History+Of+Baking

= The History Of Baking =

This page is explaining the history of baking, like what they originally used to bake and the kinds of things that were made, and how that differs from today.

Before people knew how to grow yeast, they would make dough for bread and save some of the uncooked dough from each time they would bake, and then leave the uncooked dough out so that it could get fermented by yeast in the air. Then, they would take that dough and mix it in with the dough for the next time they baked, and that was enough to cause the dough to rise. They believe that people began to bake bread approximately 10,000 years ago.

Archaeologists claim to have found bread in the ruins of a village in Switzerland that would've been made 4,000 years ago. They have also found a basket of bead in Egypt that they say was from about 3,500 years ago. In Asia, some archaeologists have found stones that look to be what they would have used to grind grain 75,000 years ago. Also, ancient Egyptian drawings have depicted flour and flour milling.



The most primitive form of baking that we can find is this: Humans taking wild grass grains and soaking them in water and then mixing it together to make it a sort of paste. The paste was then cooked by pouring it onto a flat rock and putting it out into the sun, which made it a bread-like food. Later, they think it was poured onto hot embers to make it easier to bake.

There were a few recorded food items that would have been baked in ancient Roman days. Foods such as sacrificial cakes, groats and cress, flour pretzels, tortes, sweet cake and fritters. These kinds of pastries had many different recipes and variations too.

As bread became a bigger part of the food world, it began to be used in many religions. For example, the Bible says that ancient Hebrews baked matzah. Jews eat this unleavened (without yeast) bread during Passover. The Roman Catholic church teaches that, during Mass, the priest changes bread into the body of Jesus.

The term 'baking' means the use of an oven to convert flour, water, yeast, and sugar into goods. Today, there are many different kinds of sweets and pastries that you can buy. Also, baked goods stay good longer, they don't stale because they have less moisture. Baked goods usually have a golden brown color because the sugar inside them caramelizes, and the reaction causes a golden brown color.

With baking, you need to be careful and have the correct amount of every ingredient so it will turn out right, whereas with cooking, things are put in to your taste, or sometimes measured by eye.

The French are the ones who made most pastry doughs. They came up with the Puff Pastry, which is a dough of just water and flour, but it has butter in between every layer. With no yeast, the pastry rises because the butter is being evaporated, and the steam from the water in the butter causes it to rise.

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