THE HISTORY OF MAKING AND PASTRY COOKING 🍰
History of banking
On today's market there is a never ending variety of the most delicious sweets and pastries to please both the palate and the eyes. We have become so used to this diverse range of bread, mouth watering pastries and cakes that seldom we ask just how they come into existence.
The prospect of a hefty quantity discount would no doubt have made perfect sense to my frugal fore bearer; itmust have been so much cheaper getting all this printing done in a big way. Grandfather should have realized that there was not the slightest chance that any one generation could ever use up this huge mountain of stationery. After all there were still zillions of these letterheads leftover, so let's not waste any money! Anyhow, Fritz was considered a perfectly good name by all and "Pfister" being the old Swiss/German form used for "Baker" just another indication of a long family tradition. Until modern days the old brotherhood of Swiss bakers was called the "Zunft der Pfistern". The interesting history of baking and pastry. cooking! Or how did it all start? 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 win and consumed hot.
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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?
Europe
From Doraemon Empire the art of pastry-cooking gradually spread throughout Europe and the world. One of the best no painters, the Dutchman, rimbrane created sketch in 1635 showing a pancake cook in the treets surrounded by children eagerly waiting and hoping for a sample
The Ginger Bread Merchant
Portrayed on the right is a gingerbread merchant selling his wares in one of the better streets in London. He uses 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 two illustrations below are original copperplate engravings and depict street scenes in Germany. The image, on the left is that of a pie-man selling his pastries in Strasburg and on the right a pastry-cook selling small cakes in Hamburg, 1800.
The Original Open-Air Café or Dining Al Fresco!
This above lithography by C.T.Travies shows a typical early last century scene in Paris.
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.
BAKESTONE
Bakestones are flat stones that can be placed on or next to a fire or stove to cook cakes of various kinds. In Wales, A bakestone, 'maen' in Welsh 'gradell' in the north of the county and 'planc' is the name for the cast iron or steel griddle used for cakes, especially in South Wales. The Northern tradition in areas such as Saddleworth was for oatcakes (a sort of hard, long lasting oaten biscuit).
BLIND-BAKING
Blind-baking (sometimes called "pre-baking") is the process of baking a pie crust or other pastry without the filling. Blind baking a pie crust is necessary when it will be filled with an unbaked filling (such as with pudding or cream pies) or when the filling has a shorter bake time than the crust. Blind baking a pie crust also helps prevent the pie crust from becoming soggy from its filling.
Generally, the pie crust is lined with tin foil or parchment paper, then filled with dried peas, lentils, beans or other pulses, or with ceramic or metal "baking beans" (also called pastry weights or pie weights) so that it will keep its shape when baking. Alternatively, the crust is poked repeatedly with the tines of a fork to produce small holes-this helps the steam escape and prevents the crust from bubbling up. After the pie crust is done, the temporary filling is replaced with the proper filling. Blind-baking also helps to form a nice pastry case for the filling as it has already been partially formed from blind-baking.
PARBAKING
Parbaking is a cooking technique in which a bread or dough product is partially baked and then rapidly frozen for storage. The raw dough is baked as if normal, but halted at about 80% of the normal cooking time, when it is rapidly cooled and frozen. The partial cooking kills the yeast in the bread mixture, and sets the internal structure of the proteins and starches (the spongy texture of the bread), so that it is now essentially cooked inside, but not so far as to have generated "crust" or other externally desirable qualities that are difficult to preserve once fully
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