Pastera (kneading trough) and oven peel — Traditional Mallorcan object

What is

The two tools of homemade bread and forner.

Pasta: wooden trough where the flour is kneaded.
Baking shovel: long-handled shovel to put bread in and out of the wood-burning oven.

Pasta: wooden box with a flat bottom and inclined interior walls (DCVB). It can be on four petges (legs) or be a piece of furniture with doors in front, like a chest of drawers. It usually has a flat or inclined lid. Pastera amb tomba: walls inclined outwards, like a coffin.
Forner shovel: rectangular, trapezoidal or semi-oval blade at the end of a long handle (DCVB). The enfornar one is made of wood; that of removing embers, of iron.
Unverified measurements.

Pastera: work of Fuster or cabinetmaker; household furniture ( ebenisteria i moble mallorquí , eines de fuster ).
Shovel: thin board and one-piece or nested handle (technique to be verified).

1. The woman takes the dough to the town oven; In a tiny espart cabasset, he carries the flour to sprinkle the board (DCVB, "senalla", meaning 2).

2. In the dough maker, mix flour, water, salt and yeast and knead with your fists. Pastered: the amount that is kneaded at once.

3. The forner transfers the bread to the shovel, slides it with a sharp tap to the bottom of the oven and takes it out cooked.

4. The iron shovel sweeps and removes the embers before lining.

pastera: kneading trough.
pastera amb tomba: with walls sloping outwards.
petges: paster's legs.
pasterada: dough at once (“sa pasterada i sa dona”, ximbomba song, DCVB).
pala de forner: oven shovel, made of wood for forging.
enfornar / desenfornar: put / take out of the oven.
forner: baker.
pastera (barca): in Mallorca, also the most humble and flat boat, rowed ( vela llatina ).

1491: "a large fust pastry bowl" and a long bench in the pantry of the cellar of the possession of Gabriel Cerdà, Santa Margalida (BSAL 2017).
1373: “dues pasteres de pastar de pocha valor” (doc., DCVB).
1405-1410: "una shovel of ferre", "una shovel of fust" in inventories (DCVB).
1460: «una bona pastera... ab sos petges e cobertor» (DCVB).
20th century: mechanical mixer and industrial bread; The pastry box remains as a souvenir piece of furniture.
Today: there are few wood-fired ovens left: Ca s'Amo in Pep (Palma), Forn des Molí (es Llombards, pa de xeixa), Ca'n Simó (sa Pobla), according to the directory.

Museum of Mallorca, ethnological section (Wall) : recreates rooms of the house, with the bread oven.
Wood ovens in use (see History); Ask if they use a wooden shovel.

Tool-furniture: the pastry bowl is a work table, pantry and household furniture.
Inclined walls: the dough does not stay in the corners and is worked standing up.
Material by function: wood for the bread (does not burn, does not stick), iron for the ember.
Long handle: safety distance from the fire and reach to the bottom of the oven.

Piece: contemporary pastera (kitchen cabinet with trough) with a cabinet maker from the island.
Workshop: xeixa bread in a wood-fired oven with a shovel and a dough maker, with a forner from the island.

The two tools of homemade bread and forner.

Some words: enfornar / desenfornar, forner, pala de forner, pastera, pastera (barca), pastera amb tomba, pasterada, petges.

Working text from the Disseny Indígena knowledge base, machine-translated from Spanish.