Bakehouse

“ I had it—by a visit to the bakehouse of my own baker, if possible, during the hours of work.
So I set out afresh after supper, and was most obligingly received by the proprietor of what one may well take as a typical West-end shop—neither very [61] large nor very small—what is graphically termed a "snug" concern with a good connexion, doing, as the technical phrase goes, from sixteen to twenty sacks a week. The resources of this establishment were at once placed at my disposal for the night. ”

“ Continuing, he said that if they decided to begin he would advise them to lease a small bakery with two ovens or more. They would thus require so much the less capital, and would gain time to acquire experience and confidence in themselves, and to inspire their members with the necessary confidence to invest their capital. If, on the other hand, they could not get a bakehouse, or preferred to build, he had prepared a plan for a bakehouse with two ovens, a barm cellar, flour store, stable, and van shed, which would cost approximately £600. ”

“ The furnace and fire-grate are often placed at the side of the oven door, but with the oldest ovens, which were heated by wood, there generally was only one door for the fuel and for the bread. Whether the furnace is heated by coal, as is usual in England, or by coke, as is often the case in Scotland, the oven mouth remains in the bakehouse itself; hence the stoking and scuffling must be carried out within the bakehouse. ”

“ Well, I don't see why we should not make a trial of you, at all events, so if you like to go down into the bakehouse, I will follow you, and show you what you have to do. You remember that you have to live entirely upon the pies, unless you like to purchase for yourself anything else, which you may do if you can get the money. We give none, and you must likewise agree never to leave the bakehouse. ”

“ Nearly all the bakeries in New York are attended by women. I could not learn of any women being employed in bread bakeries to mix or bake, but they are in Germany and France. In France the bakehouse girls enter ovens heated often to 300°, and, it is stated, sometimes to even [Pg 148] 400°. Bakerooms are usually of such great heat as to be injurious to the health of any but the strongest and stoutest. Some establishments have day and night bakers. ”

“ In that case we shall have to spend the whole of tomorrow in baking cakes."
"Not at all," I replied; "once dry, the flour in barrels will keep fresh a long time. We shall use a great deal of this, however, as you shall see."
"Do you think we might begin now, father?" said Fritz. "There does not seem the least moisture remaining."
"Certainly," said I. "But I shall make only one cake to-day for an experiment; we must see how it agrees with Master Knips and the hens before we set up a bakehouse in regular style." ”

“ As the time went on I grew strong and hardy, and there was plenty of good food. All had porridge and milk in the morning, with plenty of hot scones and butter, and relishes of some sort. There was no waste, and the mistress was a good cook. I was told that when she and her husband began business that she did all the fancy cooking. Even in my time she did a lot of things for the bakehouse. I used to help with the raisins and currants and lemon-peel, and the meat for the raised Scotch mutton pies and so on. Those Scotch pies produced more profit than any other item in their trade. ”

“ On Sundays the men must attend twice or three times during the day for an hour or two to make preparations for the next day's bread.... The men employed by the underselling masters (who sell their bread under the 'full price,' and who, as already pointed out, comprise three-fourths of the London bakers) have not only to work on the average longer hours, but their work is almost entirely confined to the bakehouse. ”

“ During the twelfth century the house-wife’s plan of preparing bread for the table, in the absence of public bakehouses, common in some neighbourhoods, was to knead the dough into large flat cakes and lay them on the hearth in full glare of the fire, where they were permitted to remain until thoroughly baked. ”

“ The foreman remained with the master to work at "small goods" until about one, when he prepares the ferment for the next night's baking. All concerned can get their operations over about one or half-past one; so that, reckoning them to begin at half-past twelve, and deducting two hours of "sweat and tears" from one to three, when they can sleep if they will, there are some eleven hours of active labour. After the delivery of the bread is over, it should be mentioned, each man has about half an hour's bakehouse work in the way of getting coals, cleaning biscuit tins, brushing up, &c. ”

“ At the present day, bakehouses in all parts of the country are periodically visited by an inspector. There is therefore very little likelihood of bread being manufactured under insanitary conditions; in fact, the tendency is all the other way—to gradually raise the sanitary standard, and thus blot out many of the old-fashioned bakehouses that were sanitary enough in the old days, according to their theories, but are altogether old-fashioned and behind the times now. ”

“ The indisputable evidence is there in bricks and stone, in timber and mortar, for us to read if we will.
What can be more convincing than an early New England kitchen in whose broad fireplace still hang the cranes and trammels and where all the full complement of culinary paraphernalia incident to the art of open-fire cookery has been preserved? The fashion of the oven attests the method of baking bread. A mere glance at these things brings up a faithful and vivid picture of an important aspect of domestic life. ”

“ The straining-table is being cleaned by the table 'mate' and his coolies, while the washerman stamps on his sheets and press-cloths to extract all the colour from them, and the cake-house boys run to and fro between the cutting-table and the cake-house with batches of cakes on their heads, borne on boards, like a baker taking his hot rolls from the oven, or like a busy swarm of ants taking the spoil of the granary to their forest haunt. Everywhere there is a confused jumble of sounds. ”

“ And all day long, dreamily and wearily, the boiling water hummed in the cauldron where the biscuits were steamed, and the shovel of the baker rasped swiftly and evilly upon our ears from beneath the oven as often as it flung down baked bits of dough on the burning bricks. From morning to evening, in one corner of the stove, they burned wood, and the red reflection of the flames flickered on the wall of the workshop as if silently laughing at us. ”

“ As far as I could see the vendors made no effort to press their wares, and there seemed to be no fixed hours of work, men apparently sleeping, gossiping or drinking tea at any time of day. In the bakers’ shops the ovens were big holes flush with the floor of the shop, and the baker stuck the flat cakes of dough against their sides and pulled them off when ready, with the aid of a long-handled iron instrument. The bread, the little be-glazed rolls in the form of rings, and the heaps of flour were all plentifully besprinkled by the dust of the traffic ”

“ Let the children use building blocks to represent the baker’s shop with its show case and shelves where he sells his bread and cake and pies. His kitchen, too, is of great interest to children; if suitable arrangements can be made, take the class to visit a baker’s kitchen. After such a visit the baker’s kitchen and oven should be constructed; the children will doubtless find ways of making bread tins and long wooden shovels or paddles for taking bread from the oven. ”

“ Katy Scudder, who has just put into the oven, by the fireplace, some wondrous tea-rusks, for whose composition she is renowned. She has examined and pronounced perfect a loaf of cake which has been prepared for the occasion, and which, as usual, is done exactly right. The best room, too, has been opened and aired,—the white window-curtains saluted with a friendly little shake, as when one says, ‘How d’ye do?’ to a friend; for you must know, clean as our kitchen is, we are genteel, and have something better for company. ”

“ The problem in baking, then, is the quick application of heat rather below than above the loaf, and its steady continuance till all the air-cells are thoroughly dried into permanent consistency. Every housewife must watch her own oven to know how this can be best accomplished.
Bread-making can be cultivated to any extent as a fine art—and the various kinds of biscuit, tea-rusks, twists, rolls, into which bread may be made, are much better worth a housekeeper's ambition than the getting-up of rich and expensive cake or confections. ”

“ But the messenger went on again and he came to the baker's shop. The baker's boy stood at the door, dressed in his best white suit, and holding an empty basket on his arm. He was quite sure that he would be chosen to go to the palace, for his father's bake shop was an important place in the village. They measured their flour carefully, and weighed the loaves so that they might receive the utmost penny for each. They very seldom had any crumbs left for the poor, but they were selling a great deal of bread every day. ”

“ The snowy mass, perfectly mixed, kneaded with care and strength, rises in its beautiful perfection till the moment comes for fixing the air-cells by baking. A few minutes now, and the acetous fermentation will begin, and the whole result be spoiled. Many bread-makers pass in utter carelessness over this sacred and mysterious boundary. Their oven has cake in it, or they are skimming jelly, or attending to some other of the so-called higher branches of cookery, while the bread is quickly passing into the acetous stage. ”

“ The reason for these public bakeries is the great cost of fuel. The Arabs have a proverb showing that such baking is the cheapest. This runs: “Send your bread to the oven of the baker even though he should eat the half of it.”
I frequently see boys carrying dough to these bakeries, or bringing bread home from them. They use trays [116] which they bear on their heads. Ancient Jerusalem had its Bakers’ Street, for we read that King Zedekiah put the prophet Jeremiah into the court of the prison and commanded that they “should give him daily a piece of bread out of the Bakers’ Street.” ”

“ They are cave-like vaults running down below the street level. At the back of each vault is the oven with a sort of well before its open door. In the well stands the baker with a long paddle in his hand upon which he puts in and takes out the loaves. I have seen many bakeries of this kind. The fuel is olive wood, and the oven floor is marked out in blocks, so that the baking of each family may be put on a separate block. The loaves are about an inch thick and the size of a tea plate. Each has a hole in the centre. ”

“ You can fry bread on the top of stone: when one side is baked stand the pan on edge by the side of the stone and allow baking to proceed in that way.
Remember that small cakes and biscuits must be baked quickly before a hot fire whereas large loaves, such as johnny cake, must have a slow even heat so as to get done through. The secret of the camp oven is the envelope of hot air which must not be too hot and must be kept even. Below are given the recipes which are most successfully used with the frying pan baker. Whole wheat flour makes easier than white and has more taste. ”

“ It is not surprising that Anne Marie wished to visit the kitchen. It was a warm, sweet-smelling place, with great ovens filled with goodies and white-clad, white-capped, floury bakers moving steadily about their tasks.
Yes, Papa Durant was justly proud of his kitchen. He was proud of his Bakery, too. He was proud of the great gold-and-black sign, ‘French Pastry Shop,’ that stretched over the Bakery door and directly under the window where Anne Marie now stood. ”

“ But finally the little mischief-maker got the dough in his hat just about thick enough—not too much flour and not too much water in it. When this point was reached he knew that it was time to get ready for the baking part—putting the dough in the pans so it would go into the oven.
Trouble wanted to do as much toward making his own cake as he could without asking Nora to help. So now he thought he could put the dough in the baking pans himself. But they were on the table beyond his reach. He must get up to reach them. ”

“ Instead of four hundred cook-stoves being heated to the baking-point, with a vast waste of fuel and effort, one big fire in the village boulangerie bakes the bread for all the community. These French country women no more bake their own bread than they make their own shoes. In fact, if they tried to they could not produce anything half so appetizing and nourishing as the crusty, well-baked loaves turned out by that expert specialist, the village bakeress; and they buy those loaves for less than it would cost to produce them in each kitchen. ”

“ The bakery people were admirable, too, especially the young, rosy-cheeked wife, who usually tended shop, and the bright-faced little girl who brought the bread each morning. They had a small grocery attachment to the bakery, but I found it was not etiquette for me to buy there anything which I could get from the Frau Secundärlehrer in our basement. In the bakery one day I saw some packages of tapioca stacked up on a shelf, and, with the Babes in mind, ordered some sent next morning. ”

“ Only practice and watchfulness can teach you how to judge correctly when cake, bread, etc., are done. If ever so perfectly made, it will be heavy if taken from the oven before being thoroughly baked. When obliged to turn pans round in the oven, do not move them roughly, and never, if possible, take cake, bread, or biscuit out of the oven to turn. The air striking on them will make them heavy and solid.
Cake made with sour milk or buttermilk should be put into the oven the moment it is put together, unless, like cookies or hard gingerbread, it is to be molded or rolled. ”