Quote:
Originally Posted by Toxaris
Was it common to bring meat to a baker to create some kind of meatpie perhaps? In case you didn't have an oven yourself?
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We have an old christmas carol - from 1848 - in Denmark, that describes the activities on the day of Christmas Eve in a middle class Copenhagen Home. One of the lines are "gåsestegen er til bag'ren sendt" ~ "the goose has been sent to the baker". It seems to have been common practice (up to WWII) to send bigger roasts to the baker, partly because many households, especially in the cities, didn't have the big ovens needed (or no oven at all), partly to avoid the cooking-smells and fumes.
There’s a reference to a similar practice in England in Dickens’ Christmas Carol in Stave 3, where Scrooge watches ” innumerable people, carrying their dinners to the bakers’ shops”. This was not only at Christmas, it seems the less well-of, having neither ovens nor money to buy big roasts, would drop their sunday dinner at the baker’s on their way to church to be heated by the baker’s cooling ovens (no bread being baked on sundays) and fetch a nice hot meal on the way home.
Regards,
Kim