[Sca-cooks] spit jack

terry l. ridder terrylr at blauedonau.com
Mon Jan 29 10:17:09 PST 2007


hello;

a friend has asked me for help in building a portable baumkuchen oven.
my original comment back was to use a spit over and open bed of
charcoal. this is too simple and basic for my friend. i researched
baumkuchen ovens on the internet and have a good idea of what is
required based on photographs of germany baumkuchen bakers.

i posted my ideas to a metalworking e-mail list i belong too and one of
the members suggested that i not stop at just the spit and baumkuchen
oven but also build a spit jack. i googled 'spit jack' and have looked
at several examples of clockwork driven spit jacks. mainly photographs
on historic food and colonial sites. given the knowledge of the few
scaers i know i figure that scaers would be the group to ask about plans
and the workings of clockwork driven spit jacks.

the metalworking member's url concerning a spit jack:
http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Autumn04/food.cfm

below is my original baumkuchen oven request to the metalworking e-mail
list.

<begin quote>
Subject: baumkuchen oven

hello;

a friend has asked me for help in building a portable baumkuchen
oven.

a simple and basic baumkuchen oven would just be a crank spit
over hot charcoal. that is too simple and basic for my friend.

i have searched the internet and most of the pictures which
show a baumkuchen being made show a spit rotating via a v-belt
pully. the wooden portion of the spit is roughly a meter in length.
the entire spit is roughly 1.25 meters. the wooden portion of the spit
is roughly 3 to 4 inches in diameter. the 'oven' itself is simply the
rotating spit with a long batter pan below it.
a reflective curved metal piece behind the rotating spit.
what appears to be ceramic being heated by a gas burner.

for those who have made spits and rotating spits for other cooking
purposes what would you suggest for metal and size?
i was looking at plain sheet metal perhaps tin plated.

given the size of the spit needed to support the cake i assume that
the metal drive rod should extend through the wooden portion of
the spit. drilling a 1 inch hole though a 3ft wooden cylinder will
take me sometime. any suggestions as to what wood to use?

any way. any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.
not a pressing project.

<begin quote from wikipedia.org>
Known as the "King of Cakes" the Baumkuchen is a kind of layered cake,
known in many countries throughout Europe. When cut, the cake reveals
the characteristic golden rings that give it its name, Baumkuchen or
translated literally, "Tree Cake". To get the ring effect, a thin layer of
batter is brushed evenly onto a spit and allowed to bake until golden.
The most skilled baker will repeat this process numerous times.
Some bakers have been known to create 3 foot long Baumkuchens
consisting of 25 layers and weighing over 100 pounds (45 kg).

Baumkuchen may be covered with sugar or chocolate glaze.

The cake requires some level of skill to bake and can get messy if
made in the traditional way (on a spit); however, modified recipes
using pans do exist.
<end    quote from wikipedia.org>

the below url has a few small pictures of baumkuchen being made.
Original Salzwedeler Baumkuchen
http://www.salzwedel.de/stadt-baumkuchen.htm

baumkuchen in wikipedia.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumkuchen
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Baumkuchen_BMK.jpg

a baumkuchen baker in germany.
http://www.baumkuchen-salzwedel.de/spezialitaet.htm
<end   quote>

-- 
terry l. ridder ><>



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