In the earliest days of the primitive human race, food was cooked over an open flame or placed on hot rocks which were heated in an open flame. As time progressed and civilization marched on, the invention of pots and pans came along. With the ability to boil water in a controlled environment, suddenly a multitude of new recipes and new methods of cooking became available to everyone. As time progressed, the simple concept of pots and pans has become a veritable forest of options and choices for the skilled cook, with no shortage of fancy pots and pans to choose from. With Teflon cookware coatings, nonstick surfaces and all manner of new improved cookware items, the pots and pans in the modern day are truly amazing and serve a variety of functions.
It’s interesting to note that in the earliest days of mankind, simply boiling a pot of water was almost an insurmountable task. While there are all manner of archaeological findings which gave credence to the idea that the earliest dishes were clay pots and pans, even before these clay pots and pans came along there was a need for heating and cooking of food, even before pots and pans came along. Many times, these foods were cooked on hot rocks, over an open flame or simply eaten raw. It is a commentary on how advanced our civilization has become that we no longer depend on these somewhat unappealing and difficult methods of preparing food with limited cookware.
Pots and pans are so advanced in the modern-day that much of the work involved in cooking has been eliminated completely. With gas stoves and instant switches that provide heat almost magically from a burner, there is no need to go out and chop firewood or build a roaring flame. With all of the slick, modern day inventions, cooking in the modern day has far exceeded its original intent of survival and has become an art form. With pots and pans leading the way with revolutionary new material and construction design, there are all manner of advantages to cooking at the kitchen stove when compared with primitive man.
When you think of revolutionary advances in cookware technology, you might not consider pots and pans. But with all of the incredible technology that goes into crock pots, slow cookers and pressure cookers, along with all manner of other products that the modern-day kitchen comes equipped with, it becomes readily apparent that cookware in the modern-day has far exceeded that which we originally started out with. These items were not always so easy to come across. In the early days, even clay pots and pans were somewhat difficult to get a hold of and required skill to manufacture. As steel became more and more popular, the pots and pans became more common and cooking has grown so simple and so efficient that rarely do we give it a second thought in the modern-day.
Fortunately, along with the pace of civilization, the evolution of pots and pans has kept up nicely. With the ability to prepare food on nonstick surfaces in stainless steel pots and pans and other types of modern-day cookware implements, the modern day cook can focus solely on preparation of the food, rather than dealing with all of the external and peripheral difficulties of primitive life. Rather than piling up firewood and starting a fire, the modern-day cook simply turns on the stove burner. In primitive times, the food would have been cooked on a spit or laid on a flat hot rock. Today, we simply chuck these products into a pan and set the timer, confident that our food will be cooked correctly thanks to modern technology. With such modern conveniences, it is no surprise that so few people make the effort to go back to nature and live on the land as our forebears were so accustomed to.
While we might overlook the evolution of pots and pans in the modern day, without these technological hurdles being overcome throughout the years, we might still be cooking on hot rocks and open flame.