was: Re: SC - potatoes / FAQ now: Baking in odd places/ways

[Balldrich BallBarian BoulderBain]

	Greetings bakers and kitchen stewards!
	I have a number of odd methods used by native Americans and Mexican
Indios.  One that has intrigued me was an open pit lined with flat stones,
they built a roaring fire until it was oven hot, removed the coals and
slapped dough flat breads on the sides of the oven they cooked/baked? in
minutes and were removed and stacked as "way bread" for long term storage. 
Apache also had a form of this that has direct connection to the piki
breads they make but cooked on a very hot horizontal stone (best seem to be
a slate like mineral that is ground smooth and passed from mother to
daughter) the batter is splashed onto the stone and pulled off instanly
completely cooked.  I have also seen a method of slapping big bun like
globs of dough on the sides (inside) of a bee hive oven and when the fell
off they were done.  
	So far the real champions of bread baking around the world seems to be the
Roman legion.  They baked bread everywhere.  They built hasty and permanent
ovens all over Europe and even in hot regions like Israel.  Again the
technology was simple and when no longer in use the stones could still be
used to build a house or wall or road.  As to various Norse bread baking,
according to James Graham-Campbell in The Viking World 1979, bread was a
labor intensive project with the women making hugh wooden tubs of dough and
baking the bread loaves on an iron bread baking pan ( with a long wooden
handle ) over the central fire pit.  In Denmark beehive ovens were found
inside the kitchen areas of long houses according to H.R.Ellis Davidson,
from early Iron Age onward.  Always lots of iron cauldrons, footed pots and
hanging pots that could have been used to bake in.  
	Hope this helps, but it probably doesn't  best I could come up with on
short notice. . . 
Balldrich
- ----------
> From: needlwitch at msn.com <needlewitch at email.msn.com>
> To: sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG
> Subject: Re: SC - potatoes / FAQ
> Date: October 01, 1998 4:39 PM
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Par Leijonhufvud <parlei at algonet.se>
> To: sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG <sca-cooks at Ansteorra.ORG>
> Date: Thursday, October 01, 1998 2:42 AM
> Subject: Re: SC - potatoes / FAQ
> 
> 
> >
> >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
> 
> 
> Another question along this vein. So many culture have a variation of
flat
> bread or griddle bread. Would this be considered an ancient way of baking
> that has been passed on through the generations?
> 
> Thorbjorn the Cook
> Shittemwoode/Antir
> {Northwest Washington}
> 
> Just because you wander,
> doesn't mean you're lost.
> 
> 
> 
>
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