Ovens

In its most basic form, the oven is an enclosed chamber that is used to concentrate heat for the purpose of cooking or drying. It was the ancient Greek culture that introduced the baking of bread in ovens and developed many of the styles still known today. With the advent of this style of cooking the bread baking industry grew at such a rate that even today most bread is made outside the home.

Originally ovens were heated with fire underneath the cooking chamber. Dutch ovens added the modification of having coals placed on the top of the chamber to intensify the temperature available for baking. Cooking with a Dutch oven cut down the time needed to complete the bake but because of the intensity of the heat, often created overcooking of the surfaces of the items.

Gas ovens improved the ability to control the cooking temperature of the food being prepared. Internal thermostats made it possible to control the burn of the fuel and thus maintained a more constant temperature for a more uniform baking experience. Electricity added a number of useful variations to the oven form. Convection ovens use hot air blown into the chamber to cook the food. Toaster ovens were created, which were smaller and made it possible to bake single serving items at less expenditure of resources. This move for smaller portions was what helped make the oven a child's toy when the Kenner Company created their patented Easy-Bake oven which was designed to look like a real kitchen appliance but used an electric light bulb to heat the small cooking chamber inside. These "toys" have been popular for almost 50 years and the only problem they have had was a recall of one of their pre-made recipe packets that didn't have the egg allergy warning on the label.

With the advent of controlling radiation, the microwave oven opened up cooking to everyone. Since the microwave oven process excites the molecules of the food item with radiation rather than heat, only the food gets hot, not the whole room. It is a very fast process and has become an industry standard for our modern fast paced society.

However, for those who like to take their time, a solar oven can be constructed that uses sunlight to heat an enclosed chamber that will give a long slow cook to whatever food is placed in it. It uses no fuel and because of the lower heat involved, eliminates the danger of ever burning the item being cooked.