SC - period ovens

[Christina van Tets]

Hello the List!

A couple of weeks ago I was at a krak (crusader castle) which still had the 
kitchen pretty much intact.  Well, roofless, but it was mostly there.  There 
were 3 beehive/igloo ovens all in a row, about 3 feet across, and maybe 
about 2 1/2 feet high, plus there was a fireplace next to them, just a small 
one about 2' square.  They were all built into the same wall, and 
consequently shared one very wide chimney.  There was a large room which 
held the mouths of the ovens, and a small room maybe 8' across which held 
the hive part of the ovens and the open fireplace and, IIRC, some sort of 
bench arrangement.  Leaving aside the bench bit (oh dear, I'll just have to 
go back and check...), why would there be a small, very hot room for the 
open fire?  What might it have been used for?  The other was specifically 
stated to have been the kitchen.

Most of the walls in the krak are about 3 feet thick, and the buildings are 
very cool inside, but I still wouldn't want to be in that tiny room in 
summer.  Winter would be different.  Maybe you could use it as a general 
yeast-culture room in winter (i.e. beer as well as bread).  There are 
fireplaces or smokeholes in almost every social room in each krak we've 
visited.  This place gets cold in winter (well, not like Europe, but it 
snows), but summer is a very different story (we're not even into summer 
yet, and averaging 40 deg C at present).

Cairistiona

P.S.  The castle also boasts a stone bath - huge - you could fit 2 in it 
quite easily.  Those crusaders...

P.P.S.  Also some remains of a smithy.  Not much, apart from a tempering 
bath.

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