I stumbled upon a nice old breadmaking video on Youtube. It's German and shows an old family bakery from 1960.
A classic wooden trough and wood fired oven setup. Worth a watch if you get a chance (and apologies if already posted here). Look out for the loaves being pulled from the oven near the end of baking for a cornstarch glaze and then popped back in.
Lance
Loved seeing those women hefting around huge amounts of dough. In return, here's a French video I enjoy https://youtu.be/8B_7AFYmkYo. It's more modern -- good to see the traditions being carried on.
Shaping was such a simple technique (at least she made it look that way), and interesting the different scoring techniques to mark the loaves, especially the pin roller.
Yes, the practised hands make everything look so simple. I really would like to try a slice!
I believe the roller is called a dough docker and is used to stop the crust (of rye bread) cracking. If you are only doing a couple of loaves then a toothpick does the business.
Lance
a graph of the families bread consumption since they only baked every two weeks.
They must have had such stamina and were so strong to make bread that way. Here's my offering from Sicily
which has been stored in my bookmarks and forgotten about. I have to rest after watching it.
Alan
is what I picked up on.
Note they crowded the oven to delay the sides of the loaves from crusting/setting too soon. I thought that interesting as a way to achieve height. (Reinland baking video that followed with foot mixing.) In summer sprinkled the sourdough sample for the next batch with salt to slow fermentation until the next time. 100% whole rye:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SL87CshJm3o
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SL87CshJm3o
Hydration looks really low in that bake and the flour has the consistency of sand - but at least the trough kneader washes his feet!
Lance
does mention that doughs were previously mixed using feet. It was a fleeting quick comment.
It wouldnt surprise me if the German foot stomper never had a problem with his feet. I always thought these kinds of jobs were done by vestal virgins. The description of the flour is coarse grind.
This video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=__3HNXrRPyk
is a group use of a village bakery with lots of detail. Members work in shifts, baking weekly, the first dough batch ending at 2pm. As soon as the troughs are scraped clean (scrapings go to the pigs) the next shift can start on their dough. This can go to 3 shifts a day with the third ending at 5am the next morning. Interesting that in most of these videos the wood oven is heated one hour before baking and only up to 240°C max. The mixing of main dough is men's work as it very demanding. Dough shapes are limited and marked so that many loaves can be loaded into the oven. The loaves are then loaded mixing the members loaves so that everyone gets into the cold and hot spots inside the oven. No mention of cornstarch, just oil brushed on sides of the loaves to prevent sticking and salt water brushed on prooving loaves, water brushed on baked loaves as they come out of the oven. Everyone works together.
After loaves had cooled overnight in home kitchens, they were put into cooler cellars or pantries. End of film shows a special rack to discourage mice.