I'm enjoying Inea BUSHNAQ's book, Arab Folktales, published by Pantheon
Books, 1986. On p.47, she describes bread being cooked in the following
manner by a member of a raiding party: "He mixed flour with water, enough
to feed a whole band that is hungry and worn. He buried the flat dough in
hot ashes and covered it with sand. Then he waited."

I think that if I tried to do this, I would wind up eating a lot of sand
and ashes. Does someone know more precise instructions for this method of
baking bread?

Ignorantly,
Allan Adler


************************************************** **************************
* *
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT Artificial *
* Intelligence Lab. My actions and comments do not reflect *
* in any way on MIT. Moreover, I am nowhere near the Boston *
* metropolitan area. *
* *
************************************************** **************************

"Allan Adler" > wrote in message
...

> He buried the flat dough in
> hot ashes and covered it with sand. Then he waited."

> I think that if I tried to do this, I would wind up eating a lot of sand
> and ashes.

They add texture and flavor. ;-)

> Does someone know more precise instructions for this method of
> baking bread?

Having witnessed it myself I can say that that's a pretty accurate statement
of the actual procedure. The dough is quite dry to begin with so not as much
sand and ashes adhere to the bread as you might think. (In fact I don't
recall any sand doing so.) The baking takes place so fast that I suppose
they don't get much of a chance. I've also had a posher version of this
bread that was cooked on a metal plate of some sort set on the coals.

--
Bob
Kanyak's Doghouse
http://kanyak.com

> I'm enjoying Inea BUSHNAQ's book, Arab Folktales, published by Pantheon
> Books, 1986. On p.47, she describes bread being cooked in the following
> manner by a member of a raiding party: "He mixed flour with water, enough
> to feed a whole band that is hungry and worn. He buried the flat dough in
> hot ashes and covered it with sand. Then he waited."
>
> I think that if I tried to do this, I would wind up eating a lot of sand
> and ashes. Does someone know more precise instructions for this method of
> baking bread?

I've done this, it's a standard way of making Indian chapatties. The
gritty stuff just falls off. But NOT "enough to feed a whole band" in
one lump - sounds like a good way to end up with charcoal-coated goo.
Chapatties are never very big.

========> Email to "j-c" at this site; email to "bogus" will bounce <========
Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760
<http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/purrhome.html> food intolerance data & recipes,
Mac logic fonts, Scots traditional music files and CD-ROMs of Scottish music.

Allan Adler > nattered on
:

>
> I'm enjoying Inea BUSHNAQ's book, Arab Folktales, published by
> Pantheon Books, 1986. On p.47, she describes bread being cooked in the
> following manner by a member of a raiding party: "He mixed flour with
> water, enough to feed a whole band that is hungry and worn. He buried
> the flat dough in hot ashes and covered it with sand. Then he waited."
>
> I think that if I tried to do this, I would wind up eating a lot of
> sand and ashes. Does someone know more precise instructions for this
> method of baking bread?

Tony Bourdain liked it.

Sounds like HOECAKES to me, , , , ,
Bread cooked on a hoe over a charcoal fire.???

Ron C.
=========================================
On 05 Jan 2004 10:10:06 -0500, Allan Adler >
wrote:

>
>I'm enjoying Inea BUSHNAQ's book, Arab Folktales, published by Pantheon
>Books, 1986. On p.47, she describes bread being cooked in the following
>manner by a member of a raiding party: "He mixed flour with water, enough
>to feed a whole band that is hungry and worn. He buried the flat dough in
>hot ashes and covered it with sand. Then he waited."
>
>I think that if I tried to do this, I would wind up eating a lot of sand
>and ashes. Does someone know more precise instructions for this method of
>baking bread?
>
>Ignorantly,
>Allan Adler

>
>************************************************* ***************************
>* *
>* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT Artificial *
>* Intelligence Lab. My actions and comments do not reflect *
>* in any way on MIT. Moreover, I am nowhere near the Boston *
>* metropolitan area. *
>* *
>************************************************* ***************************

>
>Sounds like HOECAKES to me, , , , ,
>Bread cooked on a hoe over a charcoal fire.???
>

Are not hoecakes traditionally made from corn (maize)?

Andy Smith

Dr Pepper muttered....

> Sounds like HOECAKES to me, , , , ,
> Bread cooked on a hoe over a charcoal fire.???
>
> Ron C.
> =========================================

Didn't the Scots marauders in the Border Wars toast their oatcakes on the
shields?


> On 05 Jan 2004 10:10:06 -0500, Allan Adler >
> wrote:
>
>>
>>I'm enjoying Inea BUSHNAQ's book, Arab Folktales, published by
>>Pantheon Books, 1986. On p.47, she describes bread being cooked in the
>>following manner by a member of a raiding party: "He mixed flour with
>>water, enough to feed a whole band that is hungry and worn. He buried
>>the flat dough in hot ashes and covered it with sand. Then he waited."
>>
>>I think that if I tried to do this, I would wind up eating a lot of
>>sand and ashes. Does someone know more precise instructions for this
>>method of baking bread?
>>


Similar baking shows up in several cultures (and in essence is no "grosser"
than burying Irish or sweet potatoes in live coals). I've had both fish and
fowl (nasty feathers left on) cooked in coals. Simply "peel and eat".

Our nomadic ancestors were short on cooking vessels. When you attempt the
AmerIndian practice of boiling food by dropping heated rocks in a straw
"pot" (where the wet fibres swell to slow leaking), you can get awful
hungry before the hominy is done.

Armadillo comes with its own baking dish (but carries the Hansen's virus
and may make you literally put your nose into things or "throw in your
hand" at bridge - although asa disease transmission vestor few cases are
apparent).

TMO

>> Sounds like HOECAKES to me, , , , ,
>> Bread cooked on a hoe over a charcoal fire.???
> Didn't the Scots marauders in the Border Wars toast their oatcakes
> on the shields?

Froissart said the Scots soldiers of his time (when were these
"Border Wars" you allude to?) carried iron griddles. Easier to
carry than a shield, and surely only the more elite ranks would
have had shields anyway.

This is quite a different technique from the ash cookery the
original poster was talking about.

========> Email to "j-c" at this site; email to "bogus" will bounce <========
Jack Campin: 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU; 0131 6604760
<http://www.purr.demon.co.uk/purrhome.html> food intolerance data & recipes,
Mac logic fonts, Scots traditional music files and CD-ROMs of Scottish music.

Olivers wrote:
>
> Dr Pepper muttered....
>
> > Sounds like HOECAKES to me, , , , ,
> > Bread cooked on a hoe over a charcoal fire.???
> >
> > Ron C.
> > =========================================
>
> Didn't the Scots marauders in the Border Wars toast their oatcakes on the
> shields?

So it is rumoured... I'll have to ask me ancestors!

I need to read The Steel Bonnets.
--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

bogus address wrote:
>
> >> Sounds like HOECAKES to me, , , , ,
> >> Bread cooked on a hoe over a charcoal fire.???
> > Didn't the Scots marauders in the Border Wars toast their oatcakes
> > on the shields?
>
> Froissart said the Scots soldiers of his time (when were these
> "Border Wars" you allude to?) carried iron griddles. Easier to
> carry than a shield, and surely only the more elite ranks would
> have had shields anyway.
>
> This is quite a different technique from the ash cookery the
> original poster was talking about.

'Girdles', surely... Like the one on my web site... or possibly
more like the one my mum has in shape of hoop handle for hanging over
the fire. Mind, not quite like hers either, it having been made for her
mum out of a disk of half inch armour plating...

I took him to be referring to the reiver raids that took place over
several hundred years, rather than actual wars.
--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!

If you get the Food Network, Anthony Bourdain on "A Cooks Tour" watched
nomadic people of the Sahara make this bread on one episode - he said that
it had no sand whatsoever stuck to it.
It's completely unlike a hoecake as there is a yeast leavened loaf that is
literally flopped raw into a sand dune and covered with hot coals to bake.
The outside wasn't even burnt when they got finished.

Here's a little about the rest of the episode:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show..._20289,00.html

"Dr Pepper" > wrote in message
...
> Sounds like HOECAKES to me, , , , ,
> Bread cooked on a hoe over a charcoal fire.???
>
> Ron C.
> =========================================
> On 05 Jan 2004 10:10:06 -0500, Allan Adler >
> wrote:
>
> >
> >I'm enjoying Inea BUSHNAQ's book, Arab Folktales, published by Pantheon
> >Books, 1986. On p.47, she describes bread being cooked in the following
> >manner by a member of a raiding party: "He mixed flour with water, enough
> >to feed a whole band that is hungry and worn. He buried the flat dough in
> >hot ashes and covered it with sand. Then he waited."
> >
> >I think that if I tried to do this, I would wind up eating a lot of sand
> >and ashes. Does someone know more precise instructions for this method of
> >baking bread?
> >
> >Ignorantly,
> >Allan Adler
>
> >
>
>************************************************* **************************
*
> >*
*
> >* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT Artificial
*
> >* Intelligence Lab. My actions and comments do not reflect
*
> >* in any way on MIT. Moreover, I am nowhere near the Boston
*
> >* metropolitan area.
*
> >*
*
>
>************************************************* **************************
*
>

Baking in Hot Sand

from Paula Wolfert's 'Mediterranean Grains and Greens' p.32

"I once tasted a marvelously aromatic and touchingly frugal
flatbread baked in the Saharan sands. Mohammad Melke's family
comes from the Tunisian Sahara.
....[text omitted]
....Mohammed prepared the dough in a wide wooden dish. He
gradually worked in the lukewarm water, using his knuckles. ...
As the dough was resting, he, Ismael, and I walked about,
collecting pebbles and dried brush. We stopped when our stack of
bruch was three feet tall. This, Mohammed told me, would be
enough to heat the sand beneath for baking.
He used a spade to prepare the sand, setting out a bed of
small stones on one side, then piling the brush next to it.
Finally he set the brush on fire.
While it burned, he returned to the dough, which had risen
only slightly. He divided it into softball-size balls, worked
each ball smooth, then set it beneath a wool blanket on a wooden
plank.
When the brush was reduced to ashes, he dug a hole in the
sand directly beneath, which by then had grown extremely hot. He
then brought out the first ball of dough, which he flattened to a
1.5 inch thick disk 12 inches in diameter. He placed the disk on
the hot sand, then shoveled more hot sand on top.
The hotter sand is on top so the bread bakes from the top
down, he explained. He could tell when it was time to turn the
bread by checking to see if sand stuck to the dough. When the
bread was half cooked, the sand no longer clung. He scraped back
the sand and ashes, flipped the disk, then buried it again. When
the bread was baked he let it rest of the hot pebbles while he
cooked the next loaf.
The bread that came out was flecked with black spots,
perfumed by the smoke and ashes of the burning brush. ..."

_______________________________
And from Copeland Marks' 'The Great Book of Couscous' p.246

"Lamb barbecued in hot sand

Here again the ingenuity of the desert Beduin and Berber is
brought out in the preparation of these brochettes.
Boneless lamb is cut into 1 inch cubes and threaded on metal
skewers, alternating with tomato and onion slices. The skewers
are sprinkled with salt and pepper.
A hole is dug in the desert sand and a fire built in it. A
clay pot (tajine) deep enough to hold and support the brochettes
upright is placed in the fire. Hot charcoal is heaped around the
pot, which operates like an oven. The brochettes are put in the
pot, the pot is covered with the lid, then with hot sand and the
brochettes inside bake for 1/2 hour.
The tagine is removed from the fire and opened. The lamb is
roasted with all the flavor locked in. Simple and effective."

cheers,
jodie