Cooking Techniques Codexery

Baking

Dry-heat cooking method used for bread and pastries.

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Baking is a method of preparing food using dry heat, typically in an oven, hot ashes, or on hot stones.[1] Bread is the food most frequently prepared through baking, where warmth moves from the exterior inward at temperatures exceeding 300 °F (148 °C).[1] The use of dry heat in cooking creates a particular richness via caramelization and the browning of surfaces.[2]

Quick Facts

Known for
  • Bread
  • cakes
  • pastries
  • pies
  • tarts
  • quiches
  • cookies
  • scones
  • crackers
  • pretzels

Facts from the source article.

Key facts and history

The earliest known baking involved soaking wild grass grains, mashing them into a paste, and cooking it on a flat, hot rock.[3] Later, humans roasted this paste on hot embers after mastering fire.[4] Baking flourished during the Roman Empire, and by around 300 BC the pastry cook became a respected Roman profession known as the pastillarium.[5] In the United States, the baking industry "was built on marketing methods used during feudal times and production techniques developed by the Romans".[6]

The aroma and texture of baked goods are strongly appealing but quickly lost, so commercial producers use food additives and imaginative labeling to compensate.[7] In 168 BC, Rome saw the founding of a bakers' guild called the Collegium Pistorum.[8] For Christians, baked bread is a necessary element in the Eucharist sacrament.[9]

What the cited sources add

A 1902 manual by the Chefs of the New York Cooking School advises that different bakings vary in time and heat required and should be examined occasionally.[10] The same manual states that for a plain cake made with one pound of flour, the baking time is 40 to 50 minutes, at most one hour.[10] It also notes that in baking loaf cake, placing a piece of paper over the top at first prevents a crust from forming too soon and hindering rising.[10] The manual describes baking powder as "the most healthful, economical, and convenient of all leavening or lightening agents".[10]

It further claims that Royal Baking Powder is largely used in place of yeast to leaven bread.[10] The manual provides a recipe for Royal Baking Powder Bread, instructing to bake in a very hot oven about 45 minutes, placing paper over the first 15 minutes.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Baking" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "60 Baking Recipes We Stole From Grandma", Taste of Home (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Baking" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Figoni, "How Baking Works: Exploring the Fundamentals of Baking Science", John Wiley & Sons, 2011 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Baking" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pfister, "Pfister Consulting: History of Baking – How Did It All Start? Yes people" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Baking" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Baking", Britannica; Morgan, "Culinary Creation", Routledge, 2012, p. 297–298; "Baking", Britannica; Rochelle, "Bread for the Wilderness: Baking As Spiritual Craft", Xulon Press, 2001, p. 32 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Baking" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lewis & Short, "lībum", 1879; Kearns, "cakes", Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 272 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Baking" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bessie Emrick Whitten, "Handbook of American Business History: Manufacturing", Greenwood Publishing Group, 1990 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Baking" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Simpson, "The London Ritz Book of Afternoon Tea - The Art & Pleasures of Taking Tea", Angus & Robertson, Publishers, 1986, p. 8 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Baking" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Morgan, "Culinary Creation", Routledge, 2012, p. 297–298 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Baking" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Lark Buns (Zhavoronki) Recipe for the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste - St. Nektarios Orthodox Church of Lenoir City, TN Bun, Lenoir city, Orthodox", Pinterest (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Chefs of the New York Cooking School, "The royal baker and pastry cook: A manual of practical cookery", Royal Baking Powder Company, 1902. facts only, no text reused. gutenberg.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Baking (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

Related entries

Named in this entry

PieTartScone

Also in the Codexery

Baking · Food And Drink

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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