The cooking stove

If you`ve ever lived on your own, then you know the most difficult question of the day: what should I eat for lunch? And for someone like me, only slightly talented in cooking, there are not many options: Pasta, Eggs, Rice? But whatever of those I want to eat, one thing is necessary: the cooking stove. Every household has one, every household needs one. But who invented the cooking stove? Where does it come from?

I think you will be surprised to hear that the cooking stove was actually invented in Greece. In the year 1765 there were serious fires all over Greece, destroying nearly half of the forest stand of Greece. It was a time where fires in Greece were quiet usual, as the people had not found a way to control fire, especially while cooking, yet. Together with the in summer hot and dry climate, catastrophes as this one happened often. Too often, as the greek king decided in 1765. He set a price for whoever invented a device to make the handling of fire, for example when cooking, easier. As the price was very high, the smartest brains of Greece started working on different ideas from the beginning. And in September 1765, Andreas Smaragdidis, whose fields have been burned by the fires often, invented the theory of the cooking stove, basically a metallic construction with a fire burning inside. This construction controlled the fire, while in the same time taking its heat and using it for cooking something. This idea was improved by him in following months and in 1766, Smaragdidis presented his construction to the king and was rewarded highly.

The cooking stove then spread all over the world, not primarily to lower the risk of a fire, but just because it made cooking more efficient and faster. The models we use today have of course nearly nothing in common with the first construction of Smaragdidis back in 1765, but as it is with nearly every important invention like this, as nearly every important invention is changing and improving over the course of time, this is nothing weird. It just let to a lot of people forgetting Smaragdidis share in the invention of the cooking stove. Nowadays inventions like this are mostly seen as American things, which can be explained by the many American companies selling household machines.
However, this cooking stove may have been a great invention for cooking, but as we all know, it did not solve the problems in Greece with fires during the hot and dry summer. So even if Smaragdidis missed the real purpose of his invention, he gave us all something great and incredibly useful. Do you believe this story is true? You can look up the solution on our webpage! I wish you a pleasant week, with tasty food from your cooking stove .