One of the pleasures of writing about food and drink is the reaction it evokes.

You take a stand in favor of molasses and readers respond, calling and sending e-mails. In some instances, they communicate using that almost extinct form of correspondence, a letter.

I got one of those recently. Not only was it a personal letter, it was typed. The typewriter, I learned later, is an Underwood No. 3 and is 95 years old.

The typist, M.V. Runkles III, is 69 years old and is still practicing the skills he picked up in a typing class in the mid-1950s at Mount Airy High School.

Runkles, a retired mechanical engineer, told me he spends his days on a 41-acre farm that sits in Parkton, about halfway between Baltimore and York, Pa. His house is old. It once was the Wiseburg Inn. A section of the kitchen dates back to the 1780s, he said. The stove he cooks on in the winter is wood-fired and is circa 1857. In the summer, he shifts to a gas-powered oven. "I still cook every day, I bake my own bread, saw my own firewood," he said.

One of the items he bakes is spiced bread, or Pain d'Epices. He sent me the recipe, perfectly typed on a 3-by-5-inch card, along with his letter.

"I have been meaning to send you this recipe ever since your article on molasses cake," he wrote. "This recipe goes way back to French antiquity - even before the invention of white flour. Note that it takes no eggs as chickens need 14 hours of light (this is before electricity) and therefore did not lie in the winter."

Later in the letter he adds, "The old recipe called for 2 cups of rye flour but I find it is more to American taste to use 1 cup of rye and 1 cup of unbleached white flour."

I received Runkles' recipe in February but did not get around to trying it out until a few days ago.

It did not take long to put the ingredients together and pop them in the oven. When the sweet-smelling loaf emerged, however, I paused. Runkles' instructions said the loaf had to "age" for two days before I could eat it.

This presented problems. First of all, I did not know how to "age" this loaf. Secondly, it smelled so good, I wanted to enjoy it right away.

While the loaf was cooling on the kitchen counter, I tried to call Runkles to see what I was supposed to do. The phone rang and rang, and finally I hung up.

"You have got to let it ring a long time," Runkles told me later. "I heat the house with coal and when I am down in the basement, stoking the furnace, it takes me a long time to get to the phone."

He told me that I could age the loaf either by placing it in a closed metal container, such as a cookie tin, or wrap it in aluminum foil, as I had done.

The aging "lets the flavors blend," he told me. "I tasted it right after it came out of the oven and it was not so hot."

While this loaf could be served as a dessert, Runkles said he also has a slice for breakfast, with his morning tea.

Runkles, who is an amateur harpsichord player, said he has an abiding interest in history and in the old ways of doing things.

His relatives worked farms in Frederick and Carroll counties. His grandfather operated the Gold Seal flour mill in Mount Airy until it was destroyed by fire in 1925, he said.

He bakes this loaf, he said, both because it tastes good and because it has a link to the past. When you take a bite of this spicy bread it is not hard to imagine, he said, that your ancestors enjoyed this same dish.

Fortunately, somebody wrote down the recipe, and sent it to others.

That, too, is still going on.

rob.kasper@baltsun.com

See Rob Kasper each Wednesday on ABC2/WMAR-TV's News at Noon.

Pain d'Epices (Spiced Bread)

Serves 12

1 cup unbleached flour

1 cup rye flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon anise seeds

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

1/4 teaspoon coriander

1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground clove

1/2 to 3/4 cup white raisins or chopped nuts

1/2 cup butter (1 stick) melted

2/3 cup honey

1/3 cup molasses (or omit honey and use 1 cup molasses)

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 lemon, rind and juice

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl mix the flours and all the other dry ingredients. In a smaller bowl, mix the "wet" ingredients - butter, honey, molasses, buttermilk and lemon juice and rind.

Stir the wet ingredients slowly into the bowl of dry ingredients.

Butter and flour a loaf pan. Pour mixture into pan; bake for 45 to 50 minutes. The top will cake. Let sit for 2 days (you may remove it from the pan and wrap it in foil) before serving.

Courtesy of M.V. Runkles III

Per slice: 244 calories, 3 grams protein, 8 grams fat, 5 grams saturated fat, 43 grams carbohydrate, 2 grams fiber, 20 milligrams cholesterol, 122 milligrams sodium