Forno

The preparation of the dough for bread took place in individual homes, using their own rye flour (blä) and wheat flour (frumën) and as yeast (creisën) a fermented leftover dough from the previous baking.
After a couple of hours of leavening, the dough was divided into round pieces weighing about a kilogram, which were placed on long boards called panheřa for transport to the oven.

The responsibility for lighting the oven fell on individual families and was regulated by precise shifts; it was done in rotation since those who had to light the fire to bring the oven to the right temperature needed to use a larger amount of firewood. Split pine logs were used, split longitudinally into four parts, la-z-itèlla. When the refractory bricks of the dome turned white, the oven was hot and ready to be cleaned for baking. The embers were removed with a scraper tied to a long stick, lë rabbi, and deposited in a hole called brazī in the floor.

To remove any ash residue, the oven floor was swept with icubà (bark of willow branches, pine needles, or rags tied to the end of a stick) previously dipped in a fountain to prevent it from catching fire.

The loaves were baked using lä pařä pär ënfurnā. The oven could hold up to 60 loaves. Several families participated in the same baking session, and for this reason, all loaves had to be marked with a distinctive recognition mark, a cross, a comma, initials...

Three types of bread could be prepared:

Pan rusè o pan d'misun, common bread made of good flour, could be all rye or mixed flour (barbařià).

Pan du fū buchà, bread from a sealed oven. It was exclusively made of rye. It was kneaded with boiling water, required several hours of leavening; it was baked in the evening, when the oven was hot from the day's baking sessions, and remained sealed in the oven all night.

Pan 'd sieřä was made with fařinettä (second-choice rye flour) and served as feed for animals.

Last-minute herbal or apple pies and small bread shapes called cuřun were baked, shaped like braids, animals, or puppets for children.

The firing up of the oven was a moment of gathering and celebration, and there was always a cake big enough to be eaten together as a snack!