Carved Dough Bowls

Time and time again in countless antique stores all around the United States, I have been drawn to various styles of dough bowls. Bread-rising bowls are long sections of wood, scooped out to form a trough, often with rounded ends. As you can imagine, years ago, bread-making was an everyday task for poor and working-class families of all stripes. Bread dough can be sticky, so a baker would rub oil or butter on the surface of the bowl to stop it from adhering to the wood. Additionally, many bread recipes have a fat component — butter, lard or an oil of some sort. All those applications of fat to wood created a lovely “finish” on its surface and a gorgeous patina. Even decades later, that smooth finish is still apparent on the antique dough bowl examples I’ve found.

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