When did man first discover cooking his food? How did it happen?
99073
During the 'brown period' (betweeen 11 BC and 9 BC), caves were filled with shit and puke. Man tried everything including cooking, which cured the shits for good. BTW, that was also the origin of the word "BINGO!"
666073
Salt has been used for thousands and thousands of years--before written language. There wouldn't be any way to tell who first used it. According to the Salt Institute: "Salt was in general use long before history, as we know it, began to be recorded." Check out these websites for more information about the history of salt and food in general.
356386
Watson and Crick discovered it while researching "genetic material." For further information, check this site.
537820
The first clue that certain gases could be distinguished from ordinary air was discovered around 1630 by Jan van Helmont, who introduced the term gas. During the rest of the century, scientists learned more about air, and the barometer was invented for measuring air pressure. During the 1700s, the individual gases contained in air were being investigated, but chemists were still confused about how to define them. Gases were called " airs" because scientists thought that they were just contaminated forms of air.\n\nChemists also argued about the role of different gases in the processes of combustion, or burning, and respiration, or breathing. Today we know that these processes use oxygen and produce carbon dioxide. But at that time, scientists had only a vague notion of these basic chemical reactions. At first they tested their ideas by such simple experiments as burning candles inside a glass jar with a limited supply of air, or enclosing birds and small animals in a jar to see how long they were able to breathe. German chemist George Ernst Stahl proposed that a substance called phlogiston was what gave materials their ability to burn. Supposedly, phlogiston was released from burning materials and absorbed by the air. Despite some controversy, the phlogiston theory was widely accepted for many years and resulted in the discovery of several gases.\n\nThen in the 1770s, Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier developed the modern theory of combustion, which replaced the phlogiston theory. Lavoisier proved that air is composed mainly of two gases--one that supports combustion and one that does not. Lavoisier showed that during combustion a portion of the air (about one-fifth) combines with the substance being burned and adds weight to the resulting compound. The rest of the air, which is inactive, is left behind. Then Lavoisier reversed the process, showing that when the compound is decomposed, the original active portion of the air is released. When this portion is mixed with the inactive air, the mixture is the same as ordinary air. Lavoisier named the active gas "oxygen " and called the inactive portion of air azote..\n\nAlthough Lavoisier clarified the process of combustion, other chemists before him had already discovered most of the gases contained in air and had begun studying their properties. In 1772 Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovered oxygen, which he called " fire air." He also showed that air contains another gas, "foul air," which does not support combustion. But publication of Scheele 's report was delayed, and Joseph Priestley is usually credited with oxygen's discovery. The gas that Lavoisier called azote is known today as nitrogen. It was first identified in 1772 by Daniel Rutherford\n\nIn the late 1700s, Henry Cavendish determined that air contains about 21 percent oxygen. More than a hundred years later, William Ramsay discovered that a small percentage of air--about 1 percent--is composed of inert gases, mainly argon. The remaining 78 percent of air is nitrogen, although carbon dioxide is also present in tiny amounts (about 0.03 percent). In a series of some 400 experiments, Cavendish also found that the composition of air is virtually the same, regardless of the air's geographic origin. His results were confirmed during the late 1800s, when more precise scientific studies showed that air's composition is the same all over Earth.\n\nThe air's gases are responsible for making the sky appear blue. Gas molecules scatter the Sun's light, and the blue color in the light's spectrum is scattered more thoroughly than other colors. Normally air also contains some moisture, or water vapor, which we measure as humidity, as well as small particles of dust suspended in the air's gases. Moisture and light combine to create such spectacular visual effects as rainbows and sunsets. Unfortunately, today's air also contains many pollutants such as ozone, sulfur dioxide, a
215994
No record of who actually discovered it. It is several thousands of years old. It can be naturally extracted from Willow bark.
617590
Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovered it in 1772, and Joseph Priestly found it in 1774 (independently).  Scheele was a Swede, Priestly was an Englishman.
976445
I used to be a cook. I was making hot wing sauce. While boiling the sauce base on the stove I was chopping habenero peppers in a food processer. After they were chopped up I would take my hand and scoop it out into the sauce base. I did this process  three or four times. While every thing was blended and simmering I decided that I needed to use the bathroom. I normally wash up afterwards but this time I should have before. I did my thing and walked out of the bathroom. About halfway across the dining room I started to burn incredibly "down there". I got to the kitchen thinking "Man, What the hell have I picked up?". Then I saw the sauce on the stove and knew what had happened. The pain went on for about 30 minutes even though I was outside while holding a ziplock bag full of ice on my "stuff".
1021232
Pinpointing the absolute beginnings of agriculture is problematic because the transition away from purely hunter-gatherer societies, in some areas, began many thousands of years before the invention of writing. Maize was first domesticated from teosinte in the Americas around 3000-2700 BC. In these contexts lie the origins of the eight so-called founder crops of agriculture: firstly emmer and einkorn wheat, then hulled barley, peas, lentils, bitter vetch, chick peas and flax. These eight crops occur more or less simultaneously on PPNB sites in this region, although the consensus is that wheat was the first to be sown and harvested on a significant scale.
452675
or who was the first person to think hey I will take this wheat plant, grind it up, throw in some stuff and make bread?  the world is full of such mysteries and I find its better to not think about them or your brain will explode.
184014
The first link is a site that has titles of Renaissance cookbooks (modern books that discuss what people ate back then)... you could check to see if your local  library has any of them in their collection.\n\nAlso, try the second link... I skimmed it and it SEEMS to be what you're looking for, but I'm not sure.\n\nGood luck!
1047286
It was invented by Micheal Faraday.  It was perfected by Robert Bunsen and his assistant, Peter Desaga.\n\nSee http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunsen_burner
85336
The first fire in the world no doubt occurred during the first thunderstorm of the first summer after the first plants started to grow on land.  As for who discovered it, that is lost in the murky past.
594206
It was used in medieval times as a pain reliever. There is no documented info as to who first discovered it.
1164439
Energy comes in a variety of forms: light, heat, motion, electricity, and so forth. The energy in food is measured in units of Calories. A Calorie is defined as the quantity of heat it takes to raise the temperature of 1 kg of water 1 degree Celsius. The energy in food is defined in terms of heat because the quantity measured is heat produced upon burning the food. Burning in the presence of oxygen is the process of combustion. Complete combustion results in the production of energy as well as carbon dioxide and water. Look for evidence of these products during your discovery session.\n\n\nFood often is labeled with the number of available Calories per gram of food. In this discovery session, you will measure the amount of energy in Calories in two types of nuts: peanuts and almonds. The accepted values for these nuts are listed in many Calorie-counting and diet books (5.18 Cal/gram for peanuts and 5.47 Cal/gram for almonds). This energy is converted into a usable form by chemical reactions in the human body. Therefore, the number of equivalent Calories of food that you eat gives an indication of the amount of energy you will have at your disposal.\n\nQUESTION: How are calories measured? \n\n\n\nANSWER: The caloric value of food is the energy produced by combustion of its proteins, carbohydrates and fats. The amount of energy liberated by the catabolism of food in the body is almost the same as the amount liberated when food is burnt outside the body. The energy liberated by catabolic processes is used for maintaining body functions namely digestion, thermoregulation, muscular contraction and nerve impulses conduction. The amount of energy liberated / unit time is the metabolic rate. When food is burnt outside the body, all the energy is liberated as heat. \n\nThe standard unit of heat energy is the calorie (cal), which is defined as the amount of heat energy necessary to raise the temperature of 1 ml of water by one degree, from 15 to 16 celsius at rest. \n\nA slightly different calorie is used in engineering, the international calorie, which equals 1/860 international watt-hour (4.1868 J). A large calorie, or kilocalorie, usually referred to simply as a calorie and sometimes as a kilogram calorie, equals 1,000 calories and is the unit used to express the energy-producing value of food in the calculation of diets. \n\nThe energy released by combustion of foodstuffs outside the body can be measured directly and indirectly. In direct calorimetry method the liberated energy can be measured using a bomb calorimeter. It is a metal vessel surrounded by a water insulated container. The food is ignited by an electric spark. The change in the temperature of water is a measure of the calories produced. \n\nIn indirect method, the energy production can also be calculated by measuring the amount of oxygen consumed for combustion of food. The amount of oxygen consumed / unit of time is proportionate to the energy liberated. This method of energy estimation is called wet combustion. The caloric value of carbohydrate is 4.1 Kcal /g, protein is 5.65 Kcal/ g and fat is 9.4 Kcal/g.
1137869
Man has been preserving meat with salt (sodium chloride) since pre history.
187357
When you think of Chinese food you think of rice, and rice was the first grain that was farmed in China. There is archaeological evidence of rice farming along the Yang-tse River as early as about 5000 BC. People cooked rice by boiling it in water, the way they do today. Or they made it into wine. Rice wine has been popular in China since prehistory. \n\nBut rice doesn't grow in northern China, which is much drier and colder. People in northern China gathered wild millet and sorghum instead. By 4500 BC, people in northern China were farming millet. They ate it boiled into a kind of porridge.\n\nAnother food people associate with China is tea. Tea grows wild in China. By about 3000 BC (or it could be much earlier), people in China had begun to drink tea. Soon everybody drank tea.\n\nWheat was not native to China, so it took much longer to reach China. People in northern China first began to eat wheat in the Shang Dynasty, about 1500 BC. Wheat was not native to China, but people brought it to China from West Asia. People in China boiled it like millet, to make something like Cream of Wheat. \n\nThese were the main foods of China - rice, millet, sorghum, and wheat. In northern China, people mostly ate millet, wheat, and sorghum. In southern China, people mostly ate rice. Poor people ate almost nothing but these foods.\n\n\nWhen people could afford it, they bought or grew vegetables to put on their rice. Soybeans, for instance, are native to China. So are cucumbers. For fruits, the Chinese had oranges and lemons, peaches and apricots. The native flavorings are ginger and anise (Americans use anise to make licorice).\n\nOn special occasions, people also put little pieces of meat on their rice. By 5500 BC, the Chinese were eating domesticated chicken, which came originally from Thailand. By 4000 or 3000 BC, they were eating pork, which was native to China. Sheep and cattle, which were not native, reached China from West Asia also around 4000 BC.\n\nSince meat was so expensive, and because Buddhists didn't eat meat, starting around the Sung Dynasty (about 1000 AD) people also put tofu, or bean curd, in their food as a source of protein. \n\nBecause China doesn't have big forests, it was always hard to find fuel to cook with. Chinese people learned to cut up their food very small, so it would cook quickly on a very small fire. \n\nDuring the Han Dynasty, millet wine became very popular and was even more popular to drink than tea. Also beginning in the Han Dynasty, about 100 AD, Chinese people began to make their wheat and rice into long noodles. \n\nMarco Polo, a visitor to China from Venice, wrote that by the time of Kublai Khan, about 1200 AD, Chinese people ate millet boiled in milk to make porridge. Even as late as 1200 AD, Chinese people did not bake bread.
116637
Through the discovery of nitroglycerin by two guys. \n\nNobel began experimenting with it until freak accident at a laboratory where he was working with nitroglycerin an explosion occurred, killing 6 including his brother.