Commercial Baking Essay

Pinch of Salt

My alarm clock went off at four in the morning. I groaned and hit the snooze button. I had only been working at a commercial bakery for three weeks, and I never wanted to see another scone again. Instead I grudgingly pulled myself out of bed, and went to work. I walked through the door, and smiled at everyone. I walked over to the rack and looked at the sheet for today. This was my life in the commercial bakery.
Most commercial bakeries make products on site, then sell them to certain companies in their area. Bring consumers quality bakery foods from supermarket bakery departments, independent bakeries and foodservice facilities.(Retail Bakers of America) The bakery I worked at had a main store chain, but was also joined with two more store chains. That meant everyday of the week was planned around the orders that had been called in the day before, or what was needed every day normally was on a piece of paper hung on one of the racks. Today was unluckily a cookie dough, packaging scones and danishes day. As I lovingly called it, ‘Sugar Day’ because no matter what I always got stuck making the icings.
I pulled the cart behind me out of the walk in refrigerator pulling the rickety thing with pots and pans, ladles, whisks, and buckets full of ice cold icing and honey. My usual companion was off today, so I was left doing this alone, as we were short handed. I went to the outside kitchen, my alone spot for today, and turned on the stove, a complicated process involving a flint scraper. Once it was on, I placed a pot on it, and pulled the cold honey into it so it would be spread across the danishes before they were drizzled with glaze. Next to the stove was a water heating vat, which the head bakery had placed smaller buckets of glaze into earlier, which now had heated up, so they could be poured into the cold ones to make a rich warm spreadable glaze.
After washing my hands, I opened the top of the vat; using a towel I reached in. I had...