European Influence

Cooked food has been a part of our civilization for thousands of years. Throughout the Mediterranean, Africa and the Roman Empire, wood fires in a stone enclosure have been used to broil meat and bake bread. This was the basic premise for the oven, as it provided a different heat source for cooking compared to the open air fire used to heat water and make soup. While there have been some fantastic advancements over the centuries, this basic concept for the original oven has remained. The First Official Oven While open fires have been used for thousands of years to not only keep warm, but cook food, this cooking method was a challenge. Imagine trying to prepare one of your simple weekday meals over an open flame or in a metal cauldron. This changed with the development of the oven. The first official oven in recorded history was built in 1490. It was in France and made using brick and tile. Although there may have been other ovens before this date, the French oven is the first one recorded. The European Influence When the first European settlers arrived in modern day America, traditional stone stoves were slightly upgraded. Colonial homemakers began cooking on ventilated brick ovens to feed their families. Of course, these types of ovens still lacked the modern conveniences we take for granted today, like control knobs and thermostats. The oven user of the time needed to add or remove wood manually to stoke or cool the fire