Originally published on 17 February 2010, not much has changed, so I'll just give it a new date. And link to my offering: Cornbread for Fornacalia

The frieze of the baker's tomb

I can't actually be sure that today is the day, because the Curio Maximus hasn't actually announced it. But today is the last day it could possibly be. So I'm celebrating in the simplest possible way, by baking bread with only three ingredients: flour, water and salt. Oh, and the squillions of things that bestir my 100% hydration natural leaven.

The baker's tomb in Rome

It would be nice to know more about the Fornacalia than the little I gleaned from Wikipedia in English. Still, better than the Italian. And then there are the supremely puzzling links between Fornax, Goddess of the Oven, 1 fornices, where one could hire a hot babe, fornices cerebral and otherwise, and fornication. 2 Not to mention buns in ovens. The modern constellation Fornax is clearly of little relevance. One could, however, clearly spend a lifetime exploring these particular rabbit holes.


  1. Don't trust this Wikipedia entry for the date of Fornacalia. 

  2. Praise be to the Wayback Machine at archive.org for preserving old web pages. Don't trust Wikipedia on this etymology either.  

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