question: how did we manage to discover bread and other pastries?
comment: Bread is just mushed up grain and water left to sit for a while and then heated. Over time, the process has been refined to produce better results. Pastry follows the same path but adds refined animal fats - probably after people realized how good bread dipped in roasted meat drippings tasted.
passages: During the Egyptian Neolithic period or New Stone Age period, the use of stone tools shaped by polishing or grinding, the domestication of plants and animals, the establishment of permanent villages, and the practice of crafts such as pottery and weaving became common. Early pies were in the form of flat, round or freeform crusty cakes called galettes consisting of a crust of ground oats, wheat, rye, or barley containing honey inside. These galettes developed into a form of early sweet pastry or desserts, evidence of which can be found on the tomb walls of the Pharaoh Ramesses II, who ruled from 1304 to 1237 BC, located in the Valley of the Kings. Sometime before 2000 BC, a recipe for chicken pie was written on a tablet in Sumer.
   Pastries were first created by the ancient Egyptians. The classical period of ancient Greece and Rome had pastries made with almonds, flour, honey and seeds. The introduction of sugar into European cookery resulted in a large variety of new pastry recipes in France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. The greatest innovator was Marie-Antoine Carême who perfected puff pastry and developed elaborate designs of "pâtisserie".
  
  Section::::Pastries.
  
  Section::::Pastries.:Unsorted.
  
  BULLET::::- Apfelküchle
  
  BULLET::::- Carolina
  
  BULLET::::- Chebakia
  
  BULLET::::- Coventry Godcakes
  
  BULLET::::- Gukhwappang
  
  BULLET::::- Osmanthus cake
  
  BULLET::::- Shorgoghal
  
  Section::::See also.
  
  BULLET::::- Chinese bakery products
  
  BULLET::::- Cuisine
  
  BULLET::::- Global cuisine
  
  BULLET::::- List of baked goods
   Section::::Subsistence.:Development of agriculture.
  
  A pita-like bread has been found from 12,500 BC attributed to Natufians. This bread is made of wild cereal seeds and papyrus cousin tubers, ground into flour.
   Even in antiquity there was a wide variety of breads. In ancient times the Greek bread was barley bread: Solon declared that wheaten bread might only be baked for feast days. By the 5th century BC bread could be purchased in Athens from a baker's shop, and in Rome, Greek bakers appeared in the 2nd century BC, as Hellenized Asia Minor was added to Roman dominion as the province of Asia; the foreign bakers of bread were permitted to form a "collegium". In the "Deipnosophistae", the author Athenaeus (c.A.D.170 – c. 230) describes some of the bread, cakes, and pastries available in the Classical world. Among the breads mentioned are griddle cakes, honey-and-oil bread, mushroom-shaped loaves covered in poppy seeds, and the military specialty of rolls baked on a spit. The type and quality of flours used to produce bread could also vary, as noted by Diphilus when he declared "bread made of wheat, as compared with that made of barley, is more nourishing, more digestible, and in every way superior." In order of merit, the bread made from refined [thoroughly sieved] flour comes first, after that bread from ordinary wheat, and then the unbolted, made of flour that has not been sifted." The essentiality of bread in the diet was reflected in the name for the rest of the meal: "ópson", "condiment", i.e. bread's accompaniment, whatever it might be.
   The European tradition of pastry-making is often traced back to the shortcrust era of flaky doughs that were in use throughout the Mediterranean in ancient times. In the ancient Mediterranean, the Romans, Greeks and Phoenicians all had filo-style pastries in their culinary traditions. There is also strong evidence that Egyptians produced pastry-like confections which were made by dipping a baked flour cake in honey and serving with desert nuts as toppings. They had professional bakers that surely had the skills to do so, and they also had needed materials like flour, oil, and honey.
   The first evidence of baking occurred when humans took wild grass grains, soaked them in water, and mixed everything together, mashing it into a kind of broth-like paste. The paste was cooked by pouring it onto a flat, hot rock, resulting in a bread-like substance. Later, when humans mastered fire, the paste was roasted on hot embers, which made bread-making easier, as it could now be made any time fire was created. The world's oldest oven was discovered in Croatia in 2014 dating back 6500 years ago. The Ancient Egyptians baked bread using yeast, which they had previously been using to brew beer. Bread baking began in Ancient Greece around 600 BC, leading to the invention of enclosed ovens. "Ovens and worktables have been discovered in archaeological digs from Turkey (Hacilar) to Palestine (Jericho (Tell es-Sultan)) and date back to 5600 BC."
   The earliest recorded mention of dried fruits can be found in Mesopotamian tablets dating to about 1700 BC, which contain what are probably the oldest known written recipes. These clay slabs, written in Akkadian, the daily language of Babylonia, were inscribed in cuneiform and tell of diets based on grains (barley, millet, wheat), vegetables and fruits such as dates, figs, apples, pomegranates, and grapes. These early civilizations used dates, date juice evaporated into syrup and raisins as sweeteners. They included dried fruits in their breads for which they had more than 300 recipes, from simple barley bread for the workers to very elaborate, spiced cakes with honey for the palaces and temples. Because cuneiform was very complex and only scribes who had studied for years could read it, it is unlikely that the tablets were meant for everyday cooks or chefs. Instead they were written to document the culinary art of the times. Many recipes are quite elaborate and have rare ingredients so we may assume that they represent "Mediterranean haute cuisine".
   Since grains have been a staple food for millennia, the activity of baking is a very old one. Control of yeast, however, is relatively recent. By the fifth and sixth centuries BCE, the ancient Greeks used enclosed ovens heated by wood fires; communities usually baked bread in a large communal oven. Greeks baked dozens and possibly hundreds of types of bread; Athenaeus described seventy-two varieties.
   Perhaps the oldest documentation of a related but not identical dish is in the tomb of Ramses IV, where something more like jalebi is shown being prepared. Later, the Ancient Greek "enchytoi" consisted of a cheese-and-flour dough squeezed into hot fat, then covered with honey.
  
  Section::::Similar dishes.:Enkrides.
   Section::::Material culture.:Long distance exchange.
  
  At Ain Mallaha (in Northern Israel), Anatolian obsidian and shellfish from the Nile valley have been found. The source of malachite beads is still unknown.
  
  Epipaleolithic Natufians carried parthenocarpic figs from Africa to the southeastern corner of the Fertile Crescent, c. 10,000 BC.
  
  Section::::Material culture.:Other finds.
   Culinary historians credit the Greeks for developing bread baking significantly. Front-loaded bread ovens were developed in ancient Greece. The Greeks created a wide variety of doughs, loaf shapes, and styles of serving bread with other foods. Baking developed as a trade and profession as bread increasingly was prepared outside of the family home by specially trained workers to be sold to the public.
   Timeline of food
  
  Section::::Prehistoric times.
  
  BULLET::::- 2.5-1.8 million years ago: The discovery of the use of fire and the sharing of the benefits of the use of fire may have created a sense of sharing as a group.
  
  Earliest estimate for invention of cooking, by phylogenetic analysis.
  
  BULLET::::- 2 myr ago: Hominids shift away from the consumption of nuts and berries to begin the consumption of meat.
  
  BULLET::::- 250,000 years ago: Hearths appear, accepted archeological estimate for invention of cooking.
   Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods. Evidence from 30,000 years ago in Europe revealed starch residue on rocks used for pounding plants. It is possible that during this time, starch extract from the roots of plants, such as cattails and ferns, was spread on a flat rock, placed over a fire and cooked into a primitive form of flatbread. The world's oldest evidence of bread-making has been found in a 14,500 year old Natufian site in Jordan's northeastern desert. Around 10,000 BC, with the dawn of the Neolithic age and the spread of agriculture, grains became the mainstay of making bread. Yeast spores are ubiquitous, including on the surface of cereal grains, so any dough left to rest leavens naturally.
   In the 1680s, French explorer Henri Joutel traveled with the La Salle expedition, to Cahinnio territory. He wrote that they presented his expedition with two loaves of corn bread, describing it as "the finest and the best we had so far seen; they seemed to have been baked in an oven, and yet we not noticed any among them." Joutel noted that corn was an important food staple among the Cahinnio, as were beans and sunflower seeds. Additionally he recorded that the Cahinnio used deer hide for pouches and bearskins for rugs.
   Benjamin Disraeli in his novel "Venetia" describes an English dinner around 1770 that included ...that masterpiece of the culinary art, a great battalia pie, in which the bodies of chickens, pigeons, and rabbits, were embalmed in spices, cock's combs, and savoury balls, and well bedewed with one of those rich sauces of claret, anchovy, and sweet herbs ... [on] the cover of this pastry ... the curious cook had contrived to represent all the once-living forms that were now entombed in that gorgeous sepulchre.
   The Columbian Exchange, which began in 1492, had a profound influence on the baking occupation. Access to sugar greatly increased as a result of new cultivation in the Caribbean, and ingredients such as cocoa and chocolate became available in the Old World. In the eighteenth century, processors learned how to refine sugar from sugar beets, allowing Europeans to grow sugar locally. These developments led to an increase in the sophistication of baking and pastries, and the development of new products such as puff pastries and Danish dough.
  
  Section::::History.:18th century to present.
   It is possible that the first "cozonac" has been made in Ancient Egypt. Perhaps it was sweetened with honey and filled with seeds. The Greeks took from the Egyptians their interest in cuisine, the yeast, and the leavened doughs. Certainly the Greeks have eaten "cozonac". They made it with honey, raisins and walnuts. The Greek "cozonac" is called "plakoús" (πλακούς). Yeast and implicitly leavened breads, such as "cozonac", were later introduced to the Romans, where they added dried fruits to the "cozonac". At first there were only two varieties called "libum" and "placenta". "Libum" was a small cake, used as an offering to the gods. Later appeared versions were also consumed by people, not only by the gods. "Placenta", more elaborate, is a "cozonac" made from cheese, raisins and peanuts, which was served with a sweet wine. Although, they took the ready-made yeast from the Greeks and the Egyptians, the Romans were the ones who discovered all the possibilities offered by the yeast added to doughs, thus becoming true masters of pastry. In the Middle Ages, European bakers often made "cozonac" with dried fruits, because they lasted longer.
   Archaeological finds in Denmark indicate use of the two triticum (wheat) species, emmer and einkorn, during the Mesolithic Period (8900 BC – 3900 BC). There is no direct evidence of bread-making, but cereals have been crushed, cooked and served as porridge since at least 4,200 BC. During the Neolithic Period (3900 BC – 1800 BC), when agriculture was introduced, barley seems to have taken over to some extent, and ceramic plates apparently used for baking are found. Moulded cereals, with water added to make a dough and baked or fried in the shape of bread, are known as burial gifts in Iron Age graves (200 AD onwards) in the Mälardalen area of central Sweden. However, it is not certain that this bread was eaten; it could just have been a burial gift. During the Bronze Age (1800 BC – 500 AD), oats and the triticum species spelt seem to have been the most commonly used grains, and we see the first real ovens, probably used for baking small loaves and perhaps the first bread (probably around 400 AD).
   The introduction of the baking of processed cereals including the creation of flour, provided a more reliable source of food. Egyptian sailors carried a flat brittle bread loaf of millet bread called "dhourra" cake, while the Romans had a biscuit called "buccellum".
   This day the Cassekey [of Jece] ... made presents to some of us, especially to my wife; he gave her a parcel of shellfish, which are known by the name of clams; one or two he roasted and gave her, showing that she must serve the rest so, and eat them.
  
  The Ais dried some of the berries they gathered for future use: 
  
  This week we observed that great baskets of dried berries were brought in from divers towns and delivered to the king or Young Caseekey [of Jece.]
   25% of the words in the Leipzig–Jakarta list are body parts: "mouth", "eye", "leg"/"foot", "navel", "liver", "knee", etc. Six animal words appear on the list: "fish", "bird", "dog", "louse", "ant" and "fly" – animals found everywhere humans can be found.
  
  The items "house", "name", "rope" and "to tie" are products of human culture, but are probably found in all present-day human societies. Haspelmath and Tadmor drew the conclusion that "rope is the most basic of human tools and tying is the most basic technology".
  
  Section::::The list.
  
  Section::::The list.:Alphabetical.
  
  BULLET::::- ant
  
  BULLET::::- arm/hand
  
  BULLET::::- ash
  
  BULLET::::- back
  
  BULLET::::- big
  
  BULLET::::- bird
   BULLET::::- "Deir el-Medina bread leavening" (google > google books) (using Delwen Samuel)  Stefano Padulosi Hulled Wheats: Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Hulled Wheats, 21-22 July 1995, Castelvecchio Pascoli, Tuscany, Italy p.78 Bioversity International, 1996 (nul)
  
  BULLET::::- "tomb loaves before 3100BC Egypt discovery of leavening" (google 1st page) (criteria using Stefano Padulosi p.77)  Michael Chazan and Mark Lehner An Ancient Analogy : Pot baked bread in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, Paléorient Volume 16, No. 2 (1990), pp. 21-35, Published by Paleorient and CNRS Editions
   BULLET::::- 11th-14th century: Ireland stores and ages butter in peat bogs, being known as bog butter. The practice is effectively ended by the 19th century.
  
  BULLET::::- 12th century: Oldest butter export of Europe, from Scandinavia
  
  BULLET::::- ~1100: Wafers are introduced from France into Britain, by the Normans. They were cake-like, however, not crisp like what we today call wafers.
  
  BULLET::::- ~1100: Watermelons reach China.
  
  BULLET::::- 1158: Evidence of watermelons cultivated in Seville.
   Section::::Video content.:Origins.
  
  The last main category is Origins, inspired by the luxury car brand Genesis. Origins is only composed of two subcategories, called "Highly Original" and "Original Grub". Highly Original is composed of videos the origin stories about items used today. This includes videos about how the Rubik’s cube came to be and the city where the first violins were made. The last subsection is the Original Grub. The videos describe very original foods and the people who make them. These include videos about the rarest pasta “su filindeu” and the people in Belgium that shrimp on horseback.
   Catalan chef Josep Lladonosa i Giró says it was first documented in the 18th century. The cook, born in 1938, remembers his grandmother explaining that her parents used to eat a dish called "pa amb tomàquet". With better precision, Catalan cooking historian Nèstor Luján says that the first written reference is from 1884 and, according to his thesis, the recipe would have been created in the rural world during an abundant tomato harvest. People would have used the tomatoes to soften hard and dry bread.
  