Here’s something interesting from the New York Times. Michael Pollan has written up an essay about a 36 hour dinner party, based around the use of a cob oven, no less. Pollan notes that the party’s inspiration was ” the communal ovens still found burning in some towns around the Mediterranean, centers of social gravity where, each morning, people bring their proofed, or risen, loaves to be baked. (Each loaf bears a signature slash so you can be sure the one you get back is your own.) But after the bread is out of the oven, people show up with a variety of other dishes to wring every last B.T.U. from the day’s fire: pizzas while the oven is still blazing and then, as the day goes on, gentle braises or even pots of yogurt to capture the last heat and flavors of the dying embers.”
I love stuff like this. I love food, people getting together to cook, using wood heat, quality ingredients, mmm, yea. Interesting. And of course, it’s especially cool that this group used an outdoor cob oven for their cooking!
Don’t forget to check out my how to build your own outdoor cob oven for pizza and bread.