History of bread

The importance of bread in the formation of early human societies cannot be overstated. From the western half of Asia, where wheat was domesticated, cultivation spread north and west, to Europe and North Africa, and enabled humans to become farmers rather than hunters and foragers. This in turn led to the formation of towns, as opposed to the nomadic lifestyle, and gave rise to more and more sophisticated forms of societal organization. Similar developments occurred in eastern Asia, centered on rice, and in the Americas with maize.

Antiquity

The most common source of leavening in antiquity was to retain a piece of dough (with sugar and water in) from the previous day to utilize as a form of sourdough starter.^[1] 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 must and flour that was allowed to begin fermenting, or wheat bran steeped in wine, as a source for yeast.

The idea of a free-standing oven that could be pre-heated, with a door for access, appears to have been a Greek one.^[2]

Even in antiquity there were a wide variety of breads. In ancient times the Greek bread was barley bread: Solon declared that wheaten bread might only be baked for feast days. By the 5th century BC bread could be purchased in Athens from a baker's shop, and in Rome, Greek bakers appeared in the 2nd century BC, as Hellenized Asia Minor was added to Roman dominion as the province of Asia;^[3] the foreign bakers of bread were permitted to form a collegium. In the Deipnosophistae, the author Athenaeus (c.A.D.170 – c. 230) describes some of the bread, cakes, cookies, and pastries available in the Classical world.^[4] 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 flours 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."^[5] The essentiality of bread in the diet was reflected in the name for the rest of the meal: ópson, "condiment", i.e. bread's accompaniment, whatever it might be.^[6]

Middle Ages

Peasants sharing bread, from the Livre du roi Modus et de la reine Ratio, France, 14th century. (Bibliothèque nationale)

In 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, a piece of stale bread roughly 6 inches by 4 inches (15 cm by 10 cm), was 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.^[7] Bread in Europe was often adulterated with hazardous materials up to the 20th century, including chalk, sawdust, alum, plaster, clay and ammonium.^[8]

Modern era

Faculty of Food Technology, Latvia University of Agriculture bakery.

The industrialization of bread-baking was a formative step in the creation of the modern world.^[9] 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 was not 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 the preferred bread of the rich while the poor ate dark (whole grain) bread. However, in most western societies, the connotations reversed in the late 20th century, with whole grain bread becoming preferred as having superior nutritional value while white bread became associated with lower-class ignorance of nutrition.^[10]

Another major change happened in 1961 with the development of the Chorleywood Bread Process which used the intense mechanical working of dough to dramatically reduce the fermentation period and the time taken to produce a loaf at the expense of taste and nutrition.^[11] The process, whose high-energy mixing allows for the use of inferior grain, is now widely used around the world in large factories. In total contrast, traditional breadmaking is extremely time-consuming, as the dough is mixed with yeast and requires several cycles of kneading and resting in order to become ready for baking, and to produce the desired flavor and texture.

More recently, and especially in smaller retail bakeries, chemical additives are used that both speed up mixing time and reduce necessary fermentation time, so that a batch of bread may be mixed, made up, risen, and baked in fewer than three hours. Dough that does not require fermentation because of chemical additives is called "quick bread" by commercial bakers. Common additives include reducing agents such as L-cysteine or sodium metabisulfite, and oxidants such as potassium bromate or ascorbic acid.^[12] Often these chemicals are added to dough in the form of a prepackaged base, which also contains most or all of the dough's non-flour ingredients. Using such bases and sophisticated chemistry, it has been possible for commercial bakers to make imitations of artisan and sourdough breads, traditionally made by semi-skilled laborers working in smaller shops. Since 1986,^[13] domestic breadmakers that automate the process of making bread have become popular in the home.

See also

• Food history
• Cultural significance of bread

Notes

Bread
Types	Brown bread Chapati Flatbread Injera Multigrain bread Naan Paratha Pitta Quick Rye bread Salt-rising Sandwich bread Soda bread Sourdough Texas toast Unleavened White bread Whole wheat
Ingredients	Baker's yeast Barm Calcium propanoate Eggs Fat Flour Flour treatment agent Leavening agent Milk Salt Sugar Water
Equipment	Oven Bread machine Bread pan Dough scraper Farinograph Lame Peel Stand mixer Weighing scales
Processes	Autolysis Baking Biga Chorleywood bread process Kneading Leavening Maillard reaction No-knead bread Proofing Pre-ferment Pre-slicing Sponge and dough Steaming Straight dough Vienna process
Uses	Bread crumbs Bread bowl Bread pudding Croutons French toast Stuffing Sandwiches Toast
Other	Breadmaking Baker percentage Bread in Europe History of bread
List articles	American breads Brand name breads Bread dishes Bread rolls British breads Buns Indian breads Pakistani breads Quick breads Sweet breads
Category