Original photo by Beytullah ÇİTLİK/ Unsplash+
Who can resist the smell of freshly baked cookies or a basket of warmed bread brought out before your entree? Not many, though it’s no surprise considering humans have made baked goods a dietary staple for thousands of years. The love doesn’t stop at just consumption, either — whether you enjoy mixing up a bowl of cake batter or watching a group of contestants sweat through the task, there’s something about baking that’s entirely alluring.
Baking Can Lift Your Mood
If life has you in a sour mood, baking a loaf of sourdough (or your favorite treat) may just be the answer. Some psychology research has shown that small-scale creative projects — such as baking — actually benefit human brains, and contribute to a sense of flourishing. Baking and cooking may help people feel more relaxed and satisfied with life, and focusing on kitchen tasks may have benefits similar to those offered by meditation.
The World’s Oldest Bread Is 14,000 Years Old
Tiny crumbs are the last remnants of the world’s oldest bread, which researchers believe is at least 14,000 years old. Discovered in an ancient fireplace in Jordan, the small bits of bread likely belonged to the Natufians, hunter-gatherers who lived during the Epipaleolithic era. The bread crumb discovery, made public in 2018, has shifted scientific understanding about how early humans ate — the archaic food scraps are 4,000 years older than when researchers believe the first bread was baked. They indicate that humans learned to bake even before the advent of agriculture.
Baker’s Yeast Was Domesticated by Humans
Yeast gives raised baked goods their lift by creating air bubbles — as the organisms feed off sugars, they produce carbon dioxide that inflates the dough. Humans have used some strains of yeast — like today’s popular Saccharomyces cerevisiae — for thousands of years, slowly domesticating it over time to create consistent results. In comparison, wild yeasts (like those that can be found on fruit skins or floating around in the air) behave unpredictably, which can change the scent and flavor of breads and fermented beverages.
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The First Dough Mixer Was Donkey-Powered
Historians attribute the first mechanical dough mixer to Marcus Vergilius Eurysaces, a formerly enslaved Greek man who became wealthy from baking bread in first-century Rome. Eurysaces’ mixer kneaded dough inside a stone basin outfitted with wooden paddles; the setup was attached to a horse or donkey that walked in circles to keep the paddles moving.
Early American Bakers Used “Beehive” Ovens
Heating an oven to bake a loaf of bread is much easier today than it was for 18th-century bakers. Cooks of the time relied on dome-shaped ovens, often called “beehive ovens,” to bake pies, breads, cakes, and other foods. The wood-fired ovens were made from brick and often covered with clay, and cooking in them took skill, especially because they took up to five hours to properly heat. That’s why many colonial cooks crafted breads and baked goods just once per week.
Most Ovens Are Preset to 350 Degrees for a Reason
The instructions for many baked goods often suggest you preheat the oven to 350 degrees — but why? The reason is simple: 350 degrees is a middle-of-the-road temperature that’s sufficient for cooking foods without causing them to burn. Also, 350 degrees is the temperature at which the Maillard reaction occurs; that’s the browning reaction that gives food its toasty color and complex flavor profile. However, including a temperature in cooking instructions is something of a modern notation; before 1940, most ovens didn’t have a temperature gauge and required cooks to measure temperature by setting pans of flour or paper inside, or testing heat with their hands.
There’s a Major Difference Between Baking Powder and Baking Soda
If you’ve ever run out of baking powder and reached for baking soda, chances are the results weren’t quite right. While these two pantry necessities look nearly identical and do the work of helping cookies and cakes become light and fluffy, they work somewhat differently. Baking soda, the stronger of the two ingredients, is made from 100% sodium bicarbonate, which creates carbon dioxide when mixed with an acid like vinegar or lemon juice. Baking powder is a less potent blend of sodium bicarbonate and acidic cream of tartar that activates with moisture and heat, and removes the step of adding another astringent ingredient.
Astronauts Have Baked Cookies in Space
Most of the cooking astronauts do in space is limited to boiling water, used to rehydrate freeze-dried, shelf-stable meals. However, in 2019, astronauts Christina Koch and Luca Parmitano became Earth’s first zero-gravity bakers. They used a special “space oven” sent to the International Space Station just for the experiment, which tested how well raw foods cook in space. The cookies apparently took far longer to bake in space — about 120 to 130 minutes. However, the ISS crew didn’t get to taste their culinary creation; the baked cookies were returned to Earth for examination by NASA researchers. (Fortunately, the astronauts were provided with prebaked cookies to eat after the experiment, so they got a treat anyway.)
Nicole Garner Meeker is a writer and editor based in St. Louis. Her history, nature, and food stories have also appeared at Mental Floss and Better Report.
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