The History Cooking Methods

So, most of us who cook just go home, preheat the oven, stick what ever we're roasting or baking in, set the timer and hope we don't burn dinner. Well, before we had our now hi-tech modern stoves and ovens, it wasn't so easy. There was no temperature control, no buttons to push, and not even A SELF CLEAN OPTION! I know it sounds scary, but it's true. But, as college students, I'm sure you already know this... but have you ever wondered how we go to have the easy ovens that we do now?
I'm sure that we all know that it all stated with fire. Once man discovered... or more accurately, learned how to use it, they realized that you could make food easier, safer, and better to eat. But as humans are, we are never satisfied with just one method of something. Who wants to eat everything grilled or charred on the fire? Different cultures came up with their own methods of cooking. Some made ceramic pots filled with water and would put that on the fired to boil water and cook food. Other cultures learned to weave baskets, fill them with water and add fire hot rock to heat the water. And of course, others came up with iron pots to cook in. But what about roasting a chicken? Baking a pie? How did man figure those things out?Many cultures did find a way to make wood burning ovens that were great for pizzas, some breads, and cooking cut up meats. But these ovens were so hot, (way hotter than any conventional oven can ever get now) that it was harder to cook things in fear that they wouldn't rise, or would simply burn under such heat.

Native Americans cooking in pottery

Chinese Cooking Banquet

Medieval Cooking Stove

Ancient Roman Oven

Hawaiian pit oven called Imu, used to steam.

One of the first wood burning ovens recorded in history was in Alsace, France around 1490. It was made completely out of bricks and tile.

Picture of first designed stove

But of course, like with all first models, there was room for improvements. They found a way to keep too much smoke from escaping the stove. The made specials chambers for cooking pots, so that the cauldron would become obsolete. In 1735, the Castrol stove invented by French architect François Cuvilliés. This stove was better known as a stewing stove. It had many openings covered by iron plates with holes. And was one of the first designs to completely hold the fire in. 

Around 1728, a German designed oven called Five-plate or Jamb stoves were gaining popularity. These were made of  cast iron.

Five-plate or Jamb stoves

 

 

 

In the 1740's closed stoves were becoming the new best thin. These were also known as 6 plate stoves

Six-Plate stove design

 Benjamin Franklin created a stove called the Pennsylvania Fireplace in 1742. This stove was extremely popular because the people needed not only a stove to cook on, but a safer way to heat their home and that was more efficient. Stoves before this design burned too much wood, so this cast-iron designed allowed them to have warmer safer winters. A flaw to Franklin's design was that he made vents for the smoke at the bottom of the stove. Since smoke rises, this was on only thing really wrong with it. But still, people preferred this to past designs because of the safety.  This stove is now known as the Franklin Stove. Oddly enough, Benjamin Franklin never patented any of his inventions, but still gets recognition for them. He believed that the people's appreciation was enough for him. Where as, we have seen that many of the above stove inventions (and other inventions in history) don't really have one person credited for them.

Franklin Stove

Around 1800, Benjamin Thompson, later known as Count Rumford because of the title given to him in Bavaria, invented the iron Rumford stove, designed for larger production kitchens. This stove was made to have only one fire source for the entire stove. The great thing was that each pot and pan could have it's heat level regulated and adjusted individually. This was a great break through in commercial kitchens, but this stove was much too large for the average kitchen.

In 1834, Stewart's Oberlin iron stove, was greatly popular due to the fact that it was similar to the commercial Rumford stove, but it was more compact for domestic use.

In 1833, coal ovens began to become popular. These ovens were cylindrical, made of heavy cast iron, and with a hole on top that was enclosed with an iron ring.

 

In 1826, British inventor James Sharp came up with a gas oven. This is recognized as the most successful gas oven to appear on the market at that time. But, the success of these ovens was delayed due to the fact that most houses didn't have a gas line. In 1910, gas stoves were now given an enamel coating with made easier to clean; the closest thing to self clean at that time. 

James Sharp oven

 In 1882, Thomas Ahearn invented the first electric oven. This design wasn't as popular as the others at the time, because many still didn't have electricity in their homes.

Thomas Ahearn

All of these wonderful progressions in stoves have all lead up to the easy to clean, safe, stylish, and more efficient stoves we have today. Thanks to the minds of these great thinkers and inventors, we have so many different kind of stoves and ovens your head almost spins. Not only that, we now have toasters, toaster ovens, microwave ovens, convection microwaves, convection ovens, induction burners, and a million other hi-tech do-dads. Who knows, hopefully in a few years we'll have an invention that at the push of a button a 5 course dinner automatically pops out.... oh wait.... that would put me out of business! Better yet, let's hope people keep relying on great chefs to prepare their food and tease their senses. And while you eat your souffle, celebrate over your chocolate raspberry cake, or your oven roasted turkey with all of the sides, remember that those delicious, time consuming, and temperature sensitive dishes were all possible because of the great minds who live in the kitchen.

Sources and pictures from:
http://www.antiquestoves.com/history.htm
http://www.tititudorancea.com/z/stove.htm
http://inventors.about.com/od/ofamousinventions/a/oven.htm
http://all-kids.us/potters-page.html
http://www.china-family-adventure.com/chinese-cooking.html
http://www.passion-4-pizza.com/history_of_pizza.htmlhttp://mauiluautickets.com/home

Discovery of Microorganisms

Before 1675, it was a mystery as to why grapes could be turned into wine, milk could some way turn into cheese, or why food would go bad. People also didn't understand many illnesses such as the Black Plague, or food borne illnesses. All this changed thanks to the discovery of microorganisms by Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek in 1675. He was one of the first people to ever see microorganisms with a microscope he designed himself. He observed and described microscopic protozoa and bacteria. Robert Hooke was one of the first people to see a living organisms in 1665 and gave descriptions of plant cells in his book Micrographia. Thanks to these men, we have a better knowledge of the roles of microbes and how they help cause infectious diseases.

Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blleeuwenhoek.htm

 Microscope invented by Leeuwenhoek

http://www.ihcworld.com/histowiki/doku.php?id=microscope

Pictures of Robert Hooke and a page from his book Micrographia

http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2001/05/43330

Leeuwenhoek's discovery, along with the help from Lazzaro Spallanzani and Louis Pasteur, made people realize that food didn't spoil because a non-living substance randomly appeared and made the food go bad. Spallanzani discovered that if you boil broth, you kill any microorganisms in it. And that new microorganisms could only live in a broth if exposed to the air. Pasteur furthered this discovery when he found that by boiling the broth not only did you kill all of the microorganisms, but he learned that the broth would only go bad if exposed to outside things such as spores on dust. There fore, Pastuer stamped out the theory of spontaneous generation and began to support the "germ theory".

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/S/Spallanzani.html

Louis Pasteur
http://www.cah-research.com/history/asynopsis.htm

In 1876, Robert Koch discovered that microbes can cause disease and can can also be transmitted from one organism to another. Now we know that Bacteria multiply by splitting in half every 15-30 mins. The best conditions for growth are in high moisture, in low acidic foods, have air, have time, and be in a Temperature Danger Zone which is 41'F- 140'F. Which all of this we know how Safety and Sanitation guidelines to follow when working with food. Many lives have been saved from such discoveries. We know we have a time line of 4hrs to get food out of the temperature danger zone and also many methods and processes we have to take to keep bacteria from spreading and becoming too dangerous to eat. So, before you take your next bite of food, you can thank all of these men for making it safer for you to consume.

  Robert Koch

http://www.scientific-web.com/en/Medicine/Biographies/RobertKoch01.html

sources were 

http://books.google.com/books?id=km-e12R_wbUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Micrographia+ibsn&source=bl&ots=yNcau2NwB6&sig=GWkrz7gJ9JazLsQVS4FSaC1HCYY&hl=en&ei=4f3ITMWYJ6SQtAOUvr3qDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15209075

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blleeuwenhoek.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microorganisms

Professional Cooking

by Wayne Gisslen

ISBN 0-471-39711-3

Two Legendary Culinarians

Marie Antoine Carême was one of the two who revolutionized the culinary world for ever. Born to a poor family of at least 25 children in 1784, he was kicked out by his parents at the young age of 10 so that he could fend for himself. Being that around this time the French Revolution was going on, many chefs were finding themselves without kings and nobility to work for, so they began to open restaurants, which was also a new concept because most people commoners had to cook for themselves since chefs were usually for the rich. Carême went to work in one of these restaurants. He dedicated his life to learning refining and organizing culinary techniques. Before Carême, most meals were more like unorganized banquets, concentrating more on amount of food and not quality of presentation. What ever dish was infront of you and you could reach, that's what you were eating that meal. Meals consisted of different roasted animals, breads, cakes, vegetables, and a whole mix of what ever the chef could fit onto the table.

 Some of Careme's food designs 

http://www.lemaze-studio.com/cgi-bin/webdata_pro.pl?_cgifunction=search&_layout=canvas&products.canvas=yes&products.artist3=Careme,%20Marie%20Antoine

Carême became chef for many kings and nobiltiy such as George IV of England, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Baron James de Rothschild as noted at FoodRefernce.com (http://www.foodreference.com/html/wmarieantoinecareme.html). He became famous for taking the ordinary platters of food and turning them into masterpieces. He is given credit for elaborate centerpieces, the creator of our modern day wedding cakes,and ice and sugar sculptures. As stated in the book Professional Cooking: Fifth Edtition written by Wayne Gisslen (pg4), "Carême's practical and theoretical work as an author and chef that was responsible for bringing cooking out of the Middle Ages and into the modern period." To this day we still follow his work for our elaborate centerpieces and elegant display of dishes. Chef Carême died January 12, 1883.

The second revolutionizing chefs was Auguste Escoffier. Born in 1847, at age 13 his father took him to a restaurant to begin his apprenticeship at his uncle's restaurant. Learning and loving his work, he worked in many famous restaurants and hotels in Paris. In 1870, he was called to be the Chef de Cuisine in the Franco-Prussian War. During this time, he realized the need for preserving food better and worked on the first in depth  food canning techniques. After the war he went back to work in Paris and quickly moved up the culinary ladder. While in Monte Carlo,Escoffier met Cesar Ritz. Between the two they opened many hotels that are still famous today; Hotel Ritz in Paris and the Carlton in London. While working in the hotel, Escoffier became famous for simplifying cuisine even more than Carême. He took the all you can eat buffets and turning them into multi course meals. Every dish had it's order. He also came up with the fist a la carte menu. He planned his meals and menus so that the dishes complimented each and not, what he called "general confusion". Escoffier took away elaborate garnishes and concentrates more on clean flavors and seasonal products.

Escoffier's second biggest achievement was the reorganization of the kitchen. He invented new kitchen equipment, and constructed a kitchen layout that would allow for simplified dishes to be executed. His layouts, ideas, guidelines, and recipes are still used to this day. Escoffier died in 1935 and we are still taught about these two great Chefs today in culinary schools. We are encouraged to read their books and feel the passion that they had during their lives. They are not only given credit with revolutioninzing our culinary world, but also with turning culinary arts from just a job to a true artisans work of art.

 Older Ecoffier

http://www.culinarysherpas.com/?p=695

Resources:
book: Professional Cooking: Fifth Edtition written by Wayne Gisslen
published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 
IBSN 0-471-39711-3

web: foodreferneces.com 
http://www.foodreference.com/html/wmarieantoinecareme.html
and
http://www.foodreference.com/html/wgeorgesaugusteescoffier.html

web: Culinary School LeNôtre (Information and Pictures of Carême and Escoffier from this source)
http://www.culinaryinstitute.edu/about-us/master-chefs