SC - Byzantine Bread Stamps

[Decker, Terry D.]

> >>Depending on the dough and the manner of preparation, the loaves could
> have
> been pressed before being put in the oven or the stamps could have been
> heated in the oven and the bread pressed on them to bake.  The second
> technique is similar to the method used to press baker's marks in
> loaves.<<
>  
> Bear,
> 
> In some of the German corpus, you find instructions to heat a wooden
> board--with or without model forms or carvings--and cook your gingerbread
> or spice cakes on it.  What sort of tempering do you think would have
> been needed for the boards or forms--hardwood, no doubt?--to keep from
> burning?  I have a carved form from Holland--it's a bishop, I
> believe--made of wood, and have occasionally used it to bake gingerbread
> for feast.  It looks great as a finished product.
> 
> Regards,
> Allison,     allilyn at juno.com
> 
Since the ovens were heat-mass rather than continuous heat, the wood should
not burn unless the internal temperature is above the wood's ignition point.
Cakes bake at lower temperatures than most breads, so the cake molds were
probably used in declining heat which shouldn't do more than temper an
appropriate hard wood.

>From what I've been able to find, baker's marks were usually made of metal.

Bear