A zonohedron is a particular type of 3 dimensional shape (look it up to learn of its defining features (link)

"A zonohedron is a shape for which every face has point symmetry. That means that looking towards the central point of a face from two opposite directions, whatever those directions happen to be, you will always see exactly the same thing."

I propose making loaves of bread that are this shape.

Think of the basic challenge of cutting them into simple evenly sized slices and making sandwiches. Then imagine how great the sandwiches would look with their odd angles along every side.

Who wants boring rectangular bread when they can have a Zonohedron Loaf?
-- xenzag, Oct 24 2021

Parallelepided https://www.technol...arallelepiped.shtml
[xenzag, Oct 24 2021]

i like the simplicity of a square loaf [+]
-- sninctown, Oct 24 2021


Implementation challenge: how to hold the dough in the oven in such a way that, as the yeast does its work, the dough will not only rise but also sink and expand laterally in equal measure.
-- pertinax, Oct 24 2021


You just need a zonohedron shaped container that is designed to increase all sides proportionally* as it expands. Stick the dough in and compress the container down as small as it will go until all the air is out and the dough conforms to the zonohedron shape. As it expands during cooking, the shape is maintained as the size increases.

*Implementation is lefts as an exercise for the reader.
-- scad mientist, Oct 24 2021


The bakery in Oxford that I used to patronise baked perfect cuboid loaves using a tin with a lid, the dough expanded until it touched the lid and then stopped expanding and conformed to the shape of the inside. You could use it to cut perfectly square slices. I believe they called it a "square loaf". They also did loaves in a two part curved tin that produced perfectly cylindrical loaves which were useful for cutting circular slices of bread from.
-- pocmloc, Oct 24 2021


So to get this baked, just tell that to a bakery in Cambridge. Nerd competitiveness will do the rest.
-- pertinax, Oct 24 2021


Zonohedons are space-filling so the loaves of bread are going to stack together nicely.
-- xaviergisz, Oct 24 2021


1. You could cut rhomboid slices from a square loaf by cutting at an angle.

2. You could cut square slices from a parallelepiped loaf by cutting at the correct angle.

3. You could cut rectangular slices from a cylindrical loaf by cutting lengthwise.

N.B. All slices have to have their crusts attached otherwise it is officially cheating.
-- pocmloc, Oct 24 2021



random, halfbakery