Bread is one of the earliest known foods prepared by humans. The origins of baking started with grains, water, sun and grinding stones. Grain was eaten raw for a long time. Later, grains were ground using stones and the resulting flour was mixed with water to form a porridge, making the grain more easily digestible. About 6,000 years ago, this porridge was most likely accidentally baked flat on a stone in the heat of the sun, giving birth to flatbread. After thousands of years and quite a few of these happy coincidences, such as the discovery of yeast, bread finally became available to the broader public in its present form.
The baking profession has existed in Germany for over 1,200 years. At first, the stoves belonged to the city and bakers had to take turns baking their bread. As bread was expensive, it only became a staple in the Middle Ages. Bakers worked long and hard throughout the day. As there were no machines in use in Germany until World War II, most of the work was done by hand. Craftsmanship and knowledge is still essential for baking today. Technological developments, such as those driven by MIWE, have made baking much easier and much more efficient.
From a technological point of view, MIWE systems are probably the most sophisticated systems on the market today. Many of the innovations that have fundamentally changed the world of baking can be traced back to our initiatives. In-shop baking, now a universal concept, was once invented by Prof. Edgar Michael Wenz, guided by what he called "sight-and-scent baking" as a way of increasing sales for bakers.
In addition, many of the technological advances that made in-store baking a success story were developed by MIWE, such as frozen dough piece baking for uncooked frozen dough pieces. Our in-store ovens not only benefit from the most experience, but also the most in-depth expertise on in-shop baking in general. Even the rack oven - a common tool in many bakeries today - was completely unknown in this country until the 1970s. The principle has its roots in the northernmost corners of Europe. Only through MIWE's patient and constant promoting and the development of more efficient ovens, did it ultimately become the world's most successful oven system. It should come as no surprise, then, that for many bakers, baking in a rack oven is synonymous with baking in the MIWE roll-in.
Since then, our developers have systematically scrutinised every functional group in our bakery systems, inspecting every technical advancement and developing a myriad of new processes and solutions that provide bakers with more safety, improved ways of influencing their products and more freedom to produce highly unique baked goods.
We would like to mention the optimised MIWE atmo-jet® steam technology, or 'atmospheric baking', which finally solves the consistency problems caused by draughts and weather-related influences, as well as MIWE variobake, which extends the range of baking characteristics that can be used in the deck oven. There is also the MIWE smartproof™ freezer technology for intense aroma, an extension for our baking stations that allows special gastronomic functions or vacuum conditioning to be integrated into the production process. Many of our customers appreciate that our company offers much more than just reliable innovative power. Being equipped with MIWE as a technology partner offers security for the challenges of the future.