Editing Cooking (section)

==History==
[[File:Cooking in Villages.jpg|thumb|right|[[Cookware and bakeware|Pot]]s being heated with a [[wood-burning]] fire in [[South India]]]]
[[Phylogenetics|Phylogenetic analysis]] suggests that early hominids may have adopted cooking 1-2 million years ago.<ref name=PNAS>{{cite journal| title=Phylogenetic rate shifts in feeding time during the evolution of Homo | first=Chris | last=Organ | journal= [[PNAS]] | date=22 August 2011 | doi=10.1073/pnas.1107806108 | pmid=21873223 | pmc=3167533 | volume=108 | issue=35 | pages=14555–14559| bibcode=2011PNAS..10814555O | doi-access=free}}</ref> {{Nowrap|Re-analysis}} of burnt bone fragments and plant ashes from the [[Wonderwerk Cave]] in South Africa has provided evidence supporting [[control of fire by early humans]] 1 million years ago.<ref name=Pringle2012>{{citation |date=2 April 2012 |author=Pringle, Heather |title=Quest for Fire Began Earlier Than Thought |journal=ScienceNOW |url=http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/04/quest-for-fire-began-earlier-tha.html?ref=em |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415203914/http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/04/quest-for-fire-began-earlier-tha.html?ref=em |url-status=dead |archive-date=15 April 2013 |access-date=2012-04-04 }}</ref> In his seminal work ''[[Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human]]'', [[Richard Wrangham]] suggested that evolution of bipedalism and a large cranial capacity meant that early ''[[Homo habilis]]'' regularly cooked food.<ref>Wrangham, R. and Conklin-Brittain, N., 2003. Cooking as a biological trait. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology, 136(1), pp. 35–46</ref><ref name="pollard">{{Cite book |title=Worlds Together, Worlds Apart |last=Pollard |first=Elizabeth |publisher=Norton |year=2015|isbn=978-0-393-92207-3 |location=New York |pages=13}}</ref> However, unequivocal evidence in the archaeological record for the controlled use of fire begins at 400,000 BCE, long after ''[[Homo erectus]]''.<ref name="Luke">{{cite web|url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120402162548.htm|title=Evidence That Human Ancestors Used Fire One Million Years Ago|access-date=2013-10-27|last=Luke|first=Kim|quote=An international team led by the University of Toronto and Hebrew University has identified the earliest known evidence of the use of fire by human ancestors. Microscopic traces of wood ash, alongside animal bones and stone tools, were found in a layer dated to one million years ago}}</ref><ref name="discovermagazine.com">{{Cite web|url=http://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/09-archaeologists-find-earliest-evidence-of-humans-cooking-with-fire|title=Archaeologists Find Earliest Evidence of Humans Cooking With Fire|website=DiscoverMagazine.com|access-date=8 November 2015|archive-date=27 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171227181202/http://discovermagazine.com/2013/may/09-archaeologists-find-earliest-evidence-of-humans-cooking-with-fire|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{clarify|date=January 2023}} Archaeological evidence from 300,000 years ago,<ref>{{cite magazine | url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140129-oldest-hearth-israel-cave-new-human-species-discovery-archaeology-science/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201022042/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140129-oldest-hearth-israel-cave-new-human-species-discovery-archaeology-science/ | url-status=dead | archive-date=1 February 2014 | title=Oldest Known Hearth Found in Israel Cave | magazine=National Geographic | date=29 January 2014 | access-date=17 March 2014 | author=Smith, Roff}}</ref> in the form of ancient hearths, [[earth oven]]s, burnt animal bones, and [[flint]], are found across Europe and the Middle East. The oldest evidence (via heated fish teeth from a deep cave) of controlled use of fire to cook food [[Timeline of human evolution#Homo|by archaic humans was dated to ~780,000 years ago]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Ancient human relative used fire, surprising discoveries suggest |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/12/05/homo-naledi-fire-evolution/ |access-date=11 December 2022 |newspaper=Washington Post}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zohar |first1=Irit |last2=Alperson-Afil |first2=Nira |last3=Goren-Inbar |first3=Naama |last4=Prévost |first4=Marion |last5=Tütken |first5=Thomas |last6=Sisma-Ventura |first6=Guy |last7=Hershkovitz |first7=Israel |last8=Najorka |first8=Jens |title=Evidence for the cooking of fish 780,000 years ago at Gesher Benot Ya'aqov, Israel |journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution |date=December 2022 |volume=6 |issue=12 |pages=2016–2028 |doi=10.1038/s41559-022-01910-z |pmid=36376603 |bibcode=2022NatEE...6.2016Z |s2cid=253522354 |language=en |issn=2397-334X |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365369121 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> [[Anthropologist]]s think that widespread cooking fires began about 250,000 years ago when [[hearth]]s first appeared.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://cogweb.ucla.edu/Abstracts/Pennisi_99.html |title= Pennisi: Did Cooked Tubers Spur the Evolution of Big Brains? |publisher=Cogweb.ucla.edu |access-date= 7 November 2013}}</ref>

Recently, the earliest hearths have been reported to be at least 790,000 years old.<ref name="SI-2016cook">{{cite web |author= |title=What Does It Mean To Be Human? – Hearths & Shelters |url=http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/behavior/hearths-shelters |date=12 August 2016 |work=[[Smithsonian Institution]] |access-date=12 August 2016 }}</ref>

Communication between the [[Old World]] and the [[New World]] in the [[Columbian Exchange]] influenced the history of cooking. The movement of foods across the Atlantic from the New World, such as [[potato]]es, [[tomato]]es, [[maize]], [[bean]]s, [[bell pepper]], [[chili pepper]], [[vanilla]], [[pumpkin]], [[cassava]], [[avocado]], [[peanut]], [[pecan]], [[cashew]], [[pineapple]], [[blueberry]], [[Helianthus|sunflower]], [[chocolate]], [[gourd]]s, [[green bean]]s, and [[cucurbita|squash]], had a profound effect on Old World cooking. The movement of foods across the Atlantic from the Old World, such as [[cattle]], [[sheep]], [[pig]]s, [[wheat]], [[oat]]s, [[barley]], [[rice]], [[apple]]s, [[pear]]s, [[pea]]s, [[chickpea]]s, [[mustard plant|mustard]], and [[carrot]]s, similarly changed New World cooking.<ref name = "history">{{cite journal |last1= Nunn |first1= Nathan |last2= Qian |first2= Nancy |year= 2010 |title= The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas |journal= [[Journal of Economic Perspectives]] |volume= 24 |issue= 2 |pages= 163–188 |jstor= 25703506 |doi= 10.1257/jep.24.2.163 |citeseerx= 10.1.1.232.9242 }}</ref>

In the 17th and 18th centuries, food was a classic marker of identity in Europe. In the 19th-century "Age of [[Nationalism]]", [[cuisine]] became a defining symbol of national identity.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

The [[Industrial Revolution]] brought mass-production, mass-marketing, and standardization of food. Factories processed, preserved, canned, and packaged a wide variety of foods, and processed cereals quickly became a defining feature of the American breakfast.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nordion.com/documents/the-history-of-food-irradiation.pdf |title=The History of Food Irradiation |access-date=2012-03-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131116012256/http://www.nordion.com/documents/The-History-of-Food-Irradiation.pdf |archive-date=16 November 2013 }}</ref> In the 1920s, [[frozen food|freezing methods]], [[cafeteria]]s, and [[fast food restaurant]]s emerged.