5 inventions that changed the course of cooking

1 THE PESTLE AND MORTAR, 35,000 BC One of the oldest tools known to man, the pestle and mortar, has barely changed in millenia. Evidence of the irst breads were discovered in pestle and mortars, and it continues to be – despite electric blenders – used to prepare everything from grain for bread and gruel, to guacamole, gado-gado and, of course, a panoply of spice blends.

2 THE CASSEROLE, 1710 Though it’s best known here for slow cooking, the casserole (or Dutch oven in the States) can be used to fry, roast, bake and create all manner of dishes, and iterations can be found all over the world. In 19th-century America, Dutch ovens were considered so valuable that the inheritor would be spelled out in the will; something that is not uncommon among proud Le Creuset owners today!

3 THE ICEBOX, 1802 This was the forerunner to the fridge, which refined and electrified what the icebox had been doing for centuries – allowing perishable foods to be stored for longer, without the need for lengthy preservation processes such as smoking, drying, or canning. This in turn made fresh food cheaper, more nutritious (because it was better preserved) and more readily available.

4 THE MICROWAVE OVEN, 1946 Like or loathe them, there’s no denying the impact microwaves have had on kitchens, ushering in ready meals and frozen food, and enabling the quick and easy revival of leftovers. The trend for doing everything in the microwave disappeared as quickly as it came, however. Microwaves only heat water molecules, so cannot create the delicious, crusty, umaminess of baking something in the oven.

5 THE ELECTRIC RICE COOKER, 1950 Without an electric rice cooker, the washing, soaking and steaming sticky white rice is an intensely laborious task. Their introduction to kitchens in Japan and then across Asia had a revolutionary impact on the lives of women, paving the way to them venturing out of the kitchen and into work.