[f. BAKE v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the verb BAKE; the process of preparing bread; the hardening or ‘firing’ of earthenware.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. lxvii. (1495), 643. Brede is made of mele by medlynge of water and bakyng of fyre.
1477. Norton, Ord. Alch., v. (Ashm. 1652), 55. In Bakinge, and Brewinge, and other Crafts all.
1622. Heylin, Cosmogr., in Sir T. Blount, Nat. Hist. (1693), 138. The Boyling and Baking of Sugar.
1847. Kinglake, Eöthen, xvii. Principles of bread-baking … sanctioned by the experience of ages.
1868. J. Marryat, Pottery & Porcelain (ed. 3), Gloss. s.v. Kiln, The only colours yet discovered which will endure the extreme heat of the first baking, [etc.].
2. The product of this action; the bread baked at a time, a batch.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 21/2. Bakynge (or bahche), pistura.
1598. Florio, Fornata, an ouen full, or a batche of bread, a baking.
1860. Miss Yonge, Stokesley Secr., xiii. (1880), 306. Susan with … her plate of bakings.
3. Comb. and Attrib., as baking craft, hours; baking-dish, -house, -iron, -oven, -plate; Baking-powder, a powder used in baking as a substitute for yeast, through the effervescence of which carbonic acid is diffused through the dough.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. lxvii. (1495), 643. By bakynge crafte brede is made.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 21/2. Bakynge howse, panificium.
1563. Thersites, in Old Plays (1848), 41. The backster of Balockburye with her baking pele.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 567. Plautus … maketh mention of … a baking pan.
1863. Scotsman, 16 March. To enter bakehouses during baking hours.
1884. Health Exhib. Catal., 120/2. Patent Hot-Air Continuous Baking Oven, with Travelling Baking Plate.
