2. Is the activity of preparing and cooking food.
Is the art or activity of cooking food.
3. HISTORY OF COOKING
The origins of cooking cannot be exactly traced, but
for sure, it has evolved significantly. For cooking to be
possible, the discovery of fire must have happened
first. Most likely, the first person who discovered how
to cook has done it by accident. Maybe, raw meat
happened to fall in a fire, and man has found out that
it was tastier and easier to chew. Since then, the rest
was history.
4. PREHISTORIC COOKING
It was believed that primitive humans have begun to cook
250,000 years ago by tossing a raw piece of something into the
fire. The first method of cooking was roasting, where a fish or a
bird was placed on the end of a stick and held over an open fire.
Some scientists say that the Peking man roasted meats, but there
wasn’t enough evidence to support the claim.
It was the sole cooking technique until the Aurignacian people of
France started to steam food wrapped in leaves over hot embers
during the Palaeolithic Period. Pottery was introduced during
the Neolithic Period, and humans learned to cook in clay pots
and used containers made of wood and antlers. The earliest dish
was a crude paste, made by mixing water with cracked kernels of
wild grass. When dropped on a hot stone, the paste will turn into
bread, which was the Stone Age version of the Romans’
pulmentum or the Italians’ polenta.
5. ANCIENT COOKING
Egyptian wall paintings that date back to 4000 BC show that ancient
Egyptians used cooking methods such as roasting, broiling, frying and
boiling. There were also Biblical references to ancient methods of
cooking, and early carvings from Assyria and Babylonia indicate use of
charcoal in cooking pans. Baking came during the invention of the
oven, and the first ever oven discovered dated back 6,500 years ago.
During 168 BC, the first baking guild was established in Rome.
The civilization of Mesopotamia brought one of the biggest
developments in human history. Plant irrigation and cultivation, as
well as plant and animal domestication, were done by people of
Mesopotamia since 9,000 BC. Crops such as grains, barley, wheat,
beans, peas, lentils, leeks, turnips, onions, radishes and garlic were
being planted during 3,000 BC, and the Mesopotamian diet is usually
made up of such. People knew how to take care of sheep, cattle and
ducks for food. They also hunted pigs, deer, game birds, gazelle and
fish. Generally, meats were smoked, dried or salted for preservation,
and were cooked by roasting, broiling or boiling.
