Baeckenoffe

‘Baeckenoffe’ means simply ‘the baker’s oven’. Traditionally, Monday was laundry day in Alsace leaving no time for cooking a big midday meal. So on Sunday night the meat for the baeckenoffe would be left to marinate, and early the next morning all the ingredients would be layered into a large earthenware pot and carried to the village baker. The baker’s oven would remain hot for hours, and it was in this slow oven that the baeckenoffe would cook until noon, when one of the children was sent