I am a member of a medieval recreation group, and I want to get into bread baking. I want to construct my own oven that would be historically accurate to something that wouldve been used in 16th century Tudor England. I know cob ovens were used, but are there other options availabe to me? I can't seem to find any further information about the varying oven types. Thank you!
from what I can find.
www.pbm.com/~lindahl/food-art
scroll to the bottom http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/food-art/bakers.gif
http://www.medieval-recipes.com/medieval-food/bread/
Ovens haven't changed much in the several thousand years before the advent of electricity.
Hampton Court Palace Ovens and see the websites/photos.
Seems like they were large cavernous things built into a stone wall with storage for the wood to either side.
Looks like something you'd find in some bakeries today, wood fired ovens, but bigger.
I am looking for something small I can construct myself. I cannot build an oven like the grand ones used in great kitchens. What sorts of ovens did common working class people use? I read accounts everywhere of housewives cooking their family's bread but I can find no account of what sort of small ovens they used.
But on a much smaller scale. So it'll be a stone/brick oven built onto a wall. Would have probably taken up one wall of the kitchen with a chimney outlet. Just an educated guess.
Here we go http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/tudors/tudorkitchens.html
Several of the old cottages we visited or stayed at when we lived in the UK had the big fireplace in the kitchen with a smaller brick oven (or two) built into the side of it. Check out the awesome bread oven in this photo:
The link is here; this photo and descriptions are part way down the page.
a vary specific size for their time?
I like that oven, looks like I could crawl in there myself. I bet cats do.
The fireplace looks added on. See the wooden bread mixing trough in the corner?
Have you looked under Renaissance ovens? Same time period. And you will get family sized oven designs. :)