This section is from "The Encyclopaedia Britannica". Also available from Amazon: Great Books of the Western World (60 Volumes).
Baking, the action of the verb "to bake," a word, in various forms, common to Teutonic languages (cf. Ger. backen), meaning to cook by dry heat. "Baking" is thus primarily applied to the process of preparing bread, and is also applied to the hardening by heat or "firing" of pottery, earthenware or bricks. (See Bread; Ceramics and Brick.)
 
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