Other Ingredients

Stoking and baking in the toné are laborious processes. First, a starter prepared from yeast, flour, water, and salt is poured into a special dough trough or vartsli, with just enough flour mixed in to make a soft dough. The amount of salt in the dough is crucial. Too much, and the taste is unpleasant. Too little, and the bread won’t stick to the sides of the oven, resulting in a kuti puri or “crippled bread,” burned and covered with ashes.

A very hot fire is made from dried grapevines on the floor of the toné, and soon flames come roaring out of the top like a B-movie volcano. By the time the flames die down, the sides of the oven have been coated with black ashes, which soon turn white, indicating that the oven has reached proper temperature. While the oven is heating, the baker presses the dough into 10-inch ovals, being careful to avoid uniform thickness.