» Robinson Crusoe’s Bread Oven

Robinson Crusoe’s Bread Oven

Robinson Crusoe, you will remember, was stranded on an uninhabited island. This island was like Eden. There were goats, fruit trees, fish, birds, and wild greens. But for Robinson Crusoe, all this was not enough. All this was nothing. He did not want to pick up his food like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He must produce his own food. And he must have bread, the staple of his native England.

By chance, as the story goes, Robinson Crusoe found a few grains of barley amongst the goods he had salvaged from the wreck. With these few grains he set out to make bread. But to make bread he had to recreate all the main elements of modern civilization. To create fields, and then bread, he had to create tools, fences, grinding stones, and the bread oven itself.

It is unlikely that Defoe had ever baked. In outline, however, he does a good job of describing the basic agricultural system that supported grain production in eighteenth-century England and he also does a good job of explaining — roughly — how bread is made. The part of the explanation that I include here is the section that covers dough preparation, and more importantly, the passage where he describes an improvised oven. The type of oven described here is rarely mentioned in the literature and is a technology that could be used for occasional baking ones backyard — or when car camping.

The baking part was the next thing to be considered, and how I should make bread when I came to have corn; for first, I had no yeast. As to that part, there was no supplying the want, so I did not concern myself much about it. But for an oven I was indeed in great pain. At length I found out an experiment for that also, which was this: I made some earthen-vessels very broad but not deep, that is to say, about two feet in diameter, and not above nine inches deep. These I burned in the fire, as I had done the other, and laid them by; and when I wanted to bake, I made a great fire upon my hearth, which I had paved with some square tiles of my own baking and burning also; but I should not call them square. When the firewood was burned pretty much into embers or live coals, I drew them forward upon this hearth, so as to cover it all over, and there I let them lie till the hearth was very hot. Then sweeping away all the embers, I set down my loaf or loaves, and whelming down the earthen pot upon them, drew the embers all round the outside of the pot, to keep in and add to the heat; and thus as well as in the best oven in the world, I baked my barley-loaves, and became in little time a good pastry cook into the bargain; for I made myself several cakes and puddings of the rice; but I made no pies, neither had I anything to put into them supposing I had, except the flesh either of fowls or goats.

The Life and strange and surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe, 1719

First, I’d like to say something about the bread Robinson Crusoe bakes. It is a bread made of barley flour. Barley bread was common in large portions of England throughout the eighteenth-century amongst families of middling wealth. An example would be small farmers who lived where barley was the best grain crop. For the most extensive look at eighteenth century English barley breads, refer to William Ellis’ The British Housewife’s Family Companion, 1750. This link points you to an online edition of the Prospect Books edition.

Robinson Crusoe says that “I had no yeast. As to that part, there was no supplying the want, so I did not concern myself much about it.” English bread was almost always made with yeast. The yeast was obtained from the brewer. However, there was some knowledge of sourdough breads in the English countryside and so Defoe’s early eighteenth century readers can be assumed to have understood that lacking yeast Robinson Crusoe would have relied on a piece of sour dough to trigger the fermentation process [note 1]. William Ellis documents barley bread made with a sour starter so if you are interested in how Defoe’s readers might have imagined what the details of Robinson Crusoe’s recipe might have been I suggest that you refer to The British Housewife’s Family Companion.

The portion of Defoe’s text that I think is most important — text that adds to our knowledge of pre-industrial bread making — is the passage describing the oven. The type of oven Defoe describes — a shallow lid on which to place embers — is the top half of the American “Dutch oven.” It is a cooking implement with an ancient lineage. In the late Roman period it was called a teste. Elizabeth David, in her book, English Bread and Yeast Cookery, refers to nineteenth century farmers baking breads outdoors under large pots using a method identical with the one Defoe describes.

The height of Robinson Crusoe’s portable oven, nine inches (23 cm), is right for a fairly squat bread. Such an oven could be made out of metal — a metal shop could fabricate one for you out of plate steel — or it could be made out of clay, adobe, or refectory concrete. If you make one, regardless of the material you use, include handles so you can easily lift it when hot.

I once saw a baker on a street corner in China making buns in an oven that was very close to Defoe’s oven. It was made of metal. The oven floor was a heated metal plate — a plate of iron on a tripod over fire. The oven lid was lifted with a handle made of three very long wires. A fire burned on the lid — a real fire of flaming sticks. This improvised oven/bakery turned out flawless rolls.

The passage I include here ends with talk of pies. I cannot hazard a guess as to why Defoe has Robinson Crusoe rejecting pies on the grounds he had nothing to put in them except “fowls or goat.” This makes no sense. There was — and still is — an English tradition of baking meat pies. Furthermore, on the island there was a plentiful supply of fruit so Robinson Crusoe could have made a pie combing meat and fruit — a filling well documented in the eighteenth-century cookbook literature.

Note 1. The process of fermentation was not understood until Pasteur wrote about it in the mid-nineteenth century. Thus, a period reader would not have thought in terms of triggering fermentation in the larger batch of dough, or in terms of a sour culture, or in terms of any of the other science-based notions that we bring to our understanding of bread making.

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Home Hearth Cooking Bread Bread Ovens Homemade Alcohol Wild Mushrooms Heritage Turkeys Unrelated to Food Traditional Foodways Kitchen Gardening Culinary History Samburu Eggs How to Contact Me Blog	Robinson Crusoe’s Bread Oven Robinson Crusoe, you will remember, was stranded on an uninhabited island. This island was like Eden. There were goats, fruit trees, fish, birds, and wild greens. But for Robinson Crusoe, all this was not enough. All this was nothing. He did not want to pick up his food like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He must produce his own food. And he must have bread, the staple of his native England. By chance, as the story goes, Robinson Crusoe found a few grains of barley amongst the goods he had salvaged from the wreck. With these few grains he set out to make bread. But to make bread he had to recreate all the main elements of modern civilization. To create fields, and then bread, he had to create tools, fences, grinding stones, and the bread oven itself. It is unlikely that Defoe had ever baked. In outline, however, he does a good job of describing the basic agricultural system that supported grain production in eighteenth-century England and he also does a good job of explaining — roughly — how bread is made. The part of the explanation that I include here is the section that covers dough preparation, and more importantly, the passage where he describes an improvised oven. The type of oven described here is rarely mentioned in the literature and is a technology that could be used for occasional baking ones backyard — or when car camping. The baking part was the next thing to be considered, and how I should make bread when I came to have corn; for first, I had no yeast. As to that part, there was no supplying the want, so I did not concern myself much about it. But for an oven I was indeed in great pain. At length I found out an experiment for that also, which was this: I made some earthen-vessels very broad but not deep, that is to say, about two feet in diameter, and not above nine inches deep. These I burned in the fire, as I had done the other, and laid them by; and when I wanted to bake, I made a great fire upon my hearth, which I had paved with some square tiles of my own baking and burning also; but I should not call them square. When the firewood was burned pretty much into embers or live coals, I drew them forward upon this hearth, so as to cover it all over, and there I let them lie till the hearth was very hot. Then sweeping away all the embers, I set down my loaf or loaves, and whelming down the earthen pot upon them, drew the embers all round the outside of the pot, to keep in and add to the heat; and thus as well as in the best oven in the world, I baked my barley-loaves, and became in little time a good pastry cook into the bargain; for I made myself several cakes and puddings of the rice; but I made no pies, neither had I anything to put into them supposing I had, except the flesh either of fowls or goats. The Life and strange and surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe, 1719 First, I’d like to say something about the bread Robinson Crusoe bakes. It is a bread made of barley flour. Barley bread was common in large portions of England throughout the eighteenth-century amongst families of middling wealth. An example would be small farmers who lived where barley was the best grain crop. For the most extensive look at eighteenth century English barley breads, refer to William Ellis’ The British Housewife’s Family Companion, 1750. This link points you to an online edition of the Prospect Books edition. Robinson Crusoe says that “I had no yeast. As to that part, there was no supplying the want, so I did not concern myself much about it.” English bread was almost always made with yeast. The yeast was obtained from the brewer. However, there was some knowledge of sourdough breads in the English countryside and so Defoe’s early eighteenth century readers can be assumed to have understood that lacking yeast Robinson Crusoe would have relied on a piece of sour dough to trigger the fermentation process [note 1]. William Ellis documents barley bread made with a sour starter so if you are interested in how Defoe’s readers might have imagined what the details of Robinson Crusoe’s recipe might have been I suggest that you refer to The British Housewife’s Family Companion. The portion of Defoe’s text that I think is most important — text that adds to our knowledge of pre-industrial bread making — is the passage describing the oven. The type of oven Defoe describes — a shallow lid on which to place embers — is the top half of the American “Dutch oven.” It is a cooking implement with an ancient lineage. In the late Roman period it was called a teste. Elizabeth David, in her book, English Bread and Yeast Cookery, refers to nineteenth century farmers baking breads outdoors under large pots using a method identical with the one Defoe describes. The height of Robinson Crusoe’s portable oven, nine inches (23 cm), is right for a fairly squat bread. Such an oven could be made out of metal — a metal shop could fabricate one for you out of plate steel — or it could be made out of clay, adobe, or refectory concrete. If you make one, regardless of the material you use, include handles so you can easily lift it when hot. I once saw a baker on a street corner in China making buns in an oven that was very close to Defoe’s oven. It was made of metal. The oven floor was a heated metal plate — a plate of iron on a tripod over fire. The oven lid was lifted with a handle made of three very long wires. A fire burned on the lid — a real fire of flaming sticks. This improvised oven/bakery turned out flawless rolls. The passage I include here ends with talk of pies. I cannot hazard a guess as to why Defoe has Robinson Crusoe rejecting pies on the grounds he had nothing to put in them except “fowls or goat.” This makes no sense. There was — and still is — an English tradition of baking meat pies. Furthermore, on the island there was a plentiful supply of fruit so Robinson Crusoe could have made a pie combing meat and fruit — a filling well documented in the eighteenth-century cookbook literature. Note 1. The process of fermentation was not understood until Pasteur wrote about it in the mid-nineteenth century. Thus, a period reader would not have thought in terms of triggering fermentation in the larger batch of dough, or in terms of a sour culture, or in terms of any of the other science-based notions that we bring to our understanding of bread making.