Rachel, one more two cents . . .
In the late 1990s I was the co-creator of the exhibit "Yeast of Eden:
Ethnic Breads in Florida" at the Jewish Museum on Miami Beach. It
featured a "life-size" house of bread, consisting of a wooden frame and
entirely covered with breads. We collected the bread from a variety of
outlets - mostly stale bread (French bread, Cuban bread, bagels, slices
of sandwich bread, crackers, wonder bread, cheez-its, bagels, buns,
whole loafs and more bagels, but also boxes and boxes of matzoh, which
is a great medium if you look for something different. We dried the
bread thoroughly, just by laying it out, and turning it to prevent mold
growth, until it was really, really dried out and in most cases rock
hard. I became intimately familiar with the process of drying bread and
how different ingredients influence the process. Raisin bread doesn't
work as well as plain bread. Plain bagels do very well, and can be used
as lethal projectiles. Cuban bread becomes very brittle, etc.
As part of an outreach program, we took most of the breads to classrooms
in the area, where kids decorated them with paint, glue, salt, etc.
Then, we varnished these breads, as well as the ones that were left
unpainted, with two layers of polyurethane. Finally, the breads were
mounted on the wooden frame, (or on 2 by 2 panels that were then mounted
on the frame). I think we used rubber cement and wood glue.
This installation was certainly not made to last, yet, for the 6+ months
that the house was up it did amazingly well. We did not have rodents, no
cockroaches, very, very few other bugs. And pests had been my biggest
fear...
When we took the house down we trashed part of it. Some of it was put in
storage for possible later use in a partial re-installation. (yeh
right!) I took two small panels home that would otherwise have been
trashed. Sometime within the next year or two I noticed bugs swarming in
my living room ... after a while I realized they were all in this one
particular area ... very close to the panel with the bagels ... and then
noticed hundreds of tiny holes through the varnish. In fact, the bagels
had been mostly hollowed out by having these tunnels dug through them. I
later found out that the parts that had been put in storage had met the
same fate.
Obviously, it is very difficult to hermetically seal the breads with
polyurethane. Bugs will find a way to get in and have their way with it.
I think that gingerbread tree ornaments may not be as much the edible
type ... for one thing leaving out sugar would make it easier to
preserve. In other words, if you try to preserve the cookie that Grandma
Moses left her teeth marks in, then that's the one you have to preserve.
If you have to preserve a cookie - any cookie - then bake one from
ingredients as unappealing as possible - to men and mice.
Yeast of Eden was a great project, and an interesting experiment in
preserving food for an installation way beyond its expiration date.
Now can you please pass me the inherent vice?
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Rachel R
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 2:54 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Interesting preservation question
Thanks to everyone who responded to my cookie question! I greatly
appreciate it.
Rachel Roberts
-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf
Of Stephanie E. Santos
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2005 9:54 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Interesting preservation question
My grandmother used to make gingerbread tree ornaments & I can tell you
how
they were preserved (never thought this knowledge would be useful):
place in
a
food dehydrator overnight or for however long the instructions on your
particular model states. Then, coat it in wood varnish (2 or 3 coats) &
make
sure it dries well by hanging it in the air (no sides touching
anything). I
still have an ornament we made when I was in second grade long, long
ago...
Quoting Timothy McShane <[log in to unmask]>:
> >>> [log in to unmask] 01/07/05 3:07 PM >>>
> Someone asked me today how to preserve a cookie.
>
> Does anyone out there have any experience in this sort of matter or
> any
> suggestions?
>
> Isn't coincidence amazing?! Just today, our local paper ran an
> Associated Press piece on a group of Brazilian artists who use, among
> other foodstuffs, cookies in their art! The article notes, "The food
is
> freeze-dried and vacuum-sealed in layers of resin." No mention of the
> process, though. The artists' group is called Mondongo and the
article
> was written by Randy James, if that might help.
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Tim McShane, Assistant--Cultural History
> Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery
> 1302 Bomford Crescent S.W.
> Medicine Hat, AB T1A 5E6
> (403) 502-8587
> [log in to unmask]
>
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--
Stephanie E. Santos
Graduate Student
Dept. of Anthropology
African Studies Program
Indiana University
Bloomington IN 47405
USA
"My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together"
~Archbishop Desmond Tutu
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