In Knead to Know: A History of Baking, food historian and chef Neil Buttery takes the reader on a journey exploring the creation, evolution and cultural importance of some of our most beloved baked foods, whether they be fit for a monarch's table, or served from the bakestone of a lowly farm labourer. This book charts innovations, happy accidents and some of the most downright bizarre baked foods ever created. Everything has a history, but food history is special because it tells so much about our culture and society, our desires and our weaknesses, from the broad sweep of bread creating human civilisation to the invention of the wedding cake, the creation of the whisk, the purpose of the fish heads in a star-gazy pie, or the fact that mince pies used to be meaty. When we think of the evolution of something, we think every step is an improvement, an incremental elevation toward some peak of perfection as technology improves. This is not always the case. Sometimes things have to be