To bake means to cook food using dry heat in an oven, like bread, cakes, or cookies. It can also describe something being dried or hardened by heat, like clay in a kiln.
From Old English “bacan,” meaning “to bake,” related to similar Germanic words. It has always referred to using dry heat rather than boiling or frying.
Baking is one of the oldest cooking methods, and the word is almost a time capsule from early Germanic kitchens. When you bake bread, you’re repeating a process humans have named the same way for over a thousand years.
“Bake” and baking have been strongly associated with women’s domestic roles, often framed as expected unpaid labor rather than skill. Professional baking and culinary leadership, however, have historically been male-dominated in many cultures.
Use “bake” for the activity without assuming that baking is or should be tied to any particular gender; recognize both home and professional baking as skilled work.
["cook in the oven","roast (for some foods)"]
Women’s expertise in baking has shaped cuisines, food safety, and culinary innovation, even when their recipes and techniques were transmitted informally and uncredited.
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