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The
interesting history of baking and pastry-cooking! – Or how did it
all start?
Article
source:
Pfisterconsulting.com
One thing is sure,
people could never have survived without food, but what is now
called the “staff of life,” bread, and the making of it started in
comparatively recent times.
Right in the
beginning of recorded history there was the discovery of fire
making, thus along with light, heat could be generated. Then there
followed the discovery of different grasses and their seeds which
could be prepared for nourishment.
With the help of
heat and grain, one was now able to prepare a kind of broth.
Hot stones were
covered with this broth or the broth was roasted on embers and “hey
presto” the first unsoured flat bread was created. This ability to
prepare stable food radically changed the eating habits and
lifestyle of our early ancestors, from being hunters they became
settlers.
The
Egyptians
Records show that already in the years 2600-2100 B.C. bread
was baked by Egyptians, who it is believed had learned the skill
from the Babylonians. A relief representing the royal bakery of
Ramses features bread and cakes, some of these were shaped in the
form of animals and used for sacrifices. Other early records, this
time by the Greek scholar (Aristophanes 450-385 B.C), show the
existence of honey flans and patterned tortes. According to
Aristophanes, the ancient Greeks also had a type of doughnut made
from crude flour and honey called “Dispyrus” a ring-cake that was
submerged in wine and consumed hot.
Could this have been an early version of Baba or Savarin, still so
popular today?
The
Roman Empire
Inevitably Greek culture influenced the Roman Empire ; bakery
know-how was transformed and really flourished. During the fourth
century A.D., evidence also emerges of the first pastry-cook’s
association or “pastillarium” in those times nomenclature.
Now it is well
known, the Romans were a lusty, festivity loving lot and even though
a decree was passed by the Senate designed to curb excesses by
citizens, the sweet art of pastry-cooking (considered decadent by
some) emerged as a highly respected profession.
Indeed the bakery
business was so profitable that in the time of Christ around three
hundred independent bakers existed in Rome . Just how rewarding and
diverse the trade then was is recorded by Cato (234-148 B.C.) Could
it be that the French word Gâteaux used for tortes is a derivative
of this man’s name?
Anyhow, Cato names
a great many different kinds of bread, sacrificial cakes “libum”,
cakes made with flour, groats and cress “placenta”, pretzels” spira”,
tortes “scibilata”, fritters “globus apherica”, Bowl-cake “erneum”,
sweet cake “savaillum” and sidrer-cake “mustaceum”.
Quite a large selection made by early Roman “Dulciarius” or “Flour
Confectioners”, isn’t it?
Engravings on a tomb-stone of a Roman baker, dating back to the
first century A.D., show the different stages in the production of
bread at that time.
Europe
From the Roman Empire, the art of pastry-cooking gradually
spread throughout Europe and the world.
One of the best
known painters, the Dutchman, Rembrandt, created a sketch in 1635
showing a pancake cook in the streets, surrounded by children
eagerly waiting and hoping for a sample. In Holland such
pancake cooks belonged to the daily street scene at that time.
The Ginger
Bread Merchant
Gingerbread merchants sold their wares in one of the better
streets in London . They used a hand-cart as a shop on
wheels, in contrast to the rather primitive shops of the ordinary
merchants. Anecdotally, specially famed was the ginger bread
from the city of Grantham .
The
Original Open-Air Café or Dining Al Fresco!
A “Patissiere” has established herself in a busy street,
possibly on a bridge, and sells hot coffee and freshly baked cakes
to passers-by. I hope you have enjoyed this brief tour
into the history of baking; things have changed a great deal from
the “olden days”! Never the less, intending bakers could benefit
from taking a “Janusian approach”, that is to say - looking in both
directions, the past and the future. Bakers can anticipate trends
and developments by looking at what is happening elsewhere in the
world. |
