I was doing a little refreshing (feeding) of my sourdough starter and the old fashioned bread bowl popped into my mind.  My Grandmother and my Mother and my Aunts all had bread bowls.  They mixed bread or biscuits in them daily and they were rarely washed.  they were caked with flour and everday more flour was added, a well made in the middle and all the wet ingredients dumped in and slowly the biscuits or bread was mixed until just the right amount of flour and then it was removed and kneaded.  The bread bowl was then covered with a clean distowel and put back in the cabinet…usually the cabinet right below where the kneading was done..Whatever flour was left in the bowl stayed there and would be in tomorrows bread…That's the way it was done in the old days..

Every summer I used to spend a month or so with my Aunt Johnnye Ruth who I was named after.  and every night before bedtime, she went to the kitchen, took out the bread bowl, got the starter out of the fridge, mixed sourdough batter for biscuits and shoved it back in the fridge.  The next moring she pulled out the bowl from the fridge, dumped it on the floured dish towel and rolled out the biscuits and popped them in the oven….I loved her biscuits.  I think that is probably why I'm so wrapped up in sourdough.

Some of the bowls were round and some rectangular but with round ends….lots of the time the really old ones  were hand carved and are prized possessions these days.  Considered antiques and they sell for several hundred dollars.  People use them these days for decorations and displaying decorations for whatever season…

I think a deep connection to things past is one of the things that bring us all here to CIR. I would love to see the bread bowls you have. Canu post a picture to share with us?

Maybe Suzanne would be interested in doing an article on it as well. I wonder how many other "chickens" have breadbowls from the past?

I could happly spend a couple of days wandering around there

I've bought several really nice wood bowls from Target to use as dough bowls.  One is made from Tupelo wood.  I keep them oiled and they are soooo pretty.   One bowl I really love I found at the Goodwill store buried under a lot of pots and pans.  It was a gray color but no cracks at all.  I bought it for a dollar, took it home cleaned it with a couple drops of mild soap in warm water.  Then I dried it really well and oiled it.  That wood has the prettiest grain to it that I have ever seen.  I don't think it was used for anything harmful, the wood has not picked up any "off" smell.  I think it might have been a salad bowl or something like that.  But I have used it for mixing up my doughs and letting them rise in that bowl.  It is one of my favorites.

Deb