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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. 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 art of baking remains a fundamental skill and is important for nutrition, as baked goods, especially bread, are a common and important food, both from an economic and cultural point of view. 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. A terracotta baking mould for pastry or bread, representing goats and a lion attacking a cow. Eggs can also be used in baking to produce savory or sweet dishes. In combination with dairy products especially cheese, they are often prepared as a dessert.

Baking can also be used to prepare other foods such as pizzas, baked potatoes, baked apples, baked beans, some casseroles and pasta dishes such as lasagne. 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. The paste was cooked by pouring it onto a flat, hot rock, resulting in a bread-like substance. Later, when humans mastered fire, the paste was roasted on hot embers, which made bread-making easier, as it could now be made any time fire was created. Baking flourished during the Roman Empire.

Thus, pastries were often cooked especially for large banquets, and any pastry cook who could invent new types of tasty treats was highly prized. Eventually, the Roman art of baking became known throughout Europe and eventually spread to eastern parts of Asia. 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. Beginning in the 19th century, alternative leavening agents became more common, such as baking soda.

Bakers often baked goods at home and then sold them in the streets. Every family used to prepare the bread for its own consumption, the trade of baking, not having yet taken shape. 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 food additives as well as imaginative labeling.

As more and more baked goods are purchased from commercial suppliers, producers try to capture that original appeal by adding the label “home-baked. Formerly, primitive clay ovens were in use. The fuel can be supplied by wood, coal, gas, or electricity. 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.

Asian cultures have adopted steam baskets to produce the effect of baking while reducing the amount of fat needed. 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. 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.