Rolling pins are perhaps the earliest known kitchen baking utensils, documented in the hand of a baker in a 17th century illustration, although the concept may go back to ancient times. A 1600s image depicted a basic design that has not altered much in hundreds of years.
The first civilization known to have used the rolling pin was the Etruscans. These people may have migrated from Asia Minor to Northern Italy or may have originated in Italy. They established a group of city states (called Etruria) and were a dominant society by about the ninth century B.C. , but their civilization was cut short after attacks from the Greeks, the growing Roman Empire, and the Gauls (tribes that lived in modern day France). The Etruscans' advanced farming ability, along with a tendency to cultivate many plants and animals never before used as food and turn them into sophisticated recipes, were passed to invading Greeks, Romans, and Western Europeans. Thanks to the Etruscans, these cultures are associated with gourmet cooking.
To prepare their inventive foods, the Etruscans also developed a wide range of cooking tools, including the rolling pin. Although written recipes did not exist until the fourth century B.C. , the Etruscans documented their love of food and its preparation in murals, on vases, and on the walls of their tombs. Cooking wares are displayed with pride; rolling pins appear to have been used first to thin-roll pasta that was shaped with cutting wheels. They also used rolling pins to make bread (which they called puls) from the large number of grains they grew.
Natives of the Americas used more primitive bread-making tools that are favored and unchanged in many villages. Chefs who try to use genuine methods to preserve recipes are also interested in both materials and tools. Hands are used as "rolling pins" for flattening dough against a surface, but also for tossing soft dough between the cook's two hands until it enlarges and thins by handling and gravity. Tortillas are probably the most familiar bread made this way.
Over the centuries, rolling pins have been made of many different materials, including long cylinders of baked clay, smooth branches with the bark removed, and glass bottles. As the development of breads and pastries spread from Southern to Western and Northern Europe, wood from local forests was cut and finished for use as rolling pins. The French perfected the solid hardwood pin with tapered ends to roll pastry that is thick in the middle; its weight makes rolling easier. The French also use marble rolling pins for buttery dough worked on a marble slab.
Early rolling pins were made of turned wood. Sometimes the ends were tapered like a sailor’s belaying pin (used to secure rigging on ships), while others had one or both ends turned to form handles. The Shakers were particularly known for their elegant wooden rolling pins. In France, pastry chefs still prefer wooden pins without handles, which they say gives them a better feel of the dough. Over time, rolling pins have been made from nearly every kind of wood possible, including sycamore, walnut, pine, cherry, mahogany, boxwood, beech, fruitwood, and ash.
The best and most popular woods for rolling pins were maple and lignum vitae, thanks to their weight and density, which helped these pins resist moisture and cracking. They were also less likely to absorb ingredients and become stinky and unsanitary. Lignum vitae is unusually hard and as dense as iron, so those rolling pins were designed to last a lifetime.
Glass is still popular; in Italy, full wine bottles that have been chilled make ideal rolling pins because they are heavy and cool the dough. Countries known for their ceramics make porcelain rolling pins with beautiful decorations painted on the rolling surface; their hollow centers can be filled with cold water (the same principle as the wine bottle), and cork or plastic stoppers cap the ends.
Commercial production of rolling pins first occurred in the mid-19th century, according to CroppingCooks.com. Pine had become scarce during this time, so manufacturers began using hardwoods such as cherry and maple to produce rolling pins along with other wooden kitchenware.
In the late 1800s J.W. Reed, an African-American Inventor, developed and patented a version of the rolling pin that had a central rod. With this new type of rolling pin, the handles did not spin along with the body; this design is similar to what bakers use today.
Vermont Rolling Pins, from the Shaker to the French, are hand turned, shaped from a solid block of maple, cherry or walnut hardwood. Their craftsmanship makes them worthy of display.
Shop Vermont Rolling Pins in the American Made Market: http://shout.lt/nTph
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