For many people who find joy in baking, the process begins right from scratch. From preparing the dough and baking the bread to figuring out what goes around it, there is something rather therapeutic and creative about the entire process. But what we usually do in our kitchens on a small scale can look completely different when it is happening at a busy bakery. We got a glimpse of just how fascinating that process can be through content creator Grace Andrews' video on Instagram.
She took viewers inside a local bakery in Uzbekistan and gave us a sneak peek at how some of the country's cheapest bread is made.
Take a look:
Grace said, “This is the cheapest bread in Uzbekistan, and let me show you how they make it,” with a huge loaf in her hand.
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The video then showed one of the bakers climbing inside a traditional tandoor to stick the bread to its walls for baking. “No, that's not an acrobat, but he almost could be,” Grace said. She went on to explain that he was one of the breadmasters at the Uzbek bakery, where they make a mind-boggling 7,000 loaves of bread every single day.
“First, they start by mixing and kneading the dough. Then shaping it into these giant saucer-like rounds,” she said.
While the bakers made the process look effortless, Grace decided to try her hand at it too.
She then introduced viewers to the “acrobatic breadmaster” and explained that they work 12-hour shifts, from 3 am to 3 pm. “Literally diving into these tandoor ovens to stick each loaf onto the walls, then after about 50 minutes every single loaf has to be flipped, and the math here is kind of insane,” she said.
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A single tandoor can hold around 55 loaves at a time, which means the breadmaster may have to reach inside the oven around 550 times in a day. For a larger oven that holds 90 loaves, that number can go up to around 900 times.
“The breadmaster also wears a cloth over his head to protect his hair from getting singed by the intense heat of the tandoor,” she mentioned. The bakers use heavy tools to remove the bread from the walls of the oven and catch it as it falls.
According to Grace, one loaf sells for 15,000 Uzbek som, which she put at around $1.27 USD (approximately Rs 120).
Many people commented on the post.
Someone said, “I miss Uzbek bread so much!” A user said, “This is fantastic!!! Thank you for taking us along!!!”
“What's the bread called and what does it taste like?” a curious user asked. A user wrote, “Wrong headline. It should've been “The best bread in Uzbekistan.”
This traditional style of baking certainly makes you look at breadmaking in a whole new way.