Category:Bake

Bake, v. t. [imp.& p. p. Baked; p. pr. & vb. n. Baking.] Etym: [AS. bacan; akin to D. bakken, OHG. bacchan, G. backen, Icel. & Sw. baca, Dan. bage, Gr.

1. To prepare, as food, by cooking in a dry heat, either in an oven or under coals, or on heated stone or metal; as, to bake bread, meat, apples.

Note: Baking is the term usually applied to that method of cooking which exhausts the moisture in food more than roasting or broiling; but the distinction of meaning between roasting and baking is not always observed.

2. To dry or harden (anything) by subjecting to heat, as, to bake bricks; the sun bakes the ground.

3. To harden by cold. The earth. . . is baked with frost. Shak. They bake their sides upon the cold, hard stone. Spenser.

Bake, v. i.

1. To do the work of baking something; as, she brews, washes, and bakes. Shak.

2. To be baked; to become dry and hard in heat; as, the bread bakes; the ground bakes in the hot sun.

Bake, n.

Defn: The process, or result, of baking.

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Bake - The duty of preparing bread was usually, in ancient times, committed to the females or the slaves of the family (Genesis 18:6; Leviticus 26:26; 1 Samuel 8:13); but at a later period we find a class of public bakers mentioned (Hosea 7:4, Hosea 7:6; Jeremiah 37:21). The bread was generally in the form of long or round cakes (Exodus 29:23; 1 Samuel 2:36), of a thinness that rendered them easily broken (Isaiah 58:7; Matthew 14:19; Matthew 26:26; Acts 20:11). Common ovens were generally used; at other times a jar was half-filled with hot pebbles, and the dough was spread over them. Hence we read of "cakes baken on the coals" (1 Kings 19:6), and "baken in the oven" (Leviticus 2:4). (See BREAD)