Ovens

An oven is an enclosed compartment for heating, baking or drying. It is most commonly used in cooking and pottery. Ovens used in pottery are also known as kilns. An oven used for heating or for industrial processes is called a furnace or industrial oven. In modern times the oven is used to cook and heat food in many households across the globe.

Ancient Greek portable oven Settlements across the Indus Valley Civilization were the first to have an oven within each mud-brick house by 3200 BC.[1][2] Culinary historians credit the Greeks for developing bread baking into an art. 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. This is one of the oldest forms of professional food processing. The Greeks also pioneered sweet breads, fritters, puddings, cheesecakes, pastries, and even wedding cakes. Often prepared in symbolic shapes, these products were originally served during special occasions and ceremonies. By 300 AD the Greeks had developed over seventy different kinds of bread.