Evolution of Cookware

Posted by vivek choudhary on July 16th, 2019

The stepping stone in the evolution of cooking utensils was the discovery of earthenware pottery. Historians believe it spread across the world from China. Though the exact year of discovery is still not known but archeologists have been able to excavate pottery dating back to 25000 BC. These terracotta cooking pots with lid show the area of origin around China and Japan. It is believable that the trend spread from the east to the west because some of the most beautifully handcrafted pottery vessels are from the eastern world.

Early cereals and millets were cultivated in the Neolithic age. Millets were an important source of nutrition then until now and widely used in all cuisines across Asia and Africa. Early earthen utensils for cooking was designed to be able to boil these cereals.

With the discovery of open firing process, clay could be heated to higher temperatures of up to 1000 degrees Celsius. This was an important technological advancement in the evolution of cookware as it led to the development of ceramic and porcelain later because now pottery could be fired better.

Science and technology have come a long way since then, but earthen kitchen utensils are still a preferred choice for oven-based meals. But due to the limitation of ceramic cookware or earthen pot not always being able to useon direct heat sources other forms of cookware started getting popular. However, for traditional dishes such as Nabein Japan, an earthen ware pot called Danobe is still the first choice.

With the world moving faster and time becoming an asset people started avoiding for two main reasons:

• Most clay-based cookware was not compatible with modern kitchen equipment or requiredcareful monitoring such as ensuring enough liquid in the pot to prevent breakage.

• Earthen cookware being a poor conductor of heat, did not have hot spots and hence limited to oven-based cooking where temperature was evenly controlled.

And hence, approached the era of “metalware”

Copper was the first metal used by man,but historians are not sure when exactly copper was first used as cookware. However, one thing that is speculated strongly is that Egyptians Greeks and Romans all used copper.

Eventually a variety of metals such as iron, copper and aluminum joined the market of cookware. Today,stainless steel is the most popular cookware material especially because of its shiny luster and being comparatively non-reactive to acidic foods. However, metal cookware has its own advantages and disadvantages. While some pans can heat up too quickly, others distribute the heat unevenly. The rise in health concerns brought back attention to the traditional ways of cooking with best unglazed clay pots for cooking.

Over the years weused copper cookware for:

• cooking tools
• containers
• cooking pots

Evolution of cookware is a continuous process and many metal alloys have been discovered in the process with different materials such as:

• Stoneware
• Stainless steel
• Teflon
• Glass
• Aluminum
• Carbon steel

MRIDA earthenware are committed to harness the amazing potentials of the rich fertile soil and utilize them to invent a whole new organic way of cooking a nutritious and wholesome meal.