Forno a paglia rinascimentale di Orsara di Puglia

The oldest oven in Orsara dates back to 1526 and is still working today. It is worth visiting this small and surprising oven where bread is produced according to local tradition and with techniques of Arab origin. The oven works with an indirect feed: the straw burns in a space below the flint and then separately from the environment used for cooking loaves, which has a bell shape.

The baking of bread in this type of oven lasts about two hours and the result is a product with a particularly crisp crust. At one time the oven was used only for cooking: in fact, every woman gathered her loaves, in Schkanate dialect, in the house and the baker’s task was only to cook them properly. The bakery was an important and demanding task, so the housewives proceeded at the same time a week, realizing enormous forms of bread, which lasted for days and served to feed large families. To recognize the loaves, which had an average weight of 4-5 kg, each housewife affected the soft mass of the symbols.