SC - Portable Pie Oven

[Decker, Terry D.]

> I have a picture of some sort of portable pie oven on the WWW at:
> 
> http://www.labs.net/dmccormick/huen/mpix/mpix39.jpg
> 
> The picture is identified as being "Street sellers, 1417, Constance,
> Germany." The source is P. W. Hammond, Food & Feast in Medieval England.
> 
> I was wondering if anyone had any ideas or knowledge of:
> 
> (1) the large pretzel-like objects above the pie shop, upper right.
> Would these be like our modern soft pretzel, or like a sort of cake, or
> a bread? Or something entirely different? They look like they would be
> fun to make for an outdoor event.
> 
The pretzel-like objects are probably soft pretzels made with a leavened
dough.  I posted one or two modern German recipes for them to the list a
while back.  They may have made it to the Florilegium by now.

> (2) the portable pie oven. Is it a complete oven, where the entire
> baking process was performed, or simply some sort of warmer that
> transported the food to the pie shop itself? Would a "real" oven like
> this really be feasible?
> 
> Thanks,
> Huen
> 
>From the look of it, the oven is a field oven with a perspective problem .
The opening is much too large for a wood fired warmer or oven and the oval
shape limits the number of trapps it can hold.  Round or square chambers are
more efficient for holding product.

Using a beehive shape with circular base, the oven is quite feasible.  The
Ulm Bread Museum web site has a woodcut of a field bakery on its homepage.

http://www.opennet.de/brotmuseum-ulm/english.html 

I'm slowly working on a project to build a field oven on a small trailer
body.  Time and money have been against me, but that is beginning to change.
I'm hoping to get it built this summer and get me some practice in the art
of baking in wood fired ovens.

Bear
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