Google translate

I see what you mean! Plötzblog baked Mouette Barboff 's version of  Pain Cordon, so I tried a google search "Mouette Barboff Pain Cordon" and came across this short video.

http://www.archivesaudiovisuelles.fr/FR/_video.asp?format=68&id=1690&ress=5424&video=120366

Looking carefully at the series of photos of Plötzblog's bakes as s/he endeavoured to achieve the double opening, and watching the rather fast movements of the baker in the video, then as he places the cord in the couche and puts the shaped loaf on top, one gets the general idea. That piece of dough cord creates the double splitting, no lame, knife etc required to slash the loaf. Looks pretty challenging! Good Luck.

Es ist ein Genuss durch Barboffs Buch “Pains d’hier et d’aujourd’hui” zu blättern. Fasziniert hat mich u.a. das Pain Cordon, bei dem eine Kordel aus Teig dazu dient, das Brot im Ofen gezielt aufreißen zu lassen. Nicht mit Teig, sondern mit einem Palmwedel hatte ich ein ähnliches Prinzip schonmal beim Pan Cubano erfolgreich ausprobiert. Leider hat es beim ersten Versuch nicht an beiden Seiten der “Kordel” geklappt. Der Ofentrieb hat nur eine Seite genutzt, um das Brot aufzureißen. Der zweite Versuch lief genauso. Erst beim dritten Anlauf gelang es mir, das Brot zum beidseitigen Aufreißen zu bewegen, indem ich kurz nach dem Einschießen auf einer Seite nochmal etwas mit dem Messer nachgeholfen hatte

This is a rough translation:

It's a joy to read Barboff's book. I was really fascinated by the Pain Cordon, which is formed by making a cord, you have to let the dough rise in the oven. Instead of a dough, I have rather previously successfully used a palm leaf technique when making a Cuban Bread. Unforunately, the first time I tried it both sides of the cords failed to geklappt (pass tense). The oven only got one side of the bread to rise. The second time was much of like before. The third time, the bread rose on both sides. Shortly after the close on one side I had to use the knife for a little help.

The rest is like:

The bread had a mild aromatic aroma and the bread had a nice spring...blah blah

INstructions:

Let the preferment dough stand for 18 hours at room temperature..undisturbed

Knead: 5 minutes on the low level, and 5 minutes on the second level (machine), the last two minutes add the salt.

45 minutes Gare(not sure what gare is, proof?)

Take out 20g dough ('ab' is like out, nehmen is take), and let it rest for 20 minutes.

Take the remaining dough and flour it. form a concentric cirlce...heres where I get lost...form a batard

60 minutes proof 

bake with steam

Note: Translators arent to good on non formal German, b/c spoken German has a very weird structure and even when you translate it, it is very idiomatic and takes thought to decipher it. This is the best I could do.