The oven beside Gl. Rye Mill



Throughout the years there has always been a bakery connected to the mill. In 1997 an oven standing on its own grounds was built beside Gl. Rye Mill. After researching the Kølvrå oven in Herning Museum and the oven at Bundsbæk Mill, Skjern-Egvad Museum, the oven in Gl. Rye was designed and built.
 







Ground plan of the oven.



The oven is built on a foundation of sand and granite stones. The 40 centimetre thick walls are constructed with large bricks (copies of medieval bricks) and daubed with clay. In the ceiling two flues were made to channel the smoke from the back of the oven chamber up through the chimney, which is situated just above the oven-door. The oven casing is covered by earth and turf to protect the walls against the elements.

On baking days the oven is lit as early as possible using dry deciduous wood. It takes 2½-3 hours to heat the oven up depending on how damp the oven is, on how cold the weather is and how intensively the oven is fired up. The oven is warm enough "when the soot is burnt off the oven" as the proverb has it in West Jutland, meaning that the soot is burnt off the door and the stones are white. The embers and ashes are then raked out with an implement designed for the job and the bottom is dried/brushed clean. The flues are then blocked with stones and damp clay and the oven "rests" for about an hour, while the heat spreads evenly around the oven walls. Baking can begin when a handful of flour thrown into the oven does not turn black in under a minute!

Baking then starts with the items that need the most heat and continues in order until the dainty cakes that need the least heat. This means in reality that baking starts with the finer and richer wheat dough and biscuits, followed by white bread and wholemeal bread, then cakes, rye bread and finally meringues etc.

On occasions old fashioned hand kneaded rye bread is baked at Gl. Rye Mill. For centuries this has been the staple diet in Denmark. Rye has been the corn sort best suited to the Danish climate. Every where it has been treated with great deference. It has never been a tradition to cross a rye field, whether in the winter or in the spring, and as the Danish songwriter, Jeppe Aakjær’s song "Now it is a long time ago" says, "First mother spread a cloth so carefully as if it were a ceremonial cloth because none should tread the harvest’s rye with shoes".
 
There were many ways to make rye bread according to regional tradition or even family tradition. In some areas the rye was scolded before souring with the help of some leaven from the last batch. In other areas one began to mix the dough 3-4 days before the actual baking. There were many things that had to be taken into consideration in order to get a good result. It was important to know about the quality of the rye, which could be markedly different depending on what the growing conditions had been at the time. One had to understand the leaven and how it reacted. One had to take the season and the weather into consideration on baking day.

On baking day itself the rye bread dough had to be kneaded early in the morning. The dough was divided up into large portions, enough for 2-3 loaves. Each portion had to be kneaded for an half hour after which the loaves were formed, ensuring at the same time that there were no flaws in them. After 5-6 hours of rising, when the oven was ready the loaves were put in using a shovel and were then baked for 2½-3 hours depending on how much heat was left in the oven.
  
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