Baking
Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread, but many other types of foods can be baked.[1] Heat is gradually transferred "from the surface of cakes, cookies, and pieces of bread to their center. As heat travels through, it transforms batters and doughs into baked goods and more with a firm dry crust and a softer center".[2] Baking can be combined with grilling to produce a hybrid barbecue variant by using both methods simultaneously, or one after the other. Baking is related to barbecuing because the concept of the masonry oven is similar to that of a smoke pit.
Baking has traditionally been performed at home for day-to-day meals and in bakeries and restaurants for local consumption. When production was industrialized, baking was automated by machines in large factories. The
Foods and techniques
All types of food can be baked, but some require special care and protection from direct heat. Various techniques have been developed to provide this protection.
In addition to bread, baking is used to prepare cakes, pastries, pies, tarts, quiches, cookies, scones, crackers, pretzels, and more. These popular items are known collectively as "baked goods," and are often sold at a bakery, which is a store that carries only baked goods, or at markets, grocery stores, farmers markets or through other venues.
Meat, including
Baking can also be used to prepare other foods such as
Baking in ancient times
The earliest known form of baking occurred when humans took wild grass grains, soaked them in water, and mashed the mixture into a kind of broth-like paste.[3] The paste was cooked by pouring it onto a flat, hot rock, resulting in a bread-like substance. Later, as humans mastered fire, they roasted the paste on hot embers, making bread-making more convenient as it could n be done whenever fire was created." The world's oldest oven was discovered in Croatia in 2014 dating back 6500 years ago. The Ancient Egyptians baked bread using yeast, which they had previously been using to brew beer.[4] Bread baking began in Ancient Greece around 600 BC, leading to the invention of enclosed ovens.[4] "Ovens and worktables have been discovered in archaeological digs from Turkey (Hacilar) to Palestine (Jericho (Tell es-Sultan)) and date back to 5600 BC."[5]
Baking flourished during the Roman Empire. Beginning around 300 BC, the pastry cook became an occupation for Romans (known as the pastillarium) and became a respected profession because pastries were considered decadent, and Romans loved festivity and celebration. Thus, pastries were often cooked especially for large banquets, and any pastry cook who could invent new types of tasty treats was highly prized. Around 1 AD, there were more than three hundred pastry chefs in Rome, and Cato wrote about how they created all sorts of diverse foods and flourished professionally and socially because of their creations. Cato speaks of an enormous number of breads including; libum (cakes made with flour and honey, often sacrificed to gods[6]), placenta (groats and cress),[7] spira (modern day flour pretzels), scibilata (tortes), savillum (sweet cake), and globus apherica (fritters). A great selection of these, with many different variations, different ingredients, and varied patterns, were often found at banquets and dining halls. The Romans baked bread in an oven with its own chimney, and had mills to grind grain into flour. A bakers' guild was established in 168 BC in Rome.[4]
Commercial baking
Eventually, the Roman art of baking became known throughout Europe and eventually spread to eastern parts of Asia.[citation needed] By the 13th century in London, commercial trading, including baking, had many regulations attached. In the case of food, they were designed to create a system "so there was little possibility of false measures, adulterated food or shoddy manufactures." There were by that time twenty regulations applying to bakers alone, including that every baker had to have "the impression of his seal" upon bread.[8]
Beginning in the 19th century, alternative leavening agents became more common, such as
Every family used to prepare the bread for its own consumption, the trade of baking, not having yet taken shape.
Mrs Beeton (1861)[10]
Baking eventually developed into a commercial industry using automated machinery which enabled more goods to be produced for widespread distribution. In the United States, the baking industry "was built on marketing methods used during feudal times and production techniques developed by the Romans."
The aroma and texture of baked goods as they come out of the oven are strongly appealing but is a quality that is quickly lost. Since the flavour and appeal largely depend on freshness, commercial producers have to compensate by using
Equipment
Baking needs an enclosed space for heating – typically in an
Many commercial ovens are equipped with two heating elements: one for baking, using convection and thermal conduction to heat the food, and one for broiling or grilling, heating mainly by radiation. Another piece of equipment still used for baking is the Dutch oven. "Also called a bake kettle, bastable, bread oven, fire pan, bake oven kail pot, tin kitchen, roasting kitchen, doufeu (French: "gentle fire") or feu de compagne (French: "country oven") [it] originally replaced the cooking jack as the latest fireside cooking technology," combining "the convenience of pot-oven and hangover oven."[13]
Asian cultures have adopted steam baskets to produce the effect of baking while reducing the amount of fat needed.[14]
Process
Eleven events occur concurrently during baking, some of which (such as starch gelatinization) would not occur at room temperature.[15]
- Fats melt
- Gases form and expand
- Microorganisms die
- dissolves
- Egg, milk, and gluten proteins coagulate
- Starches gelatinize or solidify
- Liquids evaporate
- Caramelization and Maillard browning occur on crust
- Enzymes are denatured
- Changes occur to nutrients
- Pectin breaks down[16]
The dry heat of baking changes the form of starches in the food and causes its outer surfaces to brown, giving it an attractive appearance and taste. The browning is caused by the caramelization of sugars and the Maillard reaction. Maillard browning occurs when "sugars break down in the presence of proteins. Because foods contain many different types of sugars and proteins, Maillard browning contributes to the flavour of a wide range of foods, including nuts, roast beef, and baked bread."[17] The moisture is never entirely "sealed in"; over time, an item being baked will become dry. This is often an advantage, especially in situations where drying is the desired outcome, like drying herbs or roasting certain types of vegetables.
The baking process does not require any fat to be used to cook in an oven. When baking, consideration must be given to the amount of fat that is contained in the food item. Higher levels of fat such as margarine, butter, lard, or vegetable shortening will cause an item to spread out during the baking process.
With the passage of time, breads harden and become stale. This is not primarily due to moisture being lost from the baked products, but more a reorganization of the way in which the water and starch are associated over time. This process is similar to recrystallization and is promoted by storage at cool temperatures, such as in a domestic refrigerator or freezer.
Cultural and religious significance
Baking, especially of bread, holds special significance for many cultures. It is such a fundamental part of everyday food consumption that the children's nursery rhyme Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man takes baking as its subject. Baked goods are normally served at all kinds of parties and special attention is given to their quality at formal events. They are also one of the main components of a tea party, including at nursery teas and high teas, a tradition which started in Victorian Britain, reportedly when Anna Russell, Duchess of Bedford "grew tired of the sinking feeling which afflicted her every afternoon round 4 o'clock ... In 1840, she plucked up courage and asked for a tray of tea, bread and butter, and cake to be brought to her room. Once she had formed the habit she found she could not break it, so spread it among her friends instead. As the century progressed, afternoon tea became increasingly elaborate."[18]
The Benedictine Sisters of the Benedictine Monastery of
For Jews, matzo is a baked product of considerable religious and ritual significance. Baked matzah bread can be ground up and used in other dishes, such as gefilte fish, and baked again. For Christians, bread has to be baked to be used as an essential component of the sacrament of the Eucharist. In the Eastern Christian tradition, baked bread in the form of birds is given to children to carry to the fields in a spring ceremony that celebrates the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.[19]
See also
- Baking pan
- Baking chocolate
- Baking mix
- List of baked goods
- List of bakers
- List of ovens
- Pandemic baking
- Sheet pan
- Food portal
References
- ^ "60 Baking Recipes We Stole From Grandma". Taste of Home. Archived from the original on 2018-10-19. Retrieved 2018-10-19.
- ISBN 978-0-470-39813-5.p.38
- ^ Pfister, Fred. "Pfister Consulting: History of Baking – How Did It All Start? Yes people". Archived from the original on 13 January 2013. Retrieved January 1, 2013.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-136-41270-7.
- ISBN 1-931232-52-0.
- ^ Lewis & Short (1879). "lībum". A Latin Dictionary – via Logeion.
- ^ Kearns, Emily (1996). "cakes". In Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony (eds.). Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 272.
Cakes [...] were given many names in Greek and Latin, of which the most general were πέμματα, πόπανα, liba (sacrificial cakes), and placentae (from πλακοῦντες). [...] Most were regarded as a luxurious delicacy, to be eaten with fruit after the main course at a special meal. Cakes were also very commonly used in sacrifice, either as a peripheral accompaniment to the animal victim or as a bloodless sacrifice.
- ISBN 0385497717.
- ^ "The History of Bread 2". www.dovesfarm.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2021-04-24. Retrieved 2021-04-24.
- ISBN 0-224-61473-8.
- ISBN 0-313-25198-3.p.53
- ISBN 0-207-15415-5.
- ISBN 0-203-31917-6.
- ^ "Chinese steamed sponge cake (ji dan gao)". Chinese Grandma. 8 February 2013. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
- ^ Figoni 2011, p. 38.
- ^ Figoni 2011, ch.3 pp.38 ff.
- ^ Figoni 2011, p. 42.
- ISBN 0-207-15415-5.
- ^ "Lark Buns (Zhavoronki) Recipe for the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste - St. Nektarios Orthodox Church of Lenoir City, TN | Bun, Lenoir city, Orthodox". Pinterest. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
Bibliography
- Burnett, John. "The baking industry in the nineteenth century." Business History 5.2 (1963): 98-108. in Britain.
- Figoni, Paula (2010). How Baking Works: Exploring the Fundamentals of Baking Science (3 ed.). Wiley. ISBN 978-0470392676.—a textbook on baking and setting up a bakery
- Laudan, Rachel. Cuisine and empire: Cooking in world history (Univ of California Press, 2013) online.
- Pasqualone, Antonella. "Traditional flat breads spread from the Fertile Crescent: Production process and history of baking systems." Journal of Ethnic Foods 5.1 (2018): 10-19. online
- Pyler, E.J.; Gorton, L.A. (2008). Baking Science & Technology (PDF). Sosland Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-9820239-0-7. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2018-02-19. Retrieved 2013-01-23.
- Sharpless, Rebecca. Grain and Fire: A History of Baking in the American South (University of North Carolina Press, 2022) online scholarly review
- Ysewijn, R. (2020). Oats in the North, Wheat from the South: The History of British Baking: Savoury and Sweet. Australia: Murdoch Books Pty Limited.
- Zanoni, Bruno, C. Peri, and Sauro Pierucci. "A study of the bread-baking process. I: A phenomenological model." Journal of food engineering 19.4 (1993): 389-398.