if we tell you that every process in the making of this peculiar British bread has a strange and creepy folklore associated with it.

Here’s all you need to know about this 17th century British bread.

Breads have been a quintessential part of the western culinary culture so much so that every household had a secret bread recipe, which was part of the heritage and was passed on to the younger generations. Cockle Bread was one such British bread, which had several folklores folded in the layers of this bread and every step of baking this bread had the power to shape the future or even predict death. But what exactly was Cockle bread and why was it a spooky affair.

Cockle bread was basically a corn and wheat bread made by mixing cockle weed. In fact, the bread had different connotations, in the 17th century the ‘moulding’ process of this bread had a sexual connotation and was believed to attract the desired partner. While some associated baking this bread to win a lover others linked its final formation to the future and death.

The folklore revolved around the formation of the cockle bread, it was believed that if the loaf formed a hole in the middle of the bread during the process of baking, it was associated with a coffin, which was predicted as death in the near future.

Another popular belief was linked to the rising of the bread, it was believed that if the yeast in the bread failed to rise, then the person baking the bread was cursed by a witch and the way to get rid of the curse was by marking a cross on the top of the bread.

Cockle bread became an essential part of British culinary culture as it was associated with the folklores of casting a spell. One such belief associated with the baking of this bread revolved around attracting the desired partner and winning their love. Young ladies kneaded the dough with their buttocks in a way to attract the love of their desired partner. In fact, the morsel of this bread was fed to the desired man and this is why moulding of the bread had sexual connotations. While baking the bread ladies would chant a 19th century rhyme and attract love:

• My granny is sick, and now is dead,
• And we’ll go mold some cockle bread.
• Up with my heels and down with my head,
• And this is the way to mold cockle bread.