Bread: Encyclopedia II - Bread - History

Bread - History

Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods, dating back to the Neolithic era. The first breads produced were cooked versions of a grain-paste, made from ground cereal grains and water, and may have been developed by accidental cooking or deliberate experimentation with water and grain flour. Descendants of these early breads are still commonly made from various grains worldwide, with the Mexican tortilla, Indian chapati, Chinese poa ping, Scots oatcake, North American johnnycake, and Ethiopian injera all being examples. The basic flat breads of this type also formed a staple in the diet of many early civilizations with the Sumerians eating a type of barley flat cake, and the 12th century BC Egyptians being able to purchase a flat bread called ta from stalls in the village streets.

The development of leavened bread is commonly believed to have occurred in Egypt, due to its favorable wheat growing conditions, and required the development of wheat varieties with two properties not available in earlier varieties. The first development occurred by the beginning of Dynastic Egypt and consisted of a grain that could be satisfactorily threshed without being first toasted. Discovery of a wheat variety containing sufficient gluten-forming protein was the second development required for raised bread. Initial development of leavened bread is believed to have occurred during the 17th century BC, but the wheat capable of producing it appears to have been rare for a very long time after it was initially developed. This scarcity is suggested by the fact that such grain did not become common in Ancient Greece until the 4th Century BC despite regular trade having occurred between Egypt and Greece for the previous 300 years.

There were multiple sources of leavening available for early bread. Air borne yeasts could be harnessed by leaving uncooked dough exposed to air for some time before cooking. Pliny the Elder reported that the Gauls and Iberians used the foam skimmed from beer to produce "a lighter kind of bread than other peoples". Parts of the ancient world that drank wine instead of beer used a paste composed of grape juice and flour that was allowed to begin fermenting, or wheat bran steeped in wine, as a source for yeast. The most common source of leavening however was to retain a piece of dough from the previous day to utilize as a form of sourdough starter.

Even within antiquity there was a wide variety of breads available. In the Deipnosophistae, the Greek author Athenaeus describes some of the breads, cakes, cookies, and pastries available in the Classical world. Among the breads mentioned are griddle cakes, honey-and-oil bread, mushroom shaped loaves covered in poppy seeds, and the military specialty of rolls baked on a spit. The type and quality of flour used to produce bread could also vary as noted by Diphilus when he declared "bread made of wheat, as compared with that made of barley, is more nourishing, more digestible, and in every way superior. In order of merit, the bread made from refined [thoroughly sieved] flour comes first, after that bread from ordinary wheat, and then the unbolted, made of flour that has not been sifted."

Within medieval Europe bread served not only as a staple food but also as part of the table service. In the standard table setting of the day the trencher, apiece of stale bread roughly 6 inches by 4 inches (15 cm by 10 cm), served as an absorbent plate. At the completion of a meal the trencher could then be eaten, given to the poor, or fed to the dogs. It was not until the 15th Century that trenchers made of wood started to replace the bread variety.

Otto Frederick Rohwedder is considered to be the father of sliced bread. In 1912 Rohwedder started work on inventing a machine that sliced bread, but bakeries were reluctant to use it since they were concerned the sliced bread would go stale. It wasn't until 1928, when Rohwedder invented a machine that both sliced and wrapped the bread, that sliced bread caught on. A bakery in Chillicothe, Missouri was the first to use this machine to produce sliced bread.

For generations, white bread was considered the preferred bread of the rich while the poor ate dark bread. However, the connotations reversed in the 20th century with dark bread becoming preferred as having superior nutritional value while white bread became associated with lower class ignorance of nutrition.

Recently, domestic breadmakers that automate the process of making bread are becoming popular in the home.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki