In a world where everything seems artificial, customers are increasingly looking for products that are hand-crafted, real and made from recipes treasured through time. It no longer feels good to go to the grocery store find products that have a dizzying list of ingredients, some of which certainly seem like they belong nowhere near food. Consumers want to return to the days of artisan food products and goods that were produced with care. Artisan products represent a wholesomeness that is not found in our mass-produced factory food.
One of the most popular artisan items is handmade bread. These hearth-baked loaves come with a wonderful crust and a true old world, rustic feel and taste. Artisan loaves are baked without pans, and when you walk into a bakery and smell the loaves cooking you are transported back to a truer, simpler time. Baking artisan bread is a timeless craft that is revered and honored by those making the loaves. The smell of a fresh baguette, focaccia or ciabatta can draw you into an artisan bakery, and you’ll soon find yourself yearning for more.
Discovering the First Known Ovens
Archaeologists and others found that the first known ovens for baking bread date to around 5,000 years ago. People from Mesopotamia and Egypt would first place a large pot of clay upside down over hot coals. Once the clay vessel was sufficiently headed, they would place the dough in the pot. It was then cooked on all sides.
As time went on, people from Pakistan developed the Tandoor oven to cook Naan. These ovens were made of clay and straw, and took a barrel form that was narrower and then open at the top. Our contemporary wood oven was then developed by Greeks approximately 2,000 years ago. This oven basically laid a Tandoor oven on its side, and with the opening in front it as able to use less fuel.
The Birth of the Modern Deck Oven
If you visit a modern artisan bakery of today, you will likely find that the tantalizing, delicious loaves are being baked in a deck oven. These ovens come in both a single deck or multi-deck model. To cook the artisan bread, they use conduction heat that can travel from either a hot stone or the deck up to the beautiful loaf of bread that is being baked. They also create a radiant heat, which lets infrared waves enter the baking dough and cook it completely.
The top of the line ovens, revered by artisan bakers, are Bongard ovens. When baking with a deck oven, artisan bakers can easily make fine-tuned adjustments to the baking cycle so they produce perfect loaves.
Artisan Bread in Recent Years
Through most of history, humans ate artisan bread. Things began to change, however, when the first bread slicer was invented by Chillicothe Baking in 1928. Wonder Bread soon followed, and factory-produced, industrialized bread began to be the market norm.
Yet customers still longed for, and remembered, the wonderful taste and texture of artisan bread. Artisan bread is now one of the hottest food trends, keeping a rich tradition alive.
