Cookware
Cookware (from Middle High German crockery , "vessel, crockery") is the collective term for all vessels that are used to prepare warm food, with cooking appliances ( stoves or cookers) generating the heat. Pots and pans that are used for roasting , baking and other forms of food preparation through heat treatment (→ cooking technique ) are also considered cookware in the broader sense . The most well-known vessels that are part of cookware include the saucepan , frying pan and roaster . Other common forms are the kettle and the saucepan . The wok is known from Asian countries . There are numerous types of cookware around the world. Some of them have a long history of development, some are highly specialized and designed for the preparation of only one particular dish or for use on a particular type of stove.
In military parlance in Germany, handle pots in the form of Gamelle are also referred to as cookware. Cookware for transporting food has been part of the standard personal equipment of soldiers since the beginning of the 20th century, not only in Germany, but also in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.
Working principle
Apart from the old method of cooking on a wood or coal fire, there are three common methods of generating heat when cooking: the open flame , the electrically operated hotplate (also known as a ceramic hob ) and the induction hob . The cookware must be suitable for the respective method and there is the following downward compatibility (no upward compatibility):
- Cookware for induction hobs
- Cookware for electric hotplates and ceramic electric hobs
- Cookware for the open flame
Cooking over an open flame makes the least demands on the design of the cookware - water, soups, stews and other items can be brought to the boil even in an open tin can . Cookware for electric or ceramic hobs ideally requires a completely flat underside, because any air gap between the cookware and the hotplate significantly impairs the heat transfer. The bottom of such cookware must be built strong enough to withstand heat deformation. There is ferromagnetic material in the bottom of the cookware for induction hobs.
Materials
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Because of their thermal conductivity , saucepans and frying pans are usually made of metallic materials . Due to its corrosion resistance, stainless steel has become the standard material for saucepans (see photo above). Cooking pots made of the steel grade chrome-nickel 18/10 are considered to be easy to care for, robust and durable. Before stainless steel pots found their widespread use today, saucepans and frying pans were often made of enamelled , unalloyed sheet steel. One disadvantage of enamelled cooking pots of simple design is that they are susceptible to damage: if they are hit, parts of the enamel layer can flake off. Enamelled cookware is also less suitable for electric hotplates because the bottom of the vessels is not ground flat and the material thickness is rarely greater than that of the outer wall. Traditionally made enamel cookware is best suited for use on gas stoves. However, there are high-quality enamelled cookware with an elaborately constructed base for all types of stoves. Such pots offer a special security against the release of trace elements into the food during cooking.
When frying different materials are used: Apart from sheet steel or stainless steel are also frying pans from sheet aluminum , cast aluminum , cast iron or wrought iron produced. Frying pans have non-metallic coatings more frequently than saucepans - especially Teflon and other non-stick coatings to prevent the food prepared in them from burning on - have become widespread on frying pans. Lids for frying pans are - if available - often made of the same material as the corresponding lower part. Since the lid's high thermal conductivity is not a particular advantage, there are also pan lids made of heat-resistant glass (for example borosilicate glass ). A disadvantage of such lids is that they are more fragile than other materials.
There is a conflict of objectives when choosing the material for the handles of pots, pans and lids: If the cookware is to be as robust and durable as possible, the material for the handles is usually identical to the corresponding pot, pan or lid - i.e. metal. The good thermal conductivity is a disadvantage of the handle, which is accepted because of the longevity. Pot holders are often used for handling . Handles made of plastic, wood or other non-metallic materials offer a clear advantage in handling because of their low thermal conductivity, but rarely have the same longevity as a handle made of metal.
When preparing food in the oven, the heat is not only applied to the underside of a vessel, but also on all sides and, with open vessels, directly to the surface of the food. For this reason, baking tins are often made of ceramic or heat-resistant glass. Soapstone is a high quality material with particularly long heat storage ; Another special feature is the Roman pot made of unglazed clay . Cake tins are usually made of sheet steel ( tinned or with a non-stick coating) because the formation of a condensation layer on the inside after baking is particularly desirable for easier removal from the mold .
Sheet copper has been an important material for cookware since the beginning of the use of metals by humans, but has been largely displaced in modern times. Because of its extremely good thermal conductivity, copper is still used as a material for high-quality cookware, but then mostly with coatings of other metals such as silver, tin or stainless steel.
manufacturing engineering
A variety of manufacturing techniques are used to manufacture cookware. The most important processes are the forming technique , if the cookware is made from sheet metal, and the primary forming technique , if it is made of cast aluminum or cast iron. In the case of high-quality frying pans, the old craft technique of free-hand forging is occasionally used; such pans usually consist of only one workpiece. Simpler iron pans are mostly drop forged; the separately manufactured pan handle is welded on. In the case of machine-made cookware, various coating processes are also used, for example enameling or coating with PTFE, as well as various joining technology processes , for example welding or screwing .
Special forms and applications
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In addition to various forms of cookware for the household, there are numerous special designs for different areas of application and their requirements:
- Cookware for gastronomy and professional chefs is often made of particularly high-quality materials - for example, made of copper sheet with a stainless steel lining on the inner walls and handles made of cast iron.
- Pressure cookers for household and catering. A slight overpressure raises the boiling temperature in these pots by a few ° C. This leads to a reduction in cooking time and energy consumption.
- Cookware for camping and outdoor activities: thin aluminum or stainless steel sheets are mostly used to save weight during transport. Such dishes are best suited for cooking over an open flame (on mobile stoves powered by liquid fuel and on campfires).
- Large kitchens use cookware of the appropriate volume, for example kettles.
- In the military, large volumes and easy transportability are required for field kitchens . In Switzerland, cookware is understood to mean gamelle in the military sector .
- Double-walled pots and lids are used to save energy.
Development history
Pots as the oldest civilization goods
The use of fire to cook food goes back several hundred thousand years. The use of cookware for cooking food, on the other hand, was only developed 9000 to 10,000 years ago and thus a development in the Neolithic Age . The thesis that the use of birch tar suggests that people were already using cookware 120,000 years ago because birch tar could only be made in cookware has now been disproved. Tests have shown that small amounts of usable birch pitch can be produced inside a fireplace without the aid of a ceramic vessel. Ceramic cultures from the Stone Age were also able to produce sufficient quantities of birch pitch in this way.
In any case, pots are one of the oldest commodities of civilization. Their development is an essential milestone in the evolution of man: Cooking enabled a far greater possibility of using plants as food. Many plants that were either poisonous or, due to their structure, inedible while raw, were edible when cooked for long periods of time. While fire acts directly on food, cooking and roasting are indirect forms of food preparation. Cooking and frying make not only a celebration, but also waterproof and fire-resistant vessel. The development of the first cookware is therefore a remarkable intellectual achievement, although the individual development steps are still unclear.
Presumably, people who lived near hot water springs or other geothermal springs were the first to use them to prepare food. For example, the New Zealand use Maori the geothermal field of Whakarewarewa traditional cooking. Food is hung in the springs in linen bags until it is cooked. Similar practices are known from Iceland. Even if the archaeological evidence is unsatisfactory, food historian Bee Wilson believes that those of our ancestors who lived near such geothermal heat sources experimented with them for millennia. However, few people live near such sources. For most of our ancestors, in Wilson's view, the use of boiling water - which would put out a fire - was not obvious. The development of cooking vessels is therefore a creative masterpiece.
Hot stones and earth ovens
In any case, the development of cookware was preceded by the use of hot stones. Many foods can be cooked directly on hot stones that have been taken out of the fire beforehand. The further development of this method was the use of earth ovens . Earth ovens are pits in which food is cooked with the help of stones heated in a fire. They enabled gentle, moist cooking even before the invention of pottery - after grilling and roasting, preparing food in the earth oven is one of the oldest cooking techniques in the world and is still practiced in the region today, e.g. B. in New Guinea , New Zealand and North African Bedouins , in the Andes in the form of Watia . This form of cooking is at least 30,000 years old. It already made the consumption of root and tuber vegetables possible. This form of cooking is - if the food allows it - a very efficient preparation. Bee Wilson refers to Polynesians who settled in the Marquesas and abandoned ceramic cookware after they had made them for centuries. Appropriate clay was available on the island. The reason for this change in the preparation method is that the Polynesians in the Marquesas mainly ate sweet potatoes , taro and breadfruit and these starchy vegetables are best prepared with hot stones instead of pots.
Some anthropologists have proposed as a theory that the development of cookware was inspired by the consumption of mussels and the use of their shells. Bee Wilson, on the other hand, thinks it is more likely that our ancestors made the first cookware from the hard shell of various cucurbits or used hollowed-out bamboo poles, as is still practiced throughout Asia today. However, she also points out that both plant families were only available in parts of the world. The stomach of hunted or kept animals was more universally accessible. The stomach is both waterproof and, to a certain extent, heat-resistant. For example, the Scottish national dish haggis is a sheep's stomach filled with various ingredients that is then cooked. Various sausage specialties from Europe such as rind stomachs are also filled and cooked in pig stomachs.
The first ceramic vessels used for cooking
The oldest known ceramic vessels come from the Xianrendong cave in the People's Republic of China ; they were created approximately 20,000 to 19,000 calibrated calendar years ago ( cal BP ). They were widespread from 10,000 BC. And can be found almost simultaneously in South America, North Africa and during the Japanese Jōmon period . The earliest evidence of a special use of ceramic vessels as cookware was dated to the beginning of the Jōmon period, based on vessels that are 15,000 to 11,800 years (cal BP) old and were used to cook marine animals. The early Jōmon ceramics, reminiscent of flower pots, were particularly suitable for stewing and steaming.
Bee Wilson points out that another time passed between the development of ceramic vessels and their use as cookware. On the one hand, the inspiration was necessary so that these vessels could be used for cooking, and on the other hand, the demands on such vessels were higher. If these vessels were used for cooking, they had to be able to withstand repeated thermal shocks. As an example of how much time can elapse between the development of ceramics and their use as cookware, Wilson refers to the finds in the Franchthi cave ( Greek Φράγχθι ). This is located on a bay across from Kilada in the Argolis on the Peloponnese ( Greece ). It was from the middle of the Paleolithic (approx. 30,000 BC) to approx. 3000 BC. In use and then partially collapsed. The shards found in this cave date from the most recent time this cave was used by humans, namely from 6000 to 3000 BC. However, the oldest pottery shards found in the cave show no signs of ever having been used to prepare food. Instead, they seem to have had use in some kind of religious ritual. Only the most recent fragments show traces that they were used for cooking.
literature
- Bee Wilson : Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat . Penguin Books, London 2013, ISBN 978-0-141-04908-3 .
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ Jürgen Martin: The 'Ulmer Wundarznei'. Introduction - Text - Glossary on a monument to German specialist prose from the 15th century. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1991 (= Würzburg medical-historical research. Volume 52), ISBN 3-88479-801-4 (also medical dissertation Würzburg 1990), p. 132.
- ↑ Examples of highly specialized cookware are saucepans for the bain-marie method, which is used, among other things, to prepare heat-sensitive sauces, as well as the egg cooker developed in the 20th century - a small vessel made of Jena glass for poaching eggs
- ↑ a b c Bee Wilson: Consider the Fork . P. 23.
- ^ Richard Wrangham: Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human . Profile Books, London 2009. ISBN 978-1-84668 286-5 . P. 124
- ↑ Friedrich Palmer: The emergence of birch pitch in a fireplace under paleolithic conditions. ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte , Volume 16, 2007, pp. 75–83.
- ^ Bee Wilson: Consider the Fork . P. 24.
- ↑ a b Bee Wilson: Consider the Fork . P. 25.
- ↑ Filipe Fernandez-Armesto: Food: A History. Pan Books, London 2002, ISBN 0-330-491-44 X . P. 15 and p. 16
- ^ Bee Wilson: Consider the Fork . P. 30.
- ^ Bee Wilson: Consider the Fork . P. 26.
- ↑ Xiaohong Wu et al .: Early Pottery at 20,000 Years Ago in Xianrendong Cave, China. In: Science . Volume 336, No. 6089, 2012, pp. 1696-1700, doi: 10.1126 / science.1218643
- ^ Bee Wilson: Consider the Fork . P. 33.
- ^ OE Craig et al .: Earliest evidence for the use of pottery. In: Nature . Volume 496, No. 7445, 2013, pp. 351-354, doi: 10.1038 / nature12109
- ↑ a b Bee Wilson: Consider the Fork . P. 34.
- ^ Bee Wilson: Consider the Fork . P. 35.
