Bake

אָפָה, aphah'). This domestic operation was usually, among the ancient Israelites, committed to the females or slaves of the family (Ge 18:6; Le 26:26; 1Sa 8:13; 1Sa 28:24; 2Sa 13:8; Mt 13:33; comp. Jer 7:18; Jer 44:19; see the Mishna, Challah, 2:7; Thilo, Cod. apocryph. 1:96; Pliny, 18:28; Arvieux, Voyages, 3, 226; v. 418; Burckhardt, 2:1003; Russell, Aleppo, 1:146; Robinson, 2:180), but later they had regular bakers (אֹפַים, ophin', Ho 7:4,6; comp. Joseph. Ant. 15:9, 2), and in Jerusalem (Jer 37:21) there was a special "Bakers' Street" (bazaar, forum pistorium). SEE MECHANIC. The dough (בָּצֵק, batsek', Sept. σταῖς) was made of wheat, barley, or spelt flour (Mishna, Shebuoth, 3, 2), and every family took care to bake their own supply in small quantities fresh daily (comp. Arvieux, 1:69; 3, 227; Tavernier, 2:280; Harmer, 3, 474), prepared in a wooden bowl or trough (מַשׁאֶרֶת, mishe'reth, Ex 12:28; comp. Shaw, Trav. p. 231; Rosenmüller, Morgenl. 1:303 sq.), leavened (an act denoted by the verb חָמֵוֹ, chanets') properly (Pliny 18:26), and kneaded (an operation designated by לוּשׁ, lush). The ferment was omitted whenever it was necessary to bake in haste (Ge 19:3; Ex 12:34 sq., 39; Jg 6:19; 1Sa 28:24; comp. Pliny 18:27), and the modern Bedouins scarcely use leaven at all (Arvieux, 3, 227; Robinson, 3, 76); and even in cities, for the most part, bread is baked unfermented in the East (Rippell, Abyss. 1:199). SEE PASSOVER; SEE LEAVEN. The bread is made in the form of long or round cakes (כַּכּרוֹת לֶחֶם, kikkeroth' le'chem, Ex 29:23; 1Sa 2:36; Jg 8:5; Sept. κολλυρὶς ἄρτου), of the size of a plate and the thickness of the thumb (Korte, Reis. p. 436; Russell, Aleppo, 1:146; Harmer, Obs. 3, 60 sq.; Robinson, 2:496); hence in eating they were not cut, but broken (Isa 57:7; Mt 14:19; Mt 26:26; Ac 20:11; comp. Xenoph. Anab. 7:3, 22; Plaut. Pan. 3, 5, 19; Curt. 4:2, 14; Robinson, 2:497). SEE MEAL. The proper oven (תִּנּוּר, tannur', comp. Ho 7:4,6), which in Oriental cities is sometimes public (Shaw, Trav. p. 202; Harmer, 1:246), differs little from ours (Arvieux, 3, 229). But, besides these, use was principally made of large stone jars, open at the mouth, about three feet high, with a fire made inside (regularly with wood, comp. Isa 44:15, but on occasion also of dry dung, Eze 4:12; comp. Arvieux, 3, 228 sq.; Korte, p. 438; SEE FUEL ), for baking bread and cakes, as soon as the sides were sufficiently heated, by applying the thin dough to the exterior (according to others, to the interior surface likewise), the opening at the top being closed (comp. Arvieux, 3, 227; Niebuhr, Beschr. p. 57; Tavernier, 1:280; Rippell, ut sup.). Such a pot is still called tanur by the Arabs (Michaelis, Orient. Bibl. 7:176). Another mode of baking, which is still very common in the East, consists either in filling a shallow pit with red-hot gravel-stones, which, as soon as they have imparted their heat to the hole, are taken out and the cakes of dough laid in their place (Tavernier, 1:64); or a jar is half filled with hot pebbles and the dough spread on the surface of these (Arvieux, 3, 229). This preparation of bread is probably denoted by the עֻגּוֹת רצָפַים, uggoth' retsaphim' ("cakes baken on the coals"), of 1Ki 19:6. That baked regularly in the oven, on the other hand, is called מִאֲפֵה תִּגּוּר , naapheh' tannur' ("baken in the oven," Le 2:4). Still another kind was baked in the ashes (comp. Robinson, 2:496). SEE ASH-CAKE. The Israelites doubtless became early acquainted with the finer method of preparing bread practiced among the Egyptians (comp. Rossellini, II, 2:464). SEE COOK. The operations are delineated on the annexed cut, taken from the representations on the tombs of Rameses III at Thebes (Wilkinson's Anc. Egyptians, abridgm. 1:174 sq.). SEE BREAD.