SC - potatoes / FAQ

[Par Leijonhufvud]

On Wed, 30 Sep 1998, Dottie Elliott wrote:

> >Actually, I'm not 100% certain that baking was generally avaiable in
> >most Neolithic cultures. I do know that ovens was not generally used
> >even in all Iron Age cultures. Anyone know more on this? For fun (extra
> >credit?) one might also discuss how cooking changed when pots (of any
> >kind) became avaiable to Paleolithic groups.
> 
> Baking in a dish with a lid, set in the coals and covered with coals has 
> been done at least since Roman times. They had a specific dish for this 
> called a teslos. This was an earthenware dish. I also have seen a number 
> of period dishes that specifically mention this way of baking pies.

But there is AFAIK no or few ovens discovered from e.g. Viking age
Norwegian sites (contrasting with e.g. Danish sites from the same era).
Most likley the grains that was not boiled were "baked" on skillets [1].

Experiments could also show us to what extent it is possible to bake
bread in cooking pits (Viking age cooking pits have been found in the
Swedish province Naerke, perhaps also in other locations[2]). It should
certainly be possible in a cooking vessel, the big question is: did they
do this?). Does regular pit cooking count as a form of baking or is it
a separate category (my opinion).

/UlfR

[1] And lets not here mention the Norwegian anthropologist who recently
got into the papers with the charming hypothesis that these were used
for making pizza. Kill. Kill. Burn. Stomp ashes into the mud and bury
under big rocks. And then nuke the site from orbit (it being the only
way to be sure).

[2] Unfortunately they reportedly did not take samples that would allow
for chemical analysis of what foods where cooked in them. 

- -- 
Par Leijonhufvud                                   parlei(at)algonet.se
Unfortunately, development was stopped on the production version of
[life], and we've been supporting and kluging the demo version for the
last 4 billion years.  -- Paul Tomblin

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