Food Preparing: From Open Fire To Microwave Ovens

The development of methods for food preparing has been going on for thousands of years. In the beginning it was crude stone ovens or just open fire, today we have high tec microwaves and hot air ovens.

The First Method - Open Fire
The open fire was for sure the first food preparation method that humans started to use. On a fire you can cook meat, making it easier to digest and in the process killing bacteria. Cooked meat also has longer durability and becomes more tasty. The fire also permits drying and smoking. It is impossible to say when humans started to use fire for cooking but probably more than 500.000 years ago.

Smoking, Drying And Salting
The act of smoking food was primarily a preservation method, probably humans discovered that meat that had been hanging close to the fire did not go bad as fast. Somewhere in this process the taste for it was aquired and until today it is a very popular way to prepare food. It actually only provides a protective layer and is only effective as preservation together with other methods such as drying, salting or cooking.

Likewise it must have been through deduction that the discovery that dried food lasted longer, maybe from meat hanging next to the fire. In winter time you can pick dried fruits and berries and eat: 1+1=2. You can dry using sun, fire or wind. It is used for anything from fruit to meat.

It is believed that by 3000BC salting food was a known method for food preserving. Although not really food preparing since its first function is to preserve, it still is base for many recipes around the world.

Fermentation
Is a method where normally carbohydrates is converted into alcohols and carbon dioxide or organic acids, in order to create this process yeasts and/or bacteria act in a oxygen free environment. Examples are bread, alcohol and yoghurt. It is common all over the world, an example from my own country is "surströmming", prohibited on several airlines due to its strong smell (it comes in a can that they fear would explode..).

Ovens & Stoves
Its crude form was invented early - the use of "earth ovens" or "cooking pits" has been wide spread over the world for thousands of years. It is basically a hole in the ground where hot rocks or coal cook food that is put inside. In the Indus valley mud ovens were common by 3200BC. We know the ancient greeks used simple ovens too make bread 2000BC, through the years it evolved and improved.

In the early 18th century cast iron stove/ovens started to be produced. By the early 19th century wood started to get replaced by coal and gas as fuel. Electric ovens came in use only in the 1930´s, although prototypes were produced already in the late 19th century.

The microwave oven was invented in the 1940´s but only started to get common in households during the 1970´s. It builds upon a technique where microwaves is shot through food provoking movement in molecules, that movement generates heat.

Cooking Methods Using Heat
Today modern equipment in most households gives us a wide array of options for food preparing. They include baking, roasting, sauteing, stewing, grilling, frying, boiling, steaming and braising.