h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello TC,

just read your article about bread, Brot, pain etc. WOW

I'm deeply impressed; although my mother's a so-called "Gemeindebäckerin" I never went that deep in this subject, I just ate the stuff my whole life, hehe

Two things to add (please don't take it as critisizm:
Living for almost 30 years in the southwest of Germany (Schwaben) I made the experience the people say "Weckle" not "Weck". You knoe, the people down here are very keen on the -le and add it almost everywhere

In small villages (like where I come from) it is still quite common - and it's becoming more popular again - to work with some kind of "Gemeindebäckereien", i.e. the villages administration runs a small "Holzofen - bakery". Mostly one or two ovens made of a special kind os stone. You fill them with fir wood in specific dimensions (helps you to determin the heat exactly), then you burn it.
After everything has burnt down you wipe the ashes out with a broom.

That's the big moment for all the (forgive me, but it is that way round here) houswifes of the village. They made their dough at home and then they meet at the bakery where the loafs are given in the oven with the heated stones, where the bread gets baken within roughly two hours. So everyone can make exactly the bread he wants to have (and the size).
Far more important is (according to my opinion) that they all meet up on a (usualy) saturday morning and have a good opportunity to chat and ask when their husbands have come home from the pub the night before.
The difficult thing is the place them exactly and in the right distance to each other, because otherwise the heat treatment gets out of control. So if you have to much (or too less loafs you have a problem. Therefore you need one person to be responsible for the baking (the baking time corresponds to the gaps between the loafs)
My mother does this job for years now ( to avoid that the bakery gets closed, after the old bakerman died) and it was my job to ensure that there's always enough wood to heat with - and that on a saturday morning, you see, I had a hard youth.
Normally this village service is free, all you have to pay is a small fee to the baker. In the village where I came from it is 50 Pfennig per loaf

reading your article this reminds me to finish my own entry about hairdresser...
Have a nice day
ringo

In Hessen we also say Weck.
Ever heard of this one:
-Sinn die Weck weg?
-Sinn all' all!

I don't think your article is too long. It even makes you hungry for fresh rolls.
Or how about a Kwetschekuche!

I originally headed the article "German Bread and Cakes", but left off the cakes bit as I could probably write the same amount about them.

The Gemeindebäckereien are news to me.

I am not sure whether to include them, as they are not relevant for the tourist buying bread for his picnic or sandwiches. Can anybody use them? And how can you find out where there is one?

Ringo - have included your item. Please let me know if these bakeries can be visited (writing for tourists!) and how to find them.

It sounds very rural and idyllic.

Sorry about the formatting. I struggled for hours with GuideML and then gave up and did it in HTML:

I think you may insert "Schrippen" as yet another name for Brötchen, for the Berlin area.

very good entry! Lots of facts that I never bothered investigating, but interesting!

O yes, thanks very much, that's just the sort of addition I've been looking for. Can you define "Stulle" exactly, anyone, is it just a sandwich or roll with a filling or could it also be a synonym for roll, and if so, where?

I think 'Stulle' comes close to a sandwich, but with bread instead of toast. But don't rely on this opinion from a wannabe-bavarian.

Huh? What's a sandwich got to do with toast? You do get toasted sandwiches (I am talking for the potential. predominantly Anglo-Saxon readers of my entry) but only if specifically designated as such. A jam sandwich, as my father used to say, for example, is "two bits of bread jammed together"

So a "Stulle" always has a filling. Is this a proper word, or would it be counted as slang.

I'm off now to put the Schrippen in the entry.

phew! Here we are, with meanings in a mess. To me as a german, 'toast' is white/wheat bread, in slices of rectangular shape, be it toasted or not.
A 'Sandwich' would lead me to think of either
a) two slices of 'toast' with something in between, or
b) an oversized Brötchen, or a french style baguette, but always with cheese/lettuce/wurst (I was told the americans call this 'cold cuts') in between.

BTW: the English _can_ pronounce an 'ö': just think of 'burning'!

oh yes, and a Stulle always has something on top, maybe butter only. but again: this is the hessian/bavarian opinion. I never had a Stulle in Berlin.

that's way too much honour, ( ) that you put it in your entry. Just thought that you might be interested in.

Asking for the villages, well. The smaller the towns are, the bigger the chances that you'll find a "Gemeindebäcker".
For example Heiligenzimmern (Holyrooms) in the Zollern-Alb-Kreis.

I'm telling you this 'though my mother will kill me if she would know that "the Gemeindebäckerei Heiligenzimmern" is in the www now

One country where the pleasure of bread is even more important, is Denmark. Have a look at
http://www.h2g2.com/A405776

Brilliant. Thanks. I shall put a link in. Saves me looking up the recipe for Sauerteig, which I had intended to do when I next tidied up the kitchen.

Hi TC,

great article, you might consider to add 'Rundstück' (round piece) as a name for rolls used mainly in Hamburg.
My other point - hopefully you will be delighted to hear that I have put in a reference to your article in my post to this weeks' call for entries on Ten Minute Meals.
Why don't you submit the entry to Peer Review for approval? I think it's worth it.

Greetings
SchrEck Inc.

Thanks SchEck. I've tried drawing attention to it in all sorts of places but it doesn't appear in any lists. I have also researched the "Peer Review" and "What's Coing up" pages and there is another one, in the Post I think, forget the name. I have also posted questions everywhere trying to find out how to find out at what stage my entry is - has a Scout seen it? Is it been looked into? Has it been recommended by someone else? Is it being Reviewed? If there are 300 odd articles being reviewed, why are there only 16 converstaions on the Peer Review Page - even adding to the What's coming ups you don't come to the 300 odd. So where are the others. It's all very confusing.

I shall add the Runde Stücke to the list. But I always thought the expression "Stulle" came from Berlin/The North - have only ever read it, but never heard it here in the South. I shall leave it out until definitive clarity is reached. As it is not something that is baked, I can leave it out all together.

BTW have another look in if you've got a moment - I've put a picture in and am so pleased with myself. I hope it won't be edited out eventually because it is vital to the content - or can you describe a Brezel without using your hands?

Yep, saw the picture. The entry is even better with it.

If you don't mind, I would volunteer posting it to Peer Review. In Peer Review, you have to click on 'See all the conversations' (or so) to see all recommended entries... but, there are so much of it that the forum is getting more and more scary. A manual search in this forum will not get you anywhere, so I simply made a 'power search' in all the forums. Your entry doesn't seem to be recommended yet.

i've just seen your pic
i'd like to have a Butterbrez'n right now

Mahlzeit