Old Fashioned Dough Box & Communal Bead Ovens
Hi fellow bakers!
Hope you had a Merry Christmas!
I came across this cool UK site Home Things Past that talks about how things were made back before I was born.
One of the more interesting things has been a dough box or kneading trough. This was used to get the first rise out of your dough, and works like a proof box.
http://www.homethingspast.com/dough-box-kneading-trough/
They run a sister site called Old & Interesting that talks about community bake houses. I'm using it as a reference to the nursery rhyme "patty cake patty cake baker's man" where the folks in the rhyme would initial their bread so they could claim it later after it was baked. This is for a book I'm writing about leavening.
http://www.oldandinteresting.com/communal-bread-ovens.aspx
I found both articles to be interesting and thought I'd share.
Best wishes for a happy 2018.
Happy christmas
nice post. I found the article interesting. The dough box would be a great bit of kit if it was updated for modern use, electric heating, ect. Bit like a hostess trolley that was popular in the 80's.
im sure someone with good design skills could come up with something
It seems it's still used throughout Europe by hardcore artisan bakers
http://www.farine-mc.com/2012/03/in-normandy-different-kind-of-bakery.html
I enjoyed that article! I had read that the first flour mills used wood barrels before switching to fabric bags. It was cool to see this French bakery using wood barrels to mix the flour and water. The no salt and wood burning stove put it over the top, but great to see folks working with their hands to make bread.