The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Any ideas on best use of this pan?

clazar123's picture
clazar123

Any ideas on best use of this pan?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Tin-Ideal-Bread-Mold-Form-Maker-Steamer-Hinged-Primitive-Bake-Ware-1800s-/251261382168

I'm not so great at the picture thing so I included the link of where I got the picture.My camera is not working well so I can't take a pic of my tin.

I just bought a bread tin like this (only mine is a double pan-2 of theses connected with a hinged lid) and I'm wondering what suggestions you would have for bread made in this shape-it really is more sausage shaped with the rounded ends.Rye? some form of sweet bread like cinnamon? Pain de mie? Both sides are equal in size so I assume I fill one side and it will rise to fill? I have never used a pullman so I have no experience with that kind of loaf.

The ebay description calls it a "steamer" which is kind of interesting.Is there a steamed bread that was made in this kind of pan? It doesn't seal totally so it could not be submerged.

This tin looks to have been very well used and very greased/seasoned. I washed it with hot,soapy water since it smelled like a basement and put it in a hot oven to burn off anything and WOW did it smoke!. I had to take it outside and put it on a hot gas grill for a while. A lot of grease bubbled out of the crevices of the pressed ends.Smokin! I will now wash and season it myself before use. Someone really used and cared for this pan for many years before it was put in a basement.Not a speck of rust (it is just a thin tin metal).

Any insight would be interesting.

 

 

 

DeeElle's picture
DeeElle

Could this be the type of tin used for Brown Bread?

As in this recipe:

http://www.yankeemagazine.com/recipe/boston-brown-bread-steamed

A very favorite Saturday night supper in New England, Franks, Beans, and Brown Bread! 

clazar123's picture
clazar123

The steaming kettle would have to be HUGE as this is about14 long and the water could only come up to the bottom half. I think Brown Bread is usually made in an upright can shape, if I'm not mistaken.

 

 

 

DeeElle's picture
DeeElle

The pan says Ideal and the maybe patent, and a model number? , and maybe is not for baking at all.  I found this reference from  Official Gazette of the Patent Office, 1919

http://books.google.com/books?id=eIixlMmsanQC&pg=PR108&lpg=PR108&dq=Ideal+Sheet+Metal+Works+Patent+387&source=bl&ots=1GG54zJ7l4&sig=lwt4X_XESMm9liqzeCJbKFfmAHk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=GWqPUY3sKKa-0QHvvoHoCA&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Ideal%20Sheet%20Metal%20Works%20Patent%20387&f=false

They are also referenced in The Automobile Trade Directory, VOlume 20 Issue 1,(1919)   at this address:

Ideal Sheet Metal Works, 218 N. Morgan St-. Chicago . and they are mentioned in the 1920 Chilton Automobile Directory.

None of this precludes their manufacture of baking equipment, especially a commercial variety, but maybe this intriguing item served a different purpose. What a fun research project!

Sheet Metal companies would be invoved in the fabrication of items for multiple industries, most likely, but the only references so far have been to automotive products.  I'm going to keep looking, though!

 

 

 

 

PeterS's picture
PeterS

Or a patent date (click on images). Unfortunately, the claims don't give any indication about how it was to be used.

Another Ebay auction

 

Another one, this for a double pan:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IDEAL-metal-Bread-Loaf-baking-pan-patent-Aug-9-1897-really-nice-/281102646254?nma=true&si=XfFdO8LFD5sHuHXcwDMPSmFZNSo%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

"Story about this wonderful metal bread baking pan is that it is an IDEAL pan, patented Aug 9, 1897 from Hastings  MInnesota.  The owner was using it to bake loaves of frozen bread dough and had to give up bread....Doctor's orders.  The story also goes that this type of pan was used as people headed west to settle in the great plains and beyond.  Has a small metal clip that keeps the tin closed when baking.  Please ask all questions prior to bidding."

I could not find anything that links the Ideal Sheet Metal Works in Chicago, a radiator company by all accounts, to baking pans. The google link above is serendipitous. There are many hits to the Ideal Sheet Metal Works, the name appears not to be unique. A baking pan would not have been beyond the abilities of radiator maker, but I suspect that customers for Knapp's design were closer to his home, Baltimore.

DeeElle's picture
DeeElle

Found mention of an Ideal Buffet Company, which sounds more like food service of some kind.  Perhaps the pan is for terrines, and pate.  If I can find any connection I'll post that info.

 

clazar123's picture
clazar123

   I could not remember the name of that! I wondered,also, if it was for either a meat product or a terrine or pate. It seemed to have a LOT of fat stuck in the seams and crevices because when I baked it in a 400F oven to clean it (it smelled of basement mildew and dryer sheets), it smoked like crazy-like it had not ever been baked! I had to grab it and run it outside and finish it off on the grill. And,yet, this pan had the appearance of a well-used piece and had a dark patina as if it had been heated but possibly not too hot.

So-is it a bread pan? What kind of bread was routinely made in it that would have a round profile?

 

Wild-Yeast's picture
Wild-Yeast

Mystery deepens. I found several references to "antique torpedo bread mold" for these Pan de mie "mold" pans...,

Wild-Yeast

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Or for baking a liquid meat batter into a meat loaf.  More than likely placed in a round bun or kaiser roll.  Could have been heated or cooked in a cauldron of hot fat.  Just a guess.  Reminds me of the round pans we were once looking for for round loaves.

http://www.coco-cooks.com/2012/07/leberkase-with-green-peppercorns-a-german-meatloaf-of-neither-liver-or-cheese/

clazar123's picture
clazar123

The roundness of the bottom and ends is what has me wondering if it was probably NOT a bread mold. The round bread molds usually have the flat ends so you have a nice flat end piece.

Liquid meat? Maybe encased in something and then molded into the mold for shaping and cooking? It certainly had a lot of fat in all the nooks and crannies that bubbled out when I baked just the pan at 400F. It is a pressed tin and has folded and pressed seams where all that has gotten trapped over all the years.

I might have to research on historical cooking sites-not just bread sites, I think. Maybe I need to find an OLD butcher or sausage maker! Hmm... I do know someone that fits that category but don't see him too often.

Great ideas from everyone!

DavidEF's picture
DavidEF

Well, the pan may have never been meant for bread, but I wonder...What might a torpedo-loaf be like? Maybe you should try it and let us know if there is some possibility or if this pan rather falls firmly in the Not-For-Bread-Don't-Even-Think-About-It category! I'm thinking of torpedo-shaped filled-donut-like objects! Hmmm...

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Bake two pies or cakes or banana breads, one chocolate one not.  One in each half, when cool, top with pudding or butter cream frosting  or meringue (bake) and then clamp the two together and let it set.  Cut a round slice of pie.  Pumpkin?  Or build a locomotive or a log cake.  

Upgrade ideas?  How is it at holding your chopsticks?   Or an iron maiden for your bread baking toys? (probe thermometer, spoon scales, whisk,  scoring tools, etc.)   

Could it be a carrying case for a dragon egg?  Bake a loaf in it and call the loaf a dragon egg.  Make dragon egg egg sandwiches.  Put them back in the case.  Take them on a picnic.  Serve your drinks from an antique fire extinguisher.   

DeeElle's picture
DeeElle

Perhaps it was used to make bologna, liverwurst, mortadella or salame, or capicola or some such prepared loaf.  Crimp bread used hinged round pans, but usually four loaves to a pan, 17 by 14 inches or so, and corrugated.

Fascinating object, though!

 

 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

People were still moving into unsettled North American territories.  This would bake bread nicely over an open fire or in coals and could be flipped easily having a clip to keep it closed.  I would not overfill a pan but we all know how nice it is to trap steam around our baking loaves.  Even if the loaf came out heavy  (biscuits dough) it could be cut into portions or broken while warm and have a nice clean crust while the fry pan was occupied.  Test it on the grill or open pit!  

I have been known to make meat loaves in bread pans. 

PeterS's picture
PeterS

a little more searching and these popped up.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Original-Antique-Tin-Double-Loaf-Bread-Pan-with-Decorative-Ridges-/150956076338

 

http://ulocal.wmur.com/_Antique-bread-Pan/photo/16274525/63455.html

 

original poster's comment: This antique bread pan was purchased years ago at a flea market.  It was marked "Document box!"  It has an isinglass window to check the rising bread and a wire stand to keep it upright.  English Muffin Bread is perfect in it as the ridges mark the size just right.

clazar123's picture
clazar123

PeterS, I used to buy cinnamon bread made in that type of loaf pan from a local German bakery (50 years ago). Nice flat ends so it was a nice slice to toast. It was always delicious! The pan I have has a more salami shape, in my mind.

Mini, I love your idea of baking over a fire. I could see that happening, esp with the patent date of August,1897. Do you think filling half and then closing it will give me the correct amount of dough for it to fill with rising and baking? A loaf should double? I have never done a pain de mie but that would make sense to me.

If I do meat in the pan, it might get messy.Pile the meat mixture way above the lower half,squish it closed, scrape off the excess that oozed out and proceed to cook. I think it would have to have a pan under it to catch the drippings. Maybe.

I don't think it is for a terrine. It is definitely meant to clamp closed.For a terrine, you'd have to fill the 2 halves with semiliquid,harden (thru setting or cooking) and put them together. There would be no need for a clamp if it was meant for a terrine though I am only going on reading about it-never made one. Unless,somehow, you fold it shut by inverting it quickly. Very difficult to do with a double pan-one would be easier.

Maybe I will try a brioche with a filling and see how it turns out! This weekend!

PeterS's picture
PeterS

The patent for the IDEAL pan (posted above, too) http://www.google.com/patents/USD27486

Here's a google US patent search of all bread baking pans before 1900.

From the claims of another clamshell type pan, the purpose of the scalloped pans was to: "produce a bread-baking pan of such construction as to impress or print upon the soft dough filling it with a series of equally-spaced parallel transverse surface-grooves or indentations extending across the bottom and sides of the same, and which, reproduced in the finished loaf, will serve as guides for the unskillful in cutting the said loaf into slices of uniform thickness."

 And another patent claims " By our invention we provide a multi-locular baking pan which can be closed during the baking process and quickly opened at any time for examining the bread or removing loaves from the pan. The construction is particularly designed to provide a neat, compact, efficient, and desirable article for the culinary department of a household for the purpose of producing cylindrical loaves of bread with very fine grain and which are pleasing to the eye."

For those wealthy enough to have a culinary department at home...

The Pampered Chef cited one of these patents in a design application in 2000. I doubt they advertised using the word multilocular.

LOL

clazar123's picture
clazar123

Thank you for the references! I tried locating patent info but my search skills in that department obviously lack!

I think I will try at least a single loaf in this double pan and post some pics if I can figure out my new phone.

From the description 0f "bread with very fine grain and which are pleasing to the eye" it sure does sound like a pan de mie type sandwich bread.

So do you think fill one side and close it up?

PeterS's picture
PeterS

My pleasure, I've had a lot of fun reading the patent claims. And, now I know the word multilocular!

Here are a few more interesting and or amusing statements from a couple, three of the patents:

Loaves produced in accordance with my invention are especially desirable where bread rations of determinate quantity are required to be served, as in jails, work-houses, the commissary departments of the army and navy, &c.

My invention also affords an easy method of subdividing loaves with precision where the purchased desires less than a whole one, wholly inexperienced persons being enabled by means of sectional guiding grooves to cut the loaf with accuracy and celerity. (US313092)

…The advantage resulting from this construction is that the dough is thoroughly protected  against direct heat and that thus no uneven baking or objectionable streaking of the loaf can take place. (US592058)

…producing a maximum amount of crust upon a loaf of given size (US563675)

Circular loaves with a continuous crust were apparently very desirable. The pans were flipped and rotated during baking.

US272679 (1883) sums it up well. Cooking over a fire, hearth, wood stove, wood fired oven or early gas stoves had its hazards and these pans were designed to help prevent scorching, burning and moisture loss due to the unevenness of the heat. As I understand it, at this time most bread was baked at home.

 C-E-L-E-R-I-T-Y. Not to be confused with C-E-L-E-R-Y...  ;-)

Presliced bread did not come into existence until 1928 according to Aaron Bobrow-Strain in his book White Bread: A Social History of the Store-Bought Loaf. There is a good review here. I recently read it: a lot of interesting history, good expanation of how & why  Wonder Bread became so popular (the roll of the roller mill and modern flours). It's a little overdone on the pontificating--it is as much a book about unsustainable lifestyles as it is about white bread and the like, but I guess the two are inextricably intertwined.

Pre-slicing bread changed the whole market and the bakeries that served it. These baking pan patents presaged it.

Fleischmann introduced compressed yeast to the home baker in 1868. I assume that it had a limited shelf life and needed to be kept cold. As such, while sourdoughs were well known, of course, I suspect that at home in the late 1800s a lot of bread was baked using chemical leaveners which were, by then, readily available. Soda breads and the like would lend themselves to these types of baking pans. I even saw some references to someting called yeast powder which I believe is a baking powder, not a yeast product. Of course, rye breads would be a natural for this type of pan, too.

Peter

p.s. I noticed you are from WI, have you seen or tried Great River Milling flours? My local Costco tried their whole wheat; it was excellent.

PeterS's picture
PeterS

Clazar123: I am having so much fun I can't stop! looking for old bread recipes, I contacted Jesse Rhoads, an editorial assistant and food writer for the Smithsonian Magazine blog. She referred me to  Michigan State University's Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project and, specifically, to Fanny Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cookbook. Of course, Fanny Farmer's cookbook, the ne plus ultra of American cookery at the turn of the century and years to come.

The bread section starts on p. 49.

For anyone who is interested in cooking and history, this website is a field day. There are 76 cookbooks in the digitized collection. Including titles such as 

Hand-book Of Practical Cookery, For Ladies And Professional Cooks. Containing The Whole Science And Art Of Preparing Human Food; The Frugal Housewife, or, Complete woman cook; wherein the art of dressing all sorts of viands is explained in upwards of five hundred approved receipts, in gravies, sauces, roasting [etc.] . . . also the making of English wines

Jennie June's American Cookery Book: Containing Upwards Of Twelve Hundred Choice And Carefully Tested Receipts; Embracing All The Popular Dishes, And The Best Results Of Modern Science...Also, A Chapter For Invalids, For Infants, One On Jewish Cookery... 

The Cook Not Mad, or Rational Cookery; Being A Collection of Original and Selected Receipts, Embracing Not Only the Art of Curing Various Kinds of Meats and Vegetables for Future Use, but of Cooking in its General Acceptation, to the Taste, Habits, and Degrees of Luxury, Prevalent with the American Publick, in Town and Country. To Which are Added, Directions for Preparing Comforts for the SICKROOM; Together with Sundry Miscellaneous Kinds of Information, of Importance to Housekeepers in General, Nearly All Tested by Experience. 

Nearly all tested... lol

MSU has over 10,000 cookbooks in their archives. Great stuff.

 

clazar123's picture
clazar123

PeterS these are wonderful links! Oh,dear-I am going to be staying up late this weekend!

I did look a little closer at my pan. Now I see that there is a definite bottom (a little larger) and top. I will probably fill it to a little below the top of the bottom pan and let it rise to fill.

Any hints from those more experienced in pain de mie and pullman pans?

Breadmaker's picture
Breadmaker

This is definitely a bread pan. I know that this thread is 8 yrs old but I found this site while searching for how to treat rust on my pan like your's. My mother had both the double and a single pan like this. My sister still has my mother's double pan and I bought a single one from someone on Ebay. Unfortunately, it has significant rust on the inside so I need to figure out how to remove it. I imagine that you have learned how to use the pan after 8 years. My mother used to apply a liberal coating of shortening to the insides. She shaped the loaves in a log shape and closed the lid while the bread was rising. My sister uses the pan to bake frozen dough. She sprays oil on the loaf and doesn't oil the pan.She said that you can see the lid raise a little when it is ready to bake. If it rises too much, the dough will leak out of the seams a bit so the bread slices will have a bit of a "handle". You bake it at the temperature and for the time specified in your recipe. No pan of water is needed in the oven. I suppose you can experiment to see how the crust turns out if you put a pan of water in the oven.  

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

try a soak in Coka-Cola.