Editing Baking (section)

==Baking in ancient times==
{{See also|Baking in ancient Rome}}[[File:FuneraryModel-BakeryAndBrewery MetropolitanMuseum.png|thumb|upright|left|An Egyptian funerary model of a bakery and brewery (11th dynasty, circa 2009–1998 BC)]]

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.<ref>{{cite web |last=Pfister |first=Fred |title=Pfister Consulting: History of Baking – How Did It All Start? Yes people |url=http://www.pfisterconsulting.com/history.htm#Start |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113214001/http://www.pfisterconsulting.com/history.htm#Start |archive-date=13 January 2013 |access-date=January 1, 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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 be done whenever fire was created. According to [[Encyclopædia Britannica|Britannica]], the [[Ancient Egyptians]] invented the first ovens.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Baking |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/baking |access-date=2024-11-10 |website=Britannica |language=en}}</ref> They also baked [[bread]] using yeast, which they had previously been using to brew beer.<ref name=Morgan2012>{{cite book|last=Morgan|first=James|title=Culinary Creation|year=2012|publisher=[[Routledge]]|pages=297–298|isbn=978-1-136-41270-7}}</ref> By 2600 BCE, they were making bread in ways similar in principle to those of today.<ref name=":0" /> The book ''Bread for the Wilderness'' states that "Ovens and worktables have been discovered in archaeological digs from Turkey ([[Hacilar]]) to Palestine ([[Tell es-Sultan|Jericho (Tell es-Sultan)]]) and date back to 5600 BC."<ref name=Rochelle>{{cite book|last=Rochelle|first=Jay Cooper|title=Bread for the Wilderness: Baking As Spiritual Craft|year=2001|publisher=Xulon Press|location=Fairfax, VA|isbn=1-931232-52-0|page=32}}</ref>

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<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |year=1879 |author=Lewis & Short |encyclopedia=[[A Latin Dictionary]] |title=lībum |via=[[Logeion]] |url=https://logeion.uchicago.edu/libum }}</ref>), placenta (groats and cress),<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=[[Oxford Classical Dictionary]] |title=cakes |page=272 |edition=3rd |publisher=Oxford University Press |editor-first1=Simon |editor-last1=Hornblower |editor-first2=Antony |editor-last2=Spawforth |first=Emily |last=Kearns |year=1996 |quote=Cakes [...] were given many names in Greek and Latin, of which the most general were {{lang|grc|πέμματα, πόπανα}}, {{lang|la|liba}} (sacrificial cakes), and {{lang|la|placentae}} (from {{lang|grc|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. }}</ref> spira (modern day flour pretzels), scibilata ([[torte]]s), savillum (sweet cake), and globus apherica ([[fritter]]s). A great selection of these, with many different variations, different ingredients, and varied patterns, were often found at [[banquet]]s 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]].<ref name=Morgan2012/>